The Assignment: With the recent article in the NY Times Arts section, highlighting Cindy Sherman's return with a new series of photographs showing in NY, my mentor thought to have me try my hand at my own version of a Cindy Sherman self-portrait.

The key for this was that I could NOT look like myself.

So, I wanted to practice taking some photos in this old cat cage we call, "The Zoo." --It worked.-- I fit inside and I set it in place, in my shared garage. Next, I went after the makeup for a clown face and in the midst of clown artistry 101, the black paint on my left eye ran into it and completely turned my eyeball BLACK like INK. This was somewhat worrying and very dramatic and I flushed it immediately. What was left was a smeared mess on the right side of my face, but I liked it. I would keep it for this try at Assignment #10. Also, I was going to wear a black-haired wig, but once I put on my white wig cap, well that was it, that was the choice.

Now in set up, I toyed around with placement of the camera (YES< IT'S DIGITAL) and tripod. Close, far...angled, up above? No, full on, close up face shot and one wonderful hollywood hot light - angled above and to my right. One last thing: POSE. I was not supposed to look like myself in the end, so I puffed my cheeks out a little to give my face a different shape. 

CLICK.

The Californian who just moved in and shares the garage was PRETTY confused when he saw me in a cage, with smeared clown make up on, taking my own photo. HA!
​>KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD<

WHAT I LEARNED: I needed at least one more hollywood light to add the warm yellow tones Cindy Sherman so easily showed in her colorful clown self-portraits. I had too much daylight. AND, I learned a TON (in a few worried minutes) about face make up. You need better quality makeup when painting around the eyes...more solid creamy stuff. I learned a lot of what I would do differently when next applying makeup to myself -or- a model. And that flushing like I was instructed way back in high school chemistry class WORKS! 

Shoot On!

Assignment #9: To shoot a roll of IR (infrared) film. 
Now, to do this. One must load it in complete darkness. AND --> one must also have a manual camera WITHOUT a light meter on the inside. ANY illumination on the film (IR film) will ruin it. OK. I got all of that and with some nervous loading in my dark bathroom, I got it successfully loaded.
NEXT, I went on a walk up a twisty, small street near my place and up into a park ON A MUCHO SUNNY DAY! Apparently the IR film works best in direct, bright sunlight. So the walk was great. The twisty street I rarely visit was great. The park was beautiful and also great. I was excited to develop the IR film and see what I'd caught.
SO, I mixed HC developer 1:5 ratio. That was new. And--> I used the steel cannister and reel, that was also new, but I'd been practicing for months so, again, after some nervous time rolling the film on in total darkness...SUCCESS. Whew! 
FINALLY, I start developing the film. 7 minutes in the HC developer, agitating for the first 30 seconds and then every minute, agitating for only 10 seconds until 7 minutes is up! I've been through this so many times now, I can do this part in my sleep. 
After fixing, washing, hypo clear, etc...I pull the film out...anticipation building...
THERE IS NOTHING. Film comes out almost entirely clear. WHAT?!
Damn. 
I checked my fix solution with hypocheck.
Damn. Damn. And double-damn. My fixer was bad.
I KNEW TO CHECK IT.
I KNEW IT MIGHT HAVE GONE BAD.
WHY DID IT NOT OCCUR TO ME JUST BEFORE THIS ROLL???!
I WAS TOO EXCITED ABOUT CONTEMPLATING AND PRACTICING ALL THE NEW SKILLS--NEW DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION RATIO---NEW TIME--NEW TANK, ETC.

I now will never forget this lesson. Always. Always. Always forever and ever check your FIX BEFORE YOU DEVELOP.
I have now thrown out old fix and hypoclear (my photo flo is used from direct solution so it's fine) and am ready to develop once more.

So instead of showing you great and amazingly funky pictures taken on IR film.
I have one photo of completely clear film upon which I failed and learned a HUGE TON of a lesson.
Rock on people.

​I bracketed.
The assignment: to photograph black against black, black against white, and white against white. While doing this, use an incident light meter and a reflective light meter while ALSO bracketing to see the slight changes. This must be done on film.
Great. I have a black cat and a black background. I too, have a white background and golf whiffle balls my cat loves to chase around (on a white background). 
What could go wrong?
Lots. :-)
Well not lots, but some..
I set up the black background in the living room. (It really is time to get rid of the living room furniture). Upon doing this, my wonderful bae, May, (my cat) gets interested and checks it out. PERFECT. I take the incident light meter reading. Got it. f/4 at 500 shutter. Cool. Click. May is posing and loving it. I bracket to f/5.6 at shutter 350. Click, click. Even greater! My cat is notoriously difficult to photograph. She does not like to look into my camera - ever - and now she was acting like a full out supermodel! Click. I bracket again. f/8, shutter 250, something like that. Fantastic. Click, click, click, click. 
Next, I mix in my other camera with a reflective light meter inside. This one I can see when looking through the viewfinder. Click, click, click, click. May is starting to stray off the background so I offer her some kitty treats. I bracket again. f/11, shutter 150. Click, click. 
Things seem to be going great. 
I decide to take down the black background and put up the white background.
Done.
May LOVES the white background. Full model mode is back. I begin a new roll and take the light reading again and start over f/4, shutter 500. Click, click, click, click, click. I have never been able to get so many photos of my cat!
Three rolls of film later - and an two or so hours in my bathroom/darkroom - I have many, many greatly exposed photos of my cat. 
Fantastic..
Except..I cannot tell any difference between the bracketing changes.
I go into darkroom at PCC and confer with Mike..
Oh crap. I did EQUIVALENCY BRACKETING.. (I read that was what bracketing was..)
He wanted me to do regular bracketing. What is this ?
This is not moving both the aperture and the shutter speed. Move one or the other - 
NOT BOTH.
Gotchya. That was my biggest lesson. 
I learned there is EQUIVALENCY BRACKETING and there is BRACKETING.
​
​See my favorites from May's big shoot...

I commute to my darkroom by bus.
I take Portland's public transportation everywhere.
It was last Thursday.
It was LOVELY out - SUNNY - WARM - 
It felt like summer outside.
I left early to take my film camera out - at least to capture the last three shots on my Ilford (hp5) film roll on such a nice day..
I was transferring buses on the Hawthorne Bridge and decided to detour and walk along the Eastside Esplanade for a short bit. Then, before heading back to the bus stop, I decided it would be a good idea to use the nearby porta-potty, under the Hawthorne Bridge. 
Cool. I'm glad public spaces have bathrooms.
I stepped out and instantly hear some loud thumpy, pops - NOT NORMAL OR SAFE SOUNDS.
I turned around and black, roiling smoke was rolling QUICKLY toward me. Flames, VERY LARGE flames were shooting out of the middle of the black smoke! It was smoke so black you couldn't see through it. I knew I needed to move fast or I would not be able to breathe, so I ran just enough to pull out my camera (loaded - ready) and took the last three shots of the roll. (Nothing previously had inspired me enough to take any shots along the river.)
BAM! I was outta there! 
You know that panic that you feel, that you should feel in dangerous situations you are not expecting?! And then you get out fine. You realize everything was fine - and then you get this laughter from the ridiculousness of your panic?!!
THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED TO ME. 
And these were the best two of the last three shots. (Hope the "no injuries" report from that evening's news stays true!)
​

What a fun, local gala night to share with friends and colleagues!
Thank you to Andy, owner of Portland's BLACKBIRD WINE & ATOMIC CHEESE on NE Fremont.
He supports local artists and our RDC [Riches Darkroom Consortium] is extremely excited to be showing in his lovely shop & space! The work will show for three weeks!

I was a lead organizer, along with Chris Zarvis, without whom NONE of this would have happened. We each shot, developed and printed all our own photographs. Additionally, we all cut our own matte boards and many of us took part in the show's "hanging." WHAT A GREAT EXPERIENCE. All of it.
​
Below is a slideshow of each of our 17 artists "Now Showing" ...
Come by the shop, have a glass (or bottle) of wine and..
ENJOY THE SHOW!

Artists listed in order of photos (of work) posted: Kerry McAllister, Mike Riches, Jeff Cowan, Victor Miskowiec, Chris Zarvis, Jady Bates, Tim Vogan, Victor Bliss, Dale Bunn, Tom Chester, Marc Stearns, Luke Clements, Travis Doane, Esq., David Adler, Brandon Dane, Joe Frank, Randal Magahay