I'm self publishing now!

 After 20+ years of making darkroom photomontage, and not being able to get arrested for it, I am publishing photo books i make with Blurb, getting them on Amazon.
I recently published a revised version of the 'California Beach Trip' images - marvelous and mind-bending B&W darkroom montage images - done almost 20 years ago for a multimedia company that never used them.
The first version was a 'pull out all the stops' thing, adding many new digital images, & overlaying text on the images. i asked two excellent designer friends of mine what they thought, and both answered the same - 'get back to basics, just the B&W, use very little text, & don't put it on the images'.
I took their advice. So here it is, hope you enjoy - it is also much more affordable, fewer images and no blank pages. Add a copy to your bookshelf, or buy the e-Book ( if you can find it, i couldn't but then again i am not that savvy to eBooks) - now that's affordable!

On Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1364681250?keywords=California%20beach%20trip&qid=1449102160&ref_=sr_1_3&s=books&sr=1-3

On Blurb:

http://www.blurb.com/books/6661547-california-beach-trip-photomontage-by-bob-bennett#basic

http://www.blurb.com/books/6661547-california-beach-trip-photomontage-by-bob-bennett/pages/0#basic

http://www.blurb.com/b/6661547-california-beach-trip-photomontage-by-bob-bennett

Yes, there are 3 different URL's, which seem to work differently on various browsers/systems - one of them will work for you, i sure hope!

The preview can't show all the images, but you can see them at the link below.
 http://bobbennettphoto.net/BT_BW_Bk/index.html


I've got a couple more books waiting in the wings:

Above, the cover, below an inner page.

The third book, a surreal visual and somewhat philosopical trip.

That's all for now - "Ah'll be back" just like the Terminator/'Ahnold' said.

Darkroom again: A place for thinking - sit down, stay for a while.

'A seat for thought'

 

Most of the image is a sandwich of two negs taken somewhere along the CA. North Coast many years ago.
First one: I've used the driftwood 'hut' a few times. It was taken at Patrick's Pt. S.P. along a beach that also has agate:

 

...and many other driftwood 'sculptures' of some kind.

 

 

One of the things about many Ca. beaches? There's not much control of any kind, people can do whatever they will, and leave it for others. It's a nice thing to do, and a most pleasant sight to see...most of the time.
Here's something else i found on the same beach:

 

Here's the second neg of the sandwich, a long view, taken from a state sponsored overlook parking lot, at the coastline at sunset:

I remember this one for one big reason. It was a large parking lot, i was the only one there, for a while. Then an old school bus pulled in, parked at the far end of the lot. I could see lights go on inside, and then some human legs, and dog legs, on the far side of the bus, and then those disappeared, the lights in the bus dimmed.
I did *not* go introduce myself, but i got the drift.
There are people here who live totally off the grid, away from you, me, and anyone else.
I don't know what else there is to say about them, i don't know them much, except to say... they live in our world literally, but in another way they live in their own world.

I shot about a roll of each situation, the driftwood, and the sunset coastline, glad I did - i had enough variations to come up w/ one sandwich that clicked.

Here's the sandwich:

And a lonely chair that gets added at the bottom:

Here's a second final print, i added a bit of clouds to the center:

Technically? this one is easy, the sandwich gets dodged some at the bottom, and the chair gets dodged a lot at the top a whole lot, about like this.

 

One thing I've said over and over and yet over again in this blog is: It's not about fancy tricks, it's about shooting the right negs, and linking them together = composition. Without that, you just don't have two sticks to rub together do you?
It may be a little hard to see at web resolution, but the way the sandwich works is rather interesting, things line up. The seastack in the center blends right into the vertical driftwood in the center, the coast line on the right blends in and out of the wood hut in an interesting way.

One thing i noticed after i made this print was that the chair and the driftwood come from very different worlds.
The chair is a cheapo 'the caterer brought it to your wedding or event' kinda thing.
The driftwood? ...Carefully made by someone who knew something about design, sculpture...*balance* - and had another way of looking at the world.
I managed to put them together, juxtaposed, in the same image. So what does that say, if anything?

Can we sit down casually, and stay a while... and take in greater thoughts and talk 'secrets'?

Not likely in this day and age, turn yer *bleepin* cell phone off.....why not give it a try?

Larger images at:
www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2015/SeatForThought/index.html

In the 'whatever catches my eye' file this month:

Arizona city finds out what happens when Internet goes out

By Associated Press Recent Columns
February 26, 2015, 4:20 p.m.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/1780/article/p2p-82928182/
-------------------

http://news.sciencemag.org/environment/2015/02/new-map-shows-americas-quietest-places
--------------------

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/books/review/helen-macdonalds-h-is-for-hawk.html?ref=review
"...grace resides in the most unlikely places — and that moving forward means leaving some things behind."

As the Terminator said most famously:

"Ah'll be back"

:-) The Bobster

Darkroom 2014 pages - Open for viewing!

Well, i just finished my 'Darkroom 2014' pages:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/2014/index.html

..and realize i have really fallen behind on covering my 'under a dim red bulb' excursions, and several other related meanderings.
I try to crank it up a notch, post a bit mo' often, so i won't be talking about 2014 in 2016.
(Hope you enjoy the 2014 work.)

Am i as prolific as i was 20 years ago? Hell, no - at 63, i am slowin' down abit - for one thing, bending over that easel and those trays with a sciatic back? ..after a couple of days i am one 'hurtin'-and-a-moanin' dude'.

But i am still finding that 'the lights (in my head) always go on' no matter how many years it's been. And it's been many years.
At first, i pulled out all the plugs, went wacko. This one was done in... i dunno, 1989? 1990?

27 negatives (=exposures) done over 2 days, selenium toned and then some hand coloring.

Now, i am reacting to all the 'over-the-top' -ness of digital with 'less is more'... keeping it real simple, negatives very well chosen, and very well composed:

This one is just 2 negs/exposures, a vast desert landscape, dodged back in the middle,
and the stairway at an abandoned motel by the Salton Sea burnt into the center.

I am trying to pass on whatever i have learned, and it's all free:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/DarkRm2/index.html

No credit card required, no email address necessary so you could be bombed w/ selling propositions, none of that shit.
If you've got questions? the 'Bobster' is available, 24/7/365
bobbennettphoto@yahoo.com

Percolation

This new digital age seems to have ushered in the notion that everything can happen at warp speed. There's twitters and tweets, instagram, email, cell phones and web pages that get refreshed on an hourly basis. 

And maybe soon you will get pizza delivered by drones, and Amazon will have same day delivery. 

For me?... it's all too much.

Some things take time, and that's the way it should be.

Do you know the word 'percolate'? 

It's a process that takes some time.

Nobody percolates coffee anymore, like they did at the after the church service social thing when i was growing up in the '50's.....Now? they go to Starbucks and get it in under the corporate mandate of 60 seconds +/-

I enjoy the many uses of words, & language. At the most prestigious east coast boarding school i went to for 6 years, we were required to take latin, & one foreign language - my choice was french. I took Greek to avoid this thing called 'sacred studies' - which was basically religious indoctrination.

So to me 'percolate' has more than a literal definition, it is also about a process of 'simmering', if i might use another cooking term.

In 2010 I had a darkroom sketch i called 'sky cave', it combined a some cirrus clouds with a hole in some rocks on an Oregon beach.

So i started w/ this sketch:

When i went to print it, for some reason i thought another frame might work better, taken from inside a cave at the beach, i liked the motion blur, but the print?...just didn't make it.

 I dragged it into Photoshop, and added some pseudo-stars. 

Nope, a no-go, gets a grade of ...'worse than just leaving it alone'.

But i left the sprint in my big pile of 'sift over these once a week with an open mind' stuff.

Let it *percolate*.

A while back, when i looked at this again, a light went on in my head - it was about a staircase i had shot many years ago at the the Wall St Mill, in Joshua Tree NP. A ladder leading into the hole in the rocks. Another 'aha!' moment - the light in my head goes on. I like it when that happens - i don't have alzheimers yet (at 63).

And the winner is.. (Jackpot! Serendipity!) ... the wall street mill + the oregon coast! ( why not? ;-) )

Only took two years.

Larger images here:

www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2015/Percolation.SkyCave/index.html

I haven't been doing the 'whatever catches my eye' file much lately, but this month I got a few:

http://artblart.com/2015/01/20/images-from-the-americans-by-robert-frank/

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/14/finding-robert-frank-online/?_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/16/science/earth/study-raises-alarm-for-health-of-ocean-life.html?google_editors_picks=true&_r=0

Be worried. Be VERY worried.
---------------------------------------

http://video.ft.com/3959591909001/Film-didnt-die-with-Kodaks-Chapter-11/Life-And-Arts?goback=%2Egde_76492_member_5958877721026117633

Here's a really lyrically scorching song I am surprised I have never heard covered, and it should be covered, saved from oblivion:

Yardbirds - 'Mister you're a better man than I'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgC8iz_ALik

Keith Relf was not a great singer, technically speaking, but he knew exactly how it had to sound, & feel. Jeff Beck was still emerging as the giant he has become, his licks are already cutting to the bone.

Relf was 33 when he died from electrocution, in the basement of his home, while playing his improperly earthed (i.e., grounded) guitar. What a great harmonica player!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Relf

Yardbirds story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1Wic5feQxo

-----------------------------

I have  a few very, very favorite books. This is one of them:

Search it out on Amazon - it will be worth your time

'From my hotel room I listened to an alto sax player at dusk.'

By JoyHarjo · On April 24, 2014

"He played a few jazz standards, but mostly those tunes the people would know who changed buses there. Nice tone. And there’s something about a lone horn player standing at the corner of our lives. I went out walking and talked to him. His name is Leroy. No band, or band in the works, just him, singing hopes and dreams, making a living, making a story."

I listened to a similar musician many years ago 74-75-ish, in old town Alexandria VA., before it was yuppified. Just me, an old nikon w/ a 28mm lense, and a fat joint :-)

Such sweet music, such good times!
I definitely relate to what JH is talkin' about.

Joy harjo NPR interview:

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=156501436&m=156500783

http://joyharjo.com

I'll be back again next month, come hell or high water.

Preview my book and/or dive into my latest darkroom creation: "Secrets"

Check out my first book, at Blurb.com.
Preview:
http://www.blurb.com/books/5470637-a-walk-on-the-california-coast
Or take a look at the B&W montage images done 16 yrs ago that are the foundation for the booK: http://www.californiabeachtrip.com

OK, on to the darkroom - Darkroom binge - July 4, 5

#1 Secret

Started this darkroom binge (2 days - July 4, 5) the same way i do all of them - w/ something simple.
This one is just a sky...dodged back a good bit in the center:

 ...and a beautifully lit doorway shot on a ship docked at SF harbor during 'fleet week'.
The door is locked tight, you ain't gonna get in here. But what you can't have is always want you want to have, isn't it?
There's something secret and probably valuable here, other wise, why would it be locked tight?

After I nailed the print in the first two passes, i just had to try something else.

 

So I blew in *something completely different* ( thank you monty python, for the phrase/description, it serves me well).
This was to burn in a neg made years ago at Cliff house/Ocean Beach/SF...

of the amusements there, at the Musee Mechanique,
just a wee bit of this neg, below
(I didn't even 'test' the exposure, i just burned it in.)

I should have tested it, the print is 'a nice start', but i should have burned in more.

I scanned it, and colorized it ( P'shop).

Far from perfect, but if you follow this blog at all, you'll know that i am not interested in perfect. I like mistakes, i like improvising. You won't discover anything new by being safe.

I've heard a lot of photographers say pretty much the same thing in so many words:
'The best thing about photoshop is you can do anything. The worst thing about photoshop is you can do anything, and get lost in the possibilities, and never make up your mind.'

I don't usually go for that approach, but this time round, WTF, let's work this one a bit.
I scanned the proof sheets, and came up with some alternate versions:

a not-so-subtle version, above.

and a version very close to the darkroom print:

I'm not sure which I like best, i think perhaps i like the darkroom version, but i can't hand-color glossy paper. Boo-hoo.

As usual, larger images, and a bit more yak at a page on my website:

www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2014/Secret/index.html

In the 'whatever catches my eye' file this month:

A very interesting discussion of the well worn but will be infinitely discussed topic, film versus digital:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/filmdig.htm

S.F. next door to ocean wilderness filled with beauty and beasts
Carl Nolte
Updated 8:52 pm, Sunday, September 21, 2014
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/nativeson/article/S-F-next-door-to-ocean-wilderness-filled-with-5770484.php


Sometimes You Just Need to Print Your Photos the Old-Fashioned Way
By David Rosenberg
http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2014/09/21/mark_steinmetz_a_look_at_some_of_the_atlanta_based_photographers_quiet_and.html

I was reminded of a photographer whose work is widely admired by of all things a good old fashioned newspaper article:

Robert Frank, his book 'The Americans' is a classic.

http://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/frank.html

Robert Frank
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100688154

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHtRZBDOgag


A text interview w/ RF:
http://www.americansuburbx.com/2010/02/theory-interview-with-robert-frank.html


Robert Frank and photography: Art in the age of image overload
Photographic overload.

By D.K. Row, The Oregonian The Oregonian

"I was pondering the implications of such a possibility while spending time with the 48 Polaroid images by Robert Frank on view at the Blue Sky Gallery. "

http://www.oregonlive.com/art/index.ssf/2012/01/robert_frank_and_photography_a.html

You've no doubt seen many pictures of the famous 'HOLLYWOOD' sign, but who else shot it like this?

So what does just an 'H' stand for?

It might not be hollywood, it could be 'hello'...

or it could be 'hell'. You got any other suggestions? Feel free to interpret as you wish.

Stop back in again in a month or so - more darkroom to come, more digital montage, and probably more rambling, 'wild and crazy' thoughts.

So if this is 'the beach blog' what better place to announce my first book?

I'm not very good at blowing my own horn, but for this one, I gotta get out some new chops, and make some noise.

16+ years ago I did almost 50 darkroom montage prints for a project that was called 'Beach Trip'. done for the company a good friend of mine founded back east, which imploded before the project came to fruition/publication.

I put together a website w/ most of the images (californiabeachtrip.com) but it hasn't exactly gone viral.

A year or so ago the same friend wrote me and said 'self-publishing is here! Let's do something w/ this!"

I waited for further instructions - they never came.. and when I enquired 6 months later, he'd gotten way too busy with other things to deal with it. 

Blurb.com to the rescue. 

I looked at a bunch of the online options, but since this was really a photo (and not 'text') book, blurb was the obvious choice, i can make all the pages myself easily. No text, just PSD image files as jpegs.

So i went about 'colorizing' the images digitally, and added a number of new digital ones that seemed to fit in.

This is the first version of this book:

http://www.blurb.com/b/5470637-a-walk-on-the-california-coast

I put all the images on a right hand page, not realizing how expensive that would make it.

(I wanted to make it possible for anyone to trim out a page, and frame it, without losing any of the other pages.)

I've revised - a much shorter, leaner book is coming soon, much more affordable, and better as an eBook (no blank left hand pages!).

Check it out, give it a spin. I put my heart and soul into everything i do. Hope it is appreciated somehow.

BB

Beach Mirage - in the darkroom again

I started w/ just an image in my head, of a figure on the mirrored beach walking into the distance, in search of what? ..i wasn't sure.
It is of course a B&W neg, i shot a whole roll of this view, it was a spectacular occurrence at Ocean Beach, San Francisco. The sand was almost level, at low tide the water didn't recede, it created this glass-like mirrored surface, reflecting the sky. This is a digitally colorized version of one of the frames.

For this montage, i chose another frame w/ just the single figure.

Initially i thought i would burn in some ships moored at a long pier, something like this image, done in 2010:

But it felt too much like i was repeating myself, the first test was just muddy... so i went back to old tried and true methods, and sifted thru contact sheets til i came upon some images taken at Marin Headlands, of a figure at the end of a long tunnel, one of the remnants of decades of military installations and gun batteries.
The figure is playing bagpipes, the tunnel echoed the sound mysteriously, incredibly. Which of course doesn't show up in the film at all.

There we go again, i had the 'Aha!' moment.
On the contact sheet, it didn't look like there was much shadow detail, when i worked with it, it turned out there was shadow detail, as it fades into the sky, makes it more interesting, what is this space the figure is walking into? A place of myth or legend? And who is the figure standing out over the ocean?
That's a 'the viewer gets to decide' question.

I tried a digital colorization of this one, once again it's.. uh... kinda interesting, but nothing to rave about. There are 4 layers of color adjustments:
1 - a basic Hue/Sat colorize that makes it all seemed toned blue.
2 - a selective color layer that only affects the beach, warming it up a bit, making the blue a bit more cyan - Neutrals/ +cyan, + Yellow.
3 - a selective color layer only affection the opening at the end of the tunnel, warming it up a bit, +y to neutrals.
4 - an overall SC layer, adds a touch more warmth (whites/ +Y).

Then i came back and worked on it some more.

Subtle difference, but it works for me.
Now I can hit 'save' and write it to back-up HD's.
As usual, larger images at a page on my site:

www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2014/BeachMirage/index.html

Last but not least, digital photography is now 25 years old.
This is a page well worth your time:



July 31, 2014 5:00 amJuly 31, 2014 5:00 am 
Digital Photography: A Look Back - by James Estrin
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/31/digital-photography-nppa-james-estrin/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

'Vibration' - more darkroom montage

.......I'm not sure where to start on this one...
It went thru some 'ch-ch-ch- changes" as the Bowie song goes.
Once again I did a P'shop sketch of this one...

The stacked stones were shot at Ocean Beach, mid '90's. O.B. stretches for a few miles from Cliff House south, it's easily accesible, and VERY large, there is a wealth of raw material for the creative soul, all kinds of stones, driftwood, and soft sand cliffs you can carve into with whatever is handy.

A nice start, but 'no cigar' as the old saying goes.

Then i changed my mind and replaced the crashing waves w/ some circular 'splash' ripples. I looked at adding a huge tree.. and also adding an additional thunderhead of a cloud.

And then ended up remembering the old Zen question - 'what's the sound of one hand clapping?' and i thought 'what's the sound ( or vibe?) of 5 stones *levitating*?'... and decided to keep it simple, just 5 stones floating on the water, making one vibration.

Once again when i saw the first test print of the ripples at the bottom, i was surprised - the sketch seemed to have left out the far side of the circular ripples, but they showed up fine on the test. This put a new spin on the image -  how about if the stacked stones become somewhat transparent at the bottom, and you can see the further ripples - what does this say about how the stones are suspended in space? Are they held up by the surface tension of the water alone? (physically not possible, of course.)

So I made 3 prints, all slightly different, i'm not sure which i like best.
The three are indistinguishable at web resolution, here's just one:

I also took a stab at coloring this one digitally:

Not very happy w/ it, but i always give it a try, just to see what will happen.

If you want to see it (and the others above) larger, and check out the psd file, here's the place:

www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2014/Vibration/index.html

And now it's time for this blog to ..uh.. wander a bit.
(Try it, you just might like it!)

Interesting story about these people that precariously stack rocks like the above:
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Perfecting-rock-creations-a-tall-order-5379420.php

There's always alotta fun to be had at beach, it's that kinda place.

Southside Johnny & the Asbury Dukes/Live:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLnFbR9L41g
--------------------
SS Johnny - 'Trapped again'. It totally sears your speakers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI_LjHiYTgg
------------------------------
"It's been a long time"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJLo5EkU7Lo

'It's been a long time...'

....'coming'? - i could add that word, but it would recall another most famous song -
Sam Cooke -  'it's been a long time comin' but a change gonna come'.
Yes, indeed. A beautiful voice, a life cut too short, a message that resounds decades later.




I still am one on the happiest guys in the planet to have a cassette copy of 'Southside Johnny & the Ashbury Jukes' - "Love is a sacrifice"
And i have a cassette player that will play it! *Yabba-dabba-doo!*
It *totally ROCKS* from beginning to end, with no let-up in intensity - it is totally ON from start to finish.
Tomorrow (July 4) i am celebrating 'Independence day' by being *independent* of digital, opening up the darkroom and doing whatever i can in 2 days time.

On sunday, i will go to beach. Yabba-dabba-doo!

 

If you don't get 'Yabba-dabba-doo'? it's from the Flintstones cartoon TV show,

many years ago. Fred Flintstone says this when he's very, very happy.

Whoever, where ever you are? ..try to find something 'happy' in whatever you do.

"Ah'll be back"........ next month.

Darkroom - 'Stories to be told'

Tell me a desert story - a myth, a parable, whatever.

Let's go back to the darkroom for a spell, this one was done late last year.

Top part of this is a sandwich, some rocks at a place called '7 Sisters' in Valley of Fire SP in Neveda, and a desert bush of some sort.

I did some PSD sketches that used the the 7 sisters rocks, and combined it w/ other things, but they just didn't 'ignite', didn't feel like they were worth printing.

I had scanned the proof sheet.

A plant is also on the same roll, i can't keep these plants straight, it is either a creosote, or an ocotillo. Or maybe something else entirely. It waves sadly and slowly in the wind.

I just had an inkling something might be going on by sandwiching just these two, so I pulled out the negs, and sandwiched them manually, held it up the the window light and thought 'aha!', that's IT!

Almost immediately I remembered a neg taken a long time ago.

The bottom part is a book left on Ocean beach in SF, and has been significantly weathered, the scene untouched by human hands. I took it 20+ years ago. And now it comes in handy. Don't ask me what i had for dinner last night, but i can remember this neg after all these years.

Once again, it's all about something other than software and photoshop - the best software is between you ears, and that's what I use to connect these negatives together, and weave them into montage images.

I flopped both negs so the light direction would match up w/ the book, which i don't want to flop, seeing as how you can read the text.

That I shoot negs for hi-lites, and let shadows fall into black (or close to it), continues to work just fine. The shadow in the rocks has just a bit of detail, just enough to add some interest/contrast to the sandwiched plant branches.

I tried out a digital/colored version of this....

Digital colorization many times feels false/forced, to me, though I've been getting better at it. Some images are conducive to this, others just aren't.

There are stories here, in this book, and in the desert... you just have to take the time and effort to read.

For larger images, here's the link:

www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2014/StoriesToBeTold/index.html

In the 'whatever catches my eye' file this month:

Slate Magazine: A quiet yet profound look the the American West

By Lisa Larson-Walker

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2014/04/09/robert_adams_the_place_we_live_is_a_retrospective_of_adams_s_work_that_covers.html

and one last parting suggestion:

http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Plastic-trash-from-the-ocean-is-art-at-S-F-Zoo-5501191.php

Go to the beach, if you can, you'll be glad you did. ALWAYS!