Tuesday, September 30, 2008

A P.S. to the previous post....

I added an image of just the first exposure of the bales, without the clouds, to the page at my site - that makes things a bit more informative than before, for you darkroom/montage enthusiasts.
And since there was a bit of a story behind getting the frame of the crow, in motion, I added that too.
So If you read the page already, but find these additions interesting, stop in again.

www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_DkRm_07_08/Bales.html

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Time to catch up on darkroom work

I've had a few long weekends in recent months, where I can spend a couple of days just printing, and still have a day to recoup before going back to battle pixels at my part time day job.
After a few months of rumination over many proof sheets,
I have a bunch of new image ideas to work on.
Sooooo, here we go!, turn on the safelight, and step right this way :-)

Storage



The first one I printed was with these bales of hay (shot in '96), under a sheet metal/corrugated roof, they are a kind of storage - horses & cattle can graze on it...
Even though it's been a looong time since i shot this frame, I am sure my intent was to 'do something' with the bales, something that defied the roof, & expanded beyond it's implied limits.
No matter how many skies I have shot, it's still difficult to find just the right one.
I wanted some clouds that felt plump, fat, 'stacked up', just like the bales of hay.
I was pretty happy with the way the one I chose worked, so I did 2 prints of that, and then did my usual "OK, step back, take a break, smoke a bowl, and think about it" thing.
There are definitely two kinds of space here - the one in the distance at lower right, beyond the corrugated roof structure, is very literal.
The other 'space', with the clouds emanating from the bales, is the opposite - indefinite, and open to... who knows what.
I rarely analyze why I make certain decisions, or images, I just do it, it feels right.




You may have noticed I like birds, & since they are capable of flight, they can show up anywhere...
So I added them to both spaces - but in a particular way - the birds at upper left, in the space
that is unreal, are pretty 'real' and make sense w/ the clouds behind them.
The single bird at lower right is in the more literal space, but the bird itself is rather indefinite, & mysterious - is it in front of the poles, or behind? Is it real, or not?
Does this unreal bird want to join the flock above?... or is it unwilling or unable to make the transition?
So many questions, and few answers.
Maybe it isn't that the arriving at an answer is that important, perhaps just asking the question, and pondering, is enough...

As usual, larger images are visible at my website:
www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_DkRm_07_08/Bales.html