Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

The last Sunday in April has been Worldwide Pinhole Photography day for a number of years. I've tried for a couple years to get something around for this. At last I'll have a couple to upload.Their gallery from the day will grow so check it often. http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2013/

When Harry met Ralph

While passing through Allenwood today I met Harry. To call him “Harry the Hat Man” would be ungracious. Too blind to drive, he spends his day making hats that he sells from his front porch. “I can’t leave them out, someone steals them”. He says with a tone of annoyance in his voice. He explains it would be so much easier for him if he didn’t have to take them in. 

It’s not the loss that bothers him; he gives away more than he sells. He leaves them at the post office for anyone to pick up. Others he has donated to a food bank to be distributed to families. 

 

He knows his market and says he has quit making the smallest ones because it is school kids who need them the most. 

They are all made with donated yarn which is stacked in boxes that make navigating his living room a chore. 

Harry reminds me that you don’t need to have a lot to become a generous person. 

As for the thief, Harry says he knows who it is but can’t catch him. “He seems to know when I fall asleep” 

If your travels take you near US15 and PA44 park your car and say “Hi” to Harry. You will improve his day and yours.

 

 

A photographic collaboration

I am sharing project goals of a photographic collaboration that is beginning to take form. This image is of an empty "set" if you will, that will be used in a series of portraits that address issues of childhood depression, self-harm, and suicidal inclinations.
Our message will communicate that healing is possible and these topics need to be discussed openly to help with that process.
We hope you will follow our progress and support our Kickstarter campaign that will begin shortly.

As we have moved forward with this project we have met so many people who's lives have been touched by these topics that the project has gained importance and new meaning to me.

Our Mission Statement best describes our goals.

MISSION STATEMENT

Through our art, we attempt to depict the long-term consequences of childhood sexual assault, the struggles of depression, low self-esteem, suicidal inclinations, family relationships, and the social stigmas associated with them.

We are addressing topics that the world has not learned to talk about or embrace. Just the words abuse, depression and suicide hold such stigma that many remain silent. Our hope is this project will help foster an open dialog in these areas that have become too easy to brush aside.

Our goal is to show those who may be dealing with these emotions and struggles, that they are not alone. To show that others are aware of, and understand the patterns and thoughts they are experiencing. That healing is possible. We want to tell people who may be on the journey to healing that we all carry our own box of secrets. You are not alone.

Through public displays of this project, we hope to encourage others to identify and share their feelings as well as encouragement to seek help from friends, family, and professionals and to help remove the feeling of isolation, self doubt, and pain they may feel.

With art and voice, we know we can help at least one person see that life is worth fighting for. We want to share with every person struggling with their past and present that everyone’s life is a series of peaks and valleys. No one gets to stay at the top and no one needs to be left at the bottom. That no matter how dark the night may be, the sun will always rise on a new day, we just have to remember to breathe.

Ralph Wilson

Today was Penn State women's last home game and the end of the season for me. Twenty consecutive wins at the Bryce Jordan Center ain't too shabby. (All images copyright AP Photo/Ralph Wilson)

Katelyn

I’ve been ignoring my blog on purpose. Instead of digging through old images to post daily I want to show my current work and that is totally sporadic. I also want to talk technique and make it less pedestrian.

 

So here is my latest image from two days ago.

 

Kate is an intern at the studio this semester helping with photography classes and experimenting with cameras and techniques that aren’t included in her school work. She was shooting pinhole images at the Pajama Factory with a converted Crown Graphic and Kodak  Pocket Folding Camera #1. While making a six-minute exposure she agreed to pose for a portrait.

 

I was shooting a 5x7 Burke and James with paper negatives. The exposure was f32 @ one minute. Later it hit me that the lens would have been sharper if I hadn’t stopped it down the whole way. Next time. She did hold amazingly still for that long an exposure but there is motion blur in the image. We took another frame with intentional motion that is quite nice as well.

 

By all rights this image should not have come out at all. When I got in the darkroom and opened the film holder it turned out to be loaded with Ilford HP5+ instead of paper. HP5 has an ASA of 400 instead of the ASA 12 that I rate paper so it should have been terribly over exposed. Plus I opened it under yellow safelights that should have fogged the film.

 

At that point I said what the heck and developed it in the 10:1 Dektol that I had mixed for the paper. I developed it of 10 minutes with almost no agitation because I used the time to check my email.

 

This is a scan of the resulting silver print and it does work without Photoshop. A happy ending to a complete mishap.

Logical Explanation



2007 Harrisburg PA.



Most of us know that the shortest distance from Point A to Point B is a straight line. I'm sure this feature comes with a very good explanation.



1936 Williamsport. PA.



With Williamsport under a flood watch today, I thought I would share this image of the 1936 flood. I think, but am not certain, that this is the area where Penn College is now. The Cromar factory is in the background. Perhaps someone will confirm that or correct my error. This is a scan of a 4x5 inch glass plate.

Celebrate the 40's

2010 Jim Thorpe, Pa.

Ahhh. Getting up to 40 this afternoon. That’s porch weather! This is a cyanotype, a process from the 1840's printed from a negative taken with a Zeiss Ikon box camera, made in the 1940's in Jim Thorpe, Pa. Thorpe played professional football into his 40's. That's the best I can come up with for the fourties in one image.

Tribute to Francesca Woodman

2012, Williamsport, Pa.

In January of 1981, Francesca Woodman decided she was not of this world. Before she left she created a wonderful body of work, mostly surrealistic self portraits. I often wonder where her work would have taken her if she had stayed. Today’s post is a tribute to a 23 year-old master.

Seeing Triple

2012, Williamsport, Pa.

This is one of those happy mistakes your digital camera won't make. The film did not advance and I ended up with an unintentional triple exposure. I'm very pleased with the results.

More Hoops

2013, State College, Pa.

Off to the men's game today. Haven't seen them win yet but it's a new day.

88 Years Later



January 25, 1925



This is a print from a glass plate I acquired at an estate sale. Taken 88 years ago today. Tell me her toes weren't cold!

Play Ball

2003, So. Williamsport, Pa.

Is anyone else ready for sitting out on a warm evening

Tracks



2003, Williamsport, Pa.



All I can say today is "brrrr"



2012, Lower East Side



I watched as this woman sat down, ordered brunch and assimilated into all the flowers in the frame. She even turned her face into the sun like all good flowers do.