Rose is a Rose

I keep fighting my natural instincts which are to photograph people and I pursue still life and landscape when the opportunity presents itself.

So I've been toying around with these dried up roses with little success.

I've got this idea of photographing dead and decaying things.
In my mind's eye, I can see exactly what these pictures are supposed to look like, but I fail miserably at staging and lighting the moment.

I've been half-heartedly vowing to stop photographing live models because of the time, expense and hassle involved in dealing with them, but so far they provide my best and most satisfying material.

Deanna with Piano

Here's a Polaroid 55 pos/neg of Deanna Dupre a wonderful Phoenix model. This was shot at f/5.6 which unfortunately was about one stop underexposed. I forgot that I was metering for TMAX film and the Polaroid is ISO 50 while the TMAX is ISO 100. This was supposed to be low-key lighting anyway, but it would have been nice to have that extra stop of light.

The neg's got some nasty sodium sulfite streaking that I failed to clean thoroughly. I may have to go back and rewash and photo flo again.

4x5 scanned using color neg settings

I finally pulled the Cambo into the studio for a photo shoot with Donna.

The scan here is originally sized at 98 mb and scanned using the color neg settings which gives it this bronze/sepia effect. There are still a lot of dust and scratches. But overall I'm happy to be back in the darkroom.

New-ish Web site

Carlos has updated his Web site. I've taken off the art photos because I'm currently working more with schools and families and don't want to give off the wrong impression. My site, as always, is www.morenophoto.com. I will continue to post art photos to my film blot at www.carlosfilm.blogspot.com and I will also keep my art portfolio updated at modelmayhem and onemodelplace.

Back in the Saddle

This is from my first studio shoot in the studio I'm sharing as part of a co-op deal in Phoenix.
The model is Stacie Snow and this, of course, was shot on Polaroid 55 pos/neg media. Not sure how long my supply will hold out and if I can get anymore since Polaroid has gone away.

I'm still here

I promise I haven't abandoned this blog. The new baby has kept me from getting out with the 4x5. I've got some medium format stuff I will post up hopefully soon.

Trust me. I'll be back.

Scorpion Gulch

Here's a landscape view of Scorpion Gulch located near the entrance to South Mountain Park. This is one of the few landscapes I've shot so far that I like.

It's probably not so much a landscape as it's more of a still life, but semantics is not my strong suit. I really love the interplay of textures and light here.

This old building looks like someone's home that has been abandoned for many years. There may have been a fire at one point. But it just looks like someone homesteaded here and maybe had a small business next door. There is some indication of indoor plumbing and electrical wiring. So the home is not necessarily turn of the century, but I'm guessing it was built in 1930s or so. To me it's just a neat old building worth exploring photographically. Plus, it's a good location for shooting models.

Amber at Scorpion Gulch

OK. SO I'm back in the "swing" of things (large-format shooters will get the pun).

This is Amber, an aspiring model, at Scorpion Gulch at South Mountain. I'm not sure what Scorpion Gulch is/was. It appears to be ruins of an old home. But it's a great locale for shooting. It's not great if you want privacy because it's just a few yards from the road leading to South Mountain park. So we had every low-rider and hip hop-playing, Korean-car-driving punk slowly drive or even stop--waiting for Amber to take off her clothes. Uh, not going to happen.

Anyway, I really love the overall feel of this image. Unfortunately I screwed up the post processing of the Polaroid 55 film somewhere. I immediately immersed the negative in sodium sulfite and it seemed totally clear. Even after I got home and rinsed and Photo Flowed it, it seemed clear. But when I came back after it dried, I found these two diagonal streaks. They almost look like the emulsion had merged with another emulsion, but not quite as dense.

Also, the neg is very dirty. There are a lot of tiny dust spots that I tried to Photoshop with the dust and scratches filter. This is why the overall sharpness is not great either. But all in all, I like this picture. Even the streaks are kind of ghostly and lend an ethereal quality to the shot.

Some Internet posts I found suggest the Scorpion Gulch is haunted. Maybe I've got some ghost trails here.