Sunday, January 13, 2008

X-Mas Darkroom Binge - Part २ of ५


Lighthouse
A few months ago I did a montage that included a lighthouse, perched on a percarious pinnacle of rock, high above the ocean - it was Pt. Bonita on the Marin Headlands, built to to guide ships through the Golden Gate.
I'd also taken some close-up frames of the lantern itself...& wanted to work with those 'close-ups'.
I don't like to 'over think' things when I print - sometimes it's fine to go on a wing & a prayer, that was how I took this one - I just wanted to float the lantern in some kind of ambiguous space, and somehow question it's purpose, meaning & value....
Times like these?... we are all looking for...direction?, meaning?, value of some sort?, somehow, someway....Aren't we?

First exposure, the lantern itself, thru the classic 'black card w/ circular hole' - I have several differently sized ones.
Next, a sky - the best one I could find filled all the requirements (that the light source/sun be in the same place as the center of the lantern) & the print looked OK, but it didn't have the sense of light from the lantern.
Hhhmmmm... time to improvise!(isn't it always? :-) )..... But I didn't have to look too far - I have a great shot of sunlight blasting through some pines with the last of the fog dissipating, making marvelous 'shafts' of light, the sun at the center.
I positioned it just right, and just dodged in a bit of it in a few areas, that was all it took.
I was happy - that was a 'wrap' for that day's session :-)
Final prints:
http://bobbennettphoto.net/Beachblog_DkRmXmas/2_Lighthouse.html