I made prints from three negatives in my darkroom set-up on Sunday. This followed making prints from two negatives two weeks ago. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue printing at an average rate of once a month, though I may try to do it twice a month if I have the time and if I feel like doing so.
The three negatives that I printed were from those images that I submitted into a photo competition recently. I’ve now made prints of all five photos that I entered, so that if I’m fortunate to have any chosen for the exhibition, I’ll be ready to provide them.
Still, things could have gone better. First off, I should have gone to bed earlier the night before so I could have gotten up earlier and started earlier – and not felt so tired. Then, when I finished making my third good print from the first negative, I looked over the print and decided that one corner was too bright and needed to be burned in (that is, darkened). So, I took those first three prints, tore them all into pieces and angrily shoved the pieces into the trash. The lesson: look over the print carefully the first time and not after you’ve made three of them.
The print of the third negative (see a scan of the negative above) also required a lot of burning in to even out the tonality of the image, but in the end, it was worth the extra time and effort.
Overall, I was satisfied with the results. All of these pictures were nudes, so maybe I’ll try printing up some of my travel images from Asia next time.
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I wrote last time about how I spoke with some of the dealers and gallery people at the recent AIPAD photography show. What I didn’t mention was that I also spoke with the photographer Kenro Izu. Kenro is the founder of the organization Friends Without a Border, which built and continues to support the Angkor Hospital for Children in Cambodia.
I told Kenro about the book project that I was involved in that is donating all profits from book sales to Friends Without a Border, and he was happy to hear about our support. The group that put the book together, f-eleven, will soon be releasing a second volume to benefit a different charity, so I thought it would be an opportune time to remind people of the first volume, which is still for sale. You can see the cover here (with one of my photos on it), see a full preview and get more information by clicking here.
