January - Icy Straight Point
This "phantom pier" caught my attention, partially because I had recently completed the Ukiah Phantom Businesses 2018 project. I liked the geometric patterns and felt that the boat prevented the otherwise symmetrical composition from being too static. It also reminded me of the Alaska "bridge to nowhere" controversy of a few years back. Shot with a Fuji X100F then tweaked in Lightroom.
February - Icy Straight Point, AK
Strangely, this digital photo of an old boat, shot with the Fuji and converted to black and white in Lightroom, worked better than a Minolta CLE Tri-X version made immediately afterward. So much for the supremacy of film. It would fit right into a picture of John, George, Paul, and Ringo (you have to be of a certain age to get that). I'm seeing a pattern here - another symmetrical composition (but altered by the light).
March - Ketchikan, AK
Uh-oh . . . more symmetry. And this one is not modified by a stray boat or strong side light. These apparently rarely used steps are perhaps the "stairway to nowhere" to accompany the January photo. Again, the X100F and Lightroom. (I'm remembering the time I entered in a show a photo labeled "Ketchikan, British Columbia". Whoops.)
April - Skagway, AK
This X100F photo of the front of a locomotive is more a rule-of-thirds composition. I like the minimalist color palate, which was facilitated by increasing contrast in Lightroom. Suz says it looks like some kind of robotic nipple.
May - Skagway, AK
What I see here are the three black triangles, more than the door. I've been told that these diagonal compositions are disorienting (see the Ukiah courthouse steps on the California page), but one of my favorite photos, utilizing the same technique, is of Big Ben in London (see my Europe page). Again, X100F and Lightroom.
June - Scottsdale, AZ
I spotted this on one of my early morning photographic wanderings during a Spring Training trip a couple of years ago. Shot with a different Fuji, a GF670, on Kodak Ektar 100 medium format film, developed and scanned by thedarkroom.com, then converted to b&w in Lightroom. My mistake (I did this on a different horse sculpture in last year's calendar) was not noting the identity of the artist.
July - Cloverdale, CA
We've finally arrived in California, but we've crept back to symmetry. This staircase was photographed on Tri-X film with the Minolta CLE, sometimes referred to as the "poor man's Leica" (or, as James Tocchio of casualphotophile.com says, "the best 35mm rangefinder I've ever used"). My obsession with stairs goes back to my first attempt in college, which required gingerly stepping around a rattlesnake. T-Max film developer, printed on Ilford Multigrade IV RC developed in Dektol, and then scanned with an Epson V600.
August - Hopland, CA
All technical data same as July. This is one of the cars at Real Goods with - literally - a tree growing through each one. I return periodically to record the changes that weather and rust have wrought. I'm not a car guy, but I think it's a 1965 Pontiac Grand Prix. The Tri-X grain is a perfect match for this gritty subject.
September - Redding, CA
Sundial Bridge shortly before a Bonnie Raitt concert. Taken with my Fuji. No, not that Fuji. Not that one, either. A GSW690III rangefinder that produces a 6x9cm negative (also called the "Texas Leica" - I have a lot of Leicas for someone who doesn't own a Leica). The film was Ektar 100, helped along by thedarkroom.com. The original image had a truer blue, but I used Lightroom to dial in this dark and moody shade. I was pleased that I was able to match the whites of the bridge and clouds.
October - Ukiah, CA
This photo of the display window of Triple S Camera is my favorite from the past year. The girl in the old Kodak advertising poster looks remarkably like pictures of Suzanne at eight or nine (she disagrees, but the hair, the freckles . . . ). The Czechoslovakian-made Inter 66 enlarger is the same one I bought new back in college. It may be the exact same one - I gave it away decades ago here in Ukiah and it's just possible that it found its way into the window. This is another Tri-X/CLE with the usual development info.
November - Ukiah, CA
I call this photo of the intersection of Church and State Streets "Unconstitutional" - get it? The early morning elongated shadows, particularly from the One Way sign draw me back here from time to time. Another Tri-X/CLE.
December - Ukiah, CA
This is my most serendipitous recent photograph. I had pulled part way into a parking lot to shoot an abandoned restaurant for my Phantom Businesses project. After I finished I could have either backed out (it was Sunday morning - no traffic) or continued in further to turn around. This didn't even rise to the level of a "decision". I did the latter and was presented with an immediately obvious, and admittedly somewhat symmetrical, composition of the colorful chairs with the rainwater caught in the underside. X100F, Lightroom.