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Showing posts from 2009

My Darkroom

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I have a home darkroom where I print and process my black and white work. This is the enlarger area and film processing area. The enlarger on the right is my Vivitar 356, where I do most of my printing. The enlarger on the left is used primarily for contact sheets. I also have an old Durst that I use for a copy stand.(It was my first enlarger) I recently aquired a Beseler 23CII that was missing a baseboard and negative carriers at a garage sale, which will be used for medium format, once it's completed. Next is the print processing area. From right to left: Development, stop water (used in place of indicator stop bath), and fixing. Washing is done in the kitchen since I have no running water in the Darkroom. I would like to move the film processing area to the back wall, but I need to build a new bench. I would also like to rearrange the safelighting set up. I do like having my own darkroom, though I wish it was easier to get supplies to operate it.

Puyallup Fair

Two of the Franklin IR images(Franklin Mine Cart and Hoist Foundation) are currently on exhibit at the Washington State Photo Competition at the Western Washington Fair (AKA the Puyallup Fair)

Newcastle project update

I'm presently still working on shooting images for the Newcastle IR project, as well. I've already shot two rolls, and started a third one today, as some images needed to be reshot, and there were a few new ones. I'm also testing a possible replacement for Kodak High Speed Infrared (known as HIE) under the same conditions as I am shooting with HIE. The film I'm testing is Rollei IR400, which is not as sensitive as the HIE, and I've heard that it requires a stronger IR filter (which is quite expensive), so I'm testing how well it responds with the normal (for HIE) Red 25 filter.

My latest activities

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I entered three images of the Franklin IR project in the Covington Days Art Show(The Mine Cart, the Mine Cart Bridge, and Headstone 2), and two digital images in the King County Fair in July, winning a blue ribbon and a red ribbon at the King County fair, and the Mayors Choice award for the Franklin Mine Cart Bridge image at the Covington Days Art Show. This image won a blue ribbon at the King County Fair. This image won a red ribbon at the King County Fair.

A update on the Roslyn IR project

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I was able to get up to Roslyn the weekend before Memorial day and shoot a roll of HIE . Unfortunatly, I lost half the roll to sandwiching during the processing, so I was only able to print a few shots from the roll. This is some type of coal processing machinery at the site of the #3 mine, near Ronald. I'm hoping that I can head up again on Monday to try to redo some of the lost shots, as well as some areas that I wasn't able to reach. It depends on whether I'm able to finish my final project for my photo class on Saturday (which is looking good on the progress), however.

A bit of recent work

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I'm presently taking Art 325B, Photography II, Alternate processes, as a break from all business classes, all the time! (I only need to take two business classes to finish the degree) Our first assignment incorporated several different formats, which included 4x5 view camera work, two rolls of film in a Holga, one roll of 35mm, and 30 digital images, exploring typical and atypical 19th century subjects. This was from the digital work: This was growing in my front lawn in Covington, so I decided I better photograph it before the lawn mower cut it down. This was taken with my Nikon D70, and a 55mm f2.8 AiS Micro Nikkor, probably about 1/2 life size. From the TMax 100 An old truck in Ellensburg, taken with my Nikon FM and 24-135 Tamron. Stay tuned for the 4x5 and Holga!

Roslyn IR project.

I'm considering expanding the IR project that started with Franklin to Roslyn, WA, another coal mining town two miles west of Cle Elum. I went up there today to survey the mining sites with my FM and new 24-135 Tamron and a roll of Ilford HP5+. I think I should have some interesting results, mostly of mining equipment at the museum (which was closed, unfortunately). I also used my Lomographic Fisheye, which is a fixed lens circular fisheye camera. It produces interesting results if the conditions are right, but it tends to be a grab bag, as it has almost no control. The conditions were good today, nice and sunny, which is when it tends to work well. I should have photos by the end of the week from both.

Franklin IR photos

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Franklin is a ghost town just east of Black Diamond, WA, built to mine coal in the Green River Gorge. The town was abandoned in the 1920's, and only foundations, a disorganized and overgrown cemetery, and a 1300 foot deep shaft (grated) remain. While exploring the area, I came up with the idea to return with Kodak High Speed Infrared Film (now sadly discontinued), and these are the resulting images. I entered them in the 2008 King County Fair, and won two blue ribbons for the Mine Cart and Headstone 2 images and four red ribbons for the others. The mine cart: This was a hoist foundation, which pulled the mine carts from the mine in the hillside across from the foundation: This was the power plant that supplied power to the mines: This structure carried a water pipe for the town: Finally, a couple of images from the cemetary: All photos were taken with a Nikon FM and 19-35mm Tamron lens, on Kodak High Speed Infrared film, and printed in my darkroom on Ilford Multigrade paper.

Introduction

Hi, I'm David Woodford, and welcome to my photo blog! I'm currently a student at Central Washington University, in Ellensburg, Washington, majoring in Marketing, and graduating this spring. My home is Covington, Washington. I've been a photographer since my junior year of high school. I work with both film and digital, and maintain a home darkroom. My current projects include IR photos of abandoned coal mining areas in Washington, particularly Cougar Mountain, near Newcastle, WA, and Franklin, a ghost town east of Black Diamond, WA. I'm planning on expanding the project to the coal mines at Roslyn, WA, and possibly mining operations near Issaquah, WA. I also photograph sports, particularly HS and College Basketball. My other hobbies include Geocaching (which is how I discovered these sites), politics, and realtime strategy games.