Simple texture layering process

Tulips for me

Page 58 in the Book
Spice Up Your Photos
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Sun printing. film and digital.

Sun printing is a method of printing onto a surface using (yep, you guessed it) UV rays from the sun. Most people use sun printing to print various arrangements on paper by creating a design on a sun print paper, such as leaves and flowers, and exposing it to the sun.
But you can also sun print your negatives.
First thing to do is choose a negative with a good contrast, place it on the sun printing paper, set a piece of glass over it to hold it down and keep it flat (make sure your glass is not coated with a UV blocker!) , and expose it to direct sun.
The exposure time depends on your location, season and time of day, so you’ll have to experiment with it a little. The sun printing paper recommends exposure time of 10-15 minutes, but if you are printing in late afternoon you’ll need around 30 minuets and even more.
The print below was exposed around 1PM for less than 4 minutes.
When the sun exposure is complete, you will need to rinse the print under running water until the water runs clear.
For a final touch you can use a blunt object to distress the edges while the print is still wet.

Now if you don’t shoot film and have no negatives, don’t despair.
Create a negative version of your favorite digital photo and print it out on an inkjet transparency. It will work just like a real negative and even better because you can make it any size you want.

I got my watercolor sunprint paper from Freestyle but most art supply stores have some type of sunprint paper as well.

Traveling with film or digital?

It’s not going to happen until fall but I’m already agonizing which camera to take when I’m going to Virginia. I mean, even with some obvious inconvenience I was ready to travel with film cameras in the past, but after coming back home from San Francisco once and finding out 4 rolls were blank, I decided, that’s it! I’m not going to travel with film anymore!
But now, at this point, I really don’t want to photograph VA with a digital camera! Bljhaa. Yeah well, it’s probably just me but nowadays I just don’t have the capacity to visualize great photos that are made of bits and pixels.
What to do? There must be a middle ground! Lucky me, I have a few more moths to fret about it.

Both of the above pictures were taken along the Mount Vernon Trail in Virginia during a biking trip from Alexandria to Mount Vernon (the home of George Washington). The majority of the trail stretches alongside the Potomac River.

Taking pictures at night

People often think photographing at night is a difficult challenge.
Some photographers believe it is necessary to use a flash or carry around one of these tripods in order to come up with a picture that is not completely dark (or somewhere near it). But in fact, shooting in the dark, with the right attitude, can be easily done;

1) Camera settings: It is obviously very helpful to have a fast film in your camera or simply set your digital camera for night shooting. Most film and digital cameras have camera settings for night photography that can do the job.
The majority of classic and toy cameras have the B (bulb) exposure which allows long shutter exposure by letting the photographer keep the shutter open as long as the shutter release is held down.
2) Flash – do you even need it? : Besides its tendency to change the whole natural and interesting appeal of the nighttime, the flash is often limited to 4 feet or so, which makes it totally useless when making street photos.
3) Leave the tripod at home! : I find it difficult to understand why would anybody with a clear mind choose to be attached to one of these 3-legged thingamajigs, while there are so many objects out there which can be used as temporary resting places for the camera (like; mailboxes, cars, fences and even your loyal friend’s back!) for your long shutter shots.

So all you really need for a successful night shoot is to keep steady hands and hold your breath while pressing the shutter button (hopefully without passing out).

A week of rain