Dgwphotos

This photo has been two years in the making, a perfect curl is quite hard to find, and the last time I saw one, it was too breezy to get a sharp photo. Usually, the fern curl bends over, then goes down about an inch or so, then the rest of the curl is curled up, so finding a perfectly curled frond has been a struggle. Taken with a Nikon D200, with 70-180 Micro-Nikkor. Thanks for looking, feel free to comment, and stay tuned for more!

For many years, the Commemorative Air Force's B-29A, Fifi, was the only flight worthy B-29 in existence. However, in 2016, she was joined by Doc, a TB-29, flying out of Wichita, Kansas, where she was originally built, along with over 1600 other B-29's. She was built as a B-29A, but was converted to a TB-29 in the 1950's, in which capacity she served as a radar calibration aircraft and target tug. As part of her conversion, most of her defensive armarment was removed, retaining only the two tail .50 cal machine guns. After retirement from service, she was sent to the Navy's China Lake target range to serve as a target, where she, along with Fifi, sat until 1987, when she was rescued from the target range. In May 2022, Doc visited the Museum of Flight here in Seattle, and I took the opportunity to go see her as well. The name Doc was chosen during her restoration because the squadron she was part of in military service was known as the Seven Dwarfs. Like her pre...

I know things have been a bit quiet here, but I have been working on getting some fresh work from 2022 printed up and some fresh new equipment that I've been interested in aquiring for a long time, which will be part of the next few posts. I have some main project posts planned, and some behind the photos posts planned, one of which will be connected to the project posts. I will also be bringing some new additions to older projects as well, photos that have not been previously included in those older projects. I also am considering entering some of this new work in a possibly upcoming photo contest (It's generally a yearly contest, but they did not hold it this year), and will let you all know when that happens. I have also been working this year on some significant construction projects done in the darkroom to improve setting up the darkroom for operations and replacing old bench surfaces with new material. This work took much of the year and tied up the benches as well....

The Bronica ETRS is a medium format Single Lens Reflex (SLR). Unlike most medium format cameras, which produce 6cm by 6cm images, it produces 6cm by 4.5cm images on 120 format film. As I've done much of my work on 35mm, I chose a rectangular format as opposed to the square format, because I prefer the compositional choice that using a rectangular format gives. Unlike most 35mm SLR's, Medium format SLR's frequently have not only interchangable lenses, but interchangable viewfinders and backs as well. Here we see my Bronica disassembled into its individual components from left to right and top to bottom: The 75mm lens, which is the normal lens for this format. The body of the camera, which contains the battery and mirror. The back, which contains the film. The viewfinder, in this case, a simple prism finder (non metered, there is a metered finder as well, which has apeture priority auto exposure). Finally, the optional grip. The grip has a 35mm style film winder, as o...

The past few months have been filled with some new acquisitions and some production, including in the darkroom of all places! I purchased four new lenses, including a wide angle and telephoto for the Bronica medium format SLR, which will receive it's own post, as there are some special elements to the design of that camera. In addition to those two, I bought a new macro lens, a 90mm Tamron autofocus macro lens that will do 1:1 (life size) without any need for extension tubes, and an 80-400mm Nikkor VR lens. In addition to the lenses, I purchased a few Wimberly Plamps, which will also be the subject of a post, a new macro rail, and two quick release L brackets. I was able to clear the darkroom up enough to do some printing, it's probably been at least 10 years since it was active. First up is this different perspective on the "Mine cart bridge" at Franklin, which actually supported a water pipe for the town: Also while browsing my negatives, I came across the...

While the camera and lenses usually get all the attention, often, it's the accessories that can make the photos possible. In this episode, we will be looking at the supporting cast, also known as tripods and other support equipment/accessories. Starting out with the simplest support, we have a bean bag. This is typically used folded in half with the lens on top of it to steady the lens and camera. More elabrate ones can be found with integrated tripod mounting screws. Next up, we have the monopod. This is primarily used for sports photography, where portable support for heavy fixed telephoto lenses and telephoto zoom lenses in low light is essential. The monopod can be mounted to the tripod collar found on most professional fixed telephoto lenses and telephoto zoom lenses. Mine is equipped with a ball head, although in actual use, the ball head wouldn't be adjusted unless the camera was mounted to it directly, rather than via the tripod collar on the telephoto lens. When...

This abandoned 1950's mail truck is just off the May Creek trail, between Newcastle and Renton. According to local geocachers, the van is a 1955-57 Fageol/Dodge C-3-C6 Postal Van. It was apparently painted with marking explaining the Zip code system in the 1960's. Thanks for looking, and as always, feel free to comment!

Recently, I came across these photos from the Alternate Processes class I took at CWU. These were taken using a 4x5 view camera (owned by the university) and printed using the Cyanotype and Van Dyke processes. They were taken at Olmstead Place State Park, between Ellensburg and Kittitas Washington, which is a preserved pioneer farm. The prints are hand coated on watercolor paper. Both processes use contact printing and are only sensitive to UV light. Because these prints use contact printing, the print sizes are limited to the size of the negatives, so either a large format negative or an internegative (I have some larger photos printed using "digital" negatives) must be used. This is some of the old farm equipment on display at the farm. The farm is a living history museum, and they do demonstrations of old time farming, however, this equipment is a static display. This photo is printed using the Cyanotype process. This is a old one room school that was moved to the fa...

As I mentioned in my previous post on the subject, I brought the Lomographic Fisheye down with me. The view from where the other photos were taken. This is about 20-30ft above the river level. The view of the mine cart location from the water level. A view back up the hill, the final stage of the path is narrow and steep. There are some aids to getting down, "steps" have been created. This is the view to the south, the cliff face to the right is where the fern is growing. The river to the north. Thanks for looking, and as always, feel free to comment!

The setup used for the digital IR photos: Due to the discontinuation of High Speed Infrared film by Kodak (I do still have a very limited supply, however, my darkroom is presently out of order.), I started experimenting with digital infrared techniques. The hot mirror, which filters out most IR light, on the Nikon D70 is not quite as sensitive as other cameras (including my D200), so, with a R72 filter, which only passes IR, (although, if you hold it up to a light, you can see through it a bit), you can use it to do IR photography. Exposures are on the long side, however, so a tripod is absolutely required. In addition to the tripod, a wireless release is recommended, but not an absolute requirement (mine is missing). The filter, however, is a tad expensive, particularly in the larger sizes, such as the 77mm filter used by my 19-35 Tamron lens, so my initial experiments were with a 52mm filter. About a year ago, I went ahead and bought the 77mm filter, which is what is used for the ...

While the town of Franklin was abandoned in the early 1920's, several mines at Franklin operated into the 1960's, including two mines down the hill and across the river. (a third mine across the river was operated until the town was abandoned) Because the town was situated above the Green River Gorge, there is a considerable climb down to the river from the access to the town site, and an incline was used to access the mine operations across the river. Recently, my friend Peter and I went down the northern most of the three paths down to the river (first path from the trailhead), which was the access to the last mine in the area, which was closed as an explosives test during the 1960's, as I had heard about an abandoned mine cart in the river that's most visible in the summer when the water is at its lowest. I brought my digital IR equipment (D70 + R72 IR only filter), the D200, set to black and white, and the Lomo Fisheye down with me. The abandoned mine cart ...

This is the setup I used to take the snow berry photos: This set up consists of a Nikon D200, Nikon 105mm F4 Macro lens with the dedicated 52.5mm extension tube mounted on a macro focusing rail, all mounted on a Bogen/Manfrotto 390 tripod. Not pictured is an electronic release, that I use to avoid introducing additional motion when releasing the shutter into the camera system which may result in a blurry photo. This specific lens, and the 55mm lens I have as well, will by itself (without the extension tube) do a 1:2 reproduction ratio, or 1/2 life size. The extension tube allows the 105mm to focus to a 1:1 reproduction ratio, or life size. However, the extension tube "costs" some light for the exposure, however, the built in meter will compensate for that. It also will not allow the lens to focus to infinity, so with the extension tube on, the lens will not focus to normal ranges. It also includes a tripod collar, similar to that found on longer telephotos/telephoto zoom...

The park behind my house has these berry bushes (possibly snow berries) all over the park, and they are handy subjects for some macro work. We had a white Christmas for the first time in 9 years and I was inspired to take these first two photos while wandering the park: This photo was taken about a year earlier: Thanks for looking, and as always, feel free to comment!

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the lack of posts, I've been pretty uninspired, my Darkroom is out of order, and I've been more focused on building an IT career. One of my off and on interests has been military history and military aviation. A few years ago, the Commemorative Air Force's B-29 bomber Fifi, one of only two flight worthy B-29's, visited the Seattle area, for the first time since the 1980's. Fifi was built at Boeing's Renton Factory, which now produces 737 airliners. My dad and I were able to visit her while she was at Boeing Field and the Museum of Flight.   The B-29 was innovative as one of the first pressurized bombers, for increased comfort for the crew, and to enable her to function as a very high altitude bomber aircraft. The pilots, navigator, and flight engineer all share the nose of the aircraft with the bombardier, unlike in previous bombers such as the B-17 and B-24. The navigator's position, situated behind the...

Sorry, I haven't been too active with my photography over the past two or so years, so there hasn't been much to post about, but I do plan on getting back out into the field soon with some fresh work. In the mean time, I will explain about one of the ways that I find about many of these sites. While I first heard about Franklin from a newspaper article several years ago, after I got into Geocaching in 2005, I discovered that there was a geocache there, which my dad and I visited in 2007, and that site visit sparked the idea to use IR film to photograph the site later that year. Many of the other sites that I have posted about, I first learned about through Geocaching, including remnants of the Pacific Coast Railroad line to Black Diamond and Franklin, the Newcastle operations, and others as well. This abandoned mail truck is a good example. I will be posting more photos of it to come, along with other new sites, and I do intend to finish the Roslyn project as well. I recen...

A few of my other IR images. A goal post at a nearby elementary school A picnic table at the same school An old tree at a nearby park.