Experiment: Cyanotypes

I first learned how to do cyanotypes from a great class I took at the (dear, departed) Corcoran College of Art + Design four years ago. After the class, I tried doing some at home and completely failed. I'm still not sure why, but not a single thing came out. And I put it all away until a few weeks ago. These are just a first attempt to get back into cyanotype printing. Lessons learned:

• Coat the paper once, then let dry then, coat again instead of just applying as much as possible in one step (I wound up with damp, streaky paper)
• A sunny Virginia day means start timing exposures at 5 minutes (not 15!)

I need to make some time soon for attempt number 2 - and update this blog weekly as I originally intended. Busy summer is no excuse!

FotoWalk Underground

I'm very honored to have my photo "Capitol" displayed for the summer in the Crystal City FotoWalk Underground as part of Exposed DC's 10 year anniversary celebration. Exposed DC is a great resource for local Washington DC area photographers, and they hold an annual show that I always look forward to. "Capitol" was originally selected to be part of the 2013 Exposed DC show at the LongView Gallery. It was taken with a medium-format Lomography Diana+ camera, then scanned and printed digitally. (Original negative scan is below.)

Learning Curve

I'm still working out the best way to use my Agfa Isolette. I've gotten some great images, but I thought I'd share one I wasn't that happy with. I was so excited to see this on the scanner thumbnail view, but when I looked a little closer it became apparent that I had the focal length all wrong. I'm guessing I was going for a shallow depth of field, with the statue in clear focus. With the overall soft focus, it looks more like a Lomography photo. I haven't yet decided if that's a happy accident or not. The hardest part of film photography for me is remembering to slow down, which is exactly why it's also therapeutic. Manually setting everything when you have a great shot lined up and the light is going is a true exercise in mindfulness and being in the moment.

Vintage Camera, Vintage Cemetery

Other than one roll of film just to make sure the thing worked, this was my first time experimenting with my "new" vintage camera, an Isolette "folder" from Germany. I picked it up from an antique/junk store in Cary, NC with no idea what I was doing or if it would work at all. I found some folks online who pointed me to Jergen at Certo6.com who unstuck the focusing ring and did an amazing job cleaning it up for me. I gathered up a few friends and went, where else, to a beautiful local cemetery. Despite the name, Congressional Cemetery is open to the public, and anyone can be buried there. It's well off the DC tourist trail but worth a visit if you're interested in history or old cemeteries.

In the back of the drawer...

I'm not sure if this is the oldest roll I have lying around that's been processed but not scanned, but it's got to be close. (We went to London in June, 2009.) I had just a few usable images; it's nice to feel like I've learned something even if it makes for a frustrating scanning session.

Mystery film!

It's the first day of spring, but it's a miserable and cold one here in the Washington DC suburbs. The Cherry Blossom festival just started, but there's no way I'm going outside today. Instead, I reached into my (extensive) backlog of processed but unscanned film. Today's random roll is some Lomochrome purple I shot last summer in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland. On the one hand, I want to get better about scanning and sharing photos in a timely manner. On the other hand, it's a perfect day to re-visit a great Scottish vacation. The photos below were taken ( as I recall) at the Calton Burial grounds in Edinburgh.

New Gallery! "Dupont Underground"

Just posted a new gallery, with some 35mm and 120 photos of the abandoned trolley station lurking underneath Dupont Circle. Having lived in the DC area (on and off) since the 1980s, I'd heard of the Dupont Underground, and even remembered its ill fated stint as a food court, but I'd never actually been inside until recently. I was able to tour it as a donor to the initial crowdfunding drive to get it re-opened as an arts space. With only an hour to shoot, I loaded my Pentax K100 and Diana+ and grabbed my crappy tripod and just hoped for the best.

New Orleans - Revolog Lazer film

We visit New Orleans once or twice a year, and for January's visit I took the Revolog Lazer film I received for Winter Gift Giving Holiday. The "lazer" effect goes continuously throughout the roll; now that I know what it looks like I wish I had gone with standard 35mm frames instead of Diana Baby square and half-frames, since some of the shots showed minimal effects. These are a few I think worked out well, though.

Welcome to Opulent Tarnish

Opulent Tarnish specializes in lo-fi film photography. I use vintage, toy, and plastic cameras to take photos of my travels and my adopted hometown of Washington DC. Yes, I visit a lot of cemeteries.