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