Berkeley Botanical Gardens

Well, my adventures with B&W film continue.  To my surprise, the processing of my second roll of Kodak 400CN is totally different than my first roll.  The first roll was mailed to a lab and came back with WAY TOO much contrast and a strong sepia/magenta cast.  I thought well what am I going to do with my other 8 rolls of film?  So, I continued shooting my second roll of Kodak 400CN film.  This time, I was going to use the one-hour photo at Costco to process.  The technician claimed it needed B&W processing and just would not believe that it was supposed to be processed in color chemicals.  I wended my way through the crowds to leave.  I headed across the street to Ritz Camera.  The prints cost me 3x as much and came back completely different.  The prints are neutral and fairly flat.  That is great because I can add contrast to my taste after scanning.

On a different note, most of my images from my second roll are fairly boring.  I am feeling really exhausted and creatively depleted lately.  I visited Santana Row this weekend and took a roll of B&W film.  Most of the images are so what and some are what was I thinking!  I hope to go out and find my muse again soon.

Peacock Feathers #3

This maybe the last of the peacock feathers for a while. If you are wondering, I used a very simple setup for these images. I have a Sigma 50mm macro lens that can go to life-size. I placed the peacock feather wreath on my desk with a desk lamp shining down onto it. The light is from Sharper Image and is daylight balanced. I use this light to evaluate prints.

Peacock Feathers #1

I bought a peacock feature wreath a few weeks ago with the idea that it could become a macro subject. Tonite, I took a few images that will be appearing over the next few weeks.

Flowering

This is my first film shot.  Right now, I am fairly frustrated with the entire process.  The worst is the scanning.  I can only get the scan to work (with anything visible) when fully automatic.  So, I guess I will have to read the manual.  This is Kodak BWCN film.  It is printed in normal color solution but comes out very warm with a little magenta cast.  I converted this to B&W in Photoshop.

Windshield Abstract

You know the saying that the camera does not take the picture — it is the photographer? On a rainy nite, I was a passenger in a car at a red light. I had my 50mm lens on and it was wide-open. I focused on a car’s tail light. Right then, the light changed green. The auto-focus jumped to the raindrops and I ended with this abstract. I tried to duplicate the effect but no luck.

Big Sur Overflowing

This is the Big Sur river. During the dry months, this is just a shallow stream. I heard some of the restaurants along the shore put chairs in the middle of the river and serve coffee and tea out there. I could see the campground across the river with picnic tables but this water was much too deep for me to wade across and was really rolling along.

This is from the Shark Exhibit of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. For a while, the aquarium had the only great white shark in captivity. There was a large celebration but the shark kept killing other fish in the exhibit had to be released.

Just a fun shot from the boat yard. I liked the bright blue on the metal.

My interpretation of this one is probably going to very hard for someone else to see so here goes. This reminds me of our fat little dog, Cho-Cho. When we watch tv in the family room, Cho-Cho likes to lay in the kitchen with her head hanging over the step. She peers through her tangle of hair with what we call her laser-beams (actually she is older has bad cataract in one eye). Behind her head rises her overly large rump. If you cannot see it, you are probably the vast majority. Hopefully, you can appreciate it as an abstract.