9.30
A pleasant 100 degrees today. The van won't drive for more than 5 minutes without over-heating. I bought a new thermostat, and am trying that as a first solution. I think I will ditch plans to work with models in Tucson, as I don't want to deal with the van going down and back up. I think I will head to Sedona when I get the problem with the van solved, as Sedona is on the way back to Colorado, along the planned route. Tensions eased a bit with dialogue. Talked on the phone with Lili (her work can be found HERE) my vibrant artist-friend, who is always good at helping me to stay on the right track mentally.
10.1
Finally 75 degrees. Headed up to Sedona today, with multiple van-overheatings. Casey hitchhiked after the 3rd one. It happened twice more and then the problem was healed. I met up with her in Sedona, where she had taken it upon herself to rent a room, since "she didn't know when I would show up" despite the fact that I arrived an hour after she did. That is another reason I had a problem with her going off on her own, but I can not stop her from doing as she pleases. The room rental led to a problem as I had no desire for a room, and she wanted to split the bill--but my bank account was running within $300, and I didn't want to end up in the middle of nowhere without a means to get home.
10.2
Casey was in a disgruntled mood this morning, due to the motel room issue, and decided to take the rest of the day off after one picture in the morning shoot. I spent the afternoon scouting out the landscape for places to shoot, and took a few color landscape shots. I also scoured the town for people to work with (to model), but came up empty-handed. In the late evening, I ended up at the end of a local open-mic night at a local bar, with my acoustic guitar. I played three originals ("Freedom Highway", "Gasoline", and "Breakaway"), "When you Come Back Down" (Nickel Creek version), Pride and Joy (SRV) and some Jimi. The crowd was severely depleted by the time I played, but it was fun to share my music nonetheless.
10.3
Did work this morning in the "Pumphouse Wash", about 12 miles north of Sedona just before the road gets up into the mountains, along Oak Creek Canyon.
The shoot went well, and we were followed out by a sprinkle. Spent the afternoon in the Sedona Public Library loading film and using the Internet. I went to the 5 p.m. testimony service at the First Church of Christ, Scientist--Sedona, where I found a wonderful group of older people that shared very inspiring testimonies of healing and gratitude. Did a one-hour night exposure, cut short from an all-night exposure by a rising full moon. Used a flashlight with a pink gel to 'paint' in the shadows of a tree included in the composition (shadows opposite from where the moon was rising, as moonlight will wash out areas 'painted', which is why one would paint the shadows--as they remain dark).
10.4
Worked firstly with the trunks of two trees that merge, forming a 'V'. The idea I was working with was strength in the figure, and making it appear as though the figure was seperating the two trees.
I worked here with the flat light of the earlier morning, because I prefer softer light to the uneven light and shadows of when the sun gets up over the canyon (worked about 4 miles up Oak Creek Canyon from Sedona). Also shot a brief color shot of rocks and water (with a #9 ND filter, a polarizing filter, f/64 and 100 speed film, and still could not get an exposure any slower than 4 second, as I wanted to blur the water more). I will give the negatives shot in the flat light N+1 development, to compensate for the lower contrast of the scene. I then back-tracked a bit towards Sedona to the place where I took my night exposure, as the sun was now on a tree that I had spotted last night. Unlike the previous place, this tree was high above the river on the side of the canyon, now in full sunlight.
I can work with full sun or full shade (flat light--what John Sexton calls the "Quiet Light") but not halfway between, and prefer the latter. Sexton holds that true "quiet light" is only really found before sunrise, or after sunset--or at least that's when he prefers to shoot, but I believe that you can find this light during the day in the right conditions.
I used selective focus--which seems to best express the vision for my work--of idea photography rather than 'thing' photography.
I used Berrger ASA 200 speed film @ f/8, 1/500. I lastly did an 'angle shot', as Casey likes to call them, shooting with the camera just above the foot (within a foot of her foot), with a 75mm (around a 20mm lens in 35mm format) wide-angle tilted to fit the entire figure in the composition, to increase spatial distortion.
Kodak ASA 100, full sunlight--meter reading of f/22.7 @ 1/60, metering the for the higher tones of the figure with the spot meter, which, as always, I expose at Zone 6, which means I increase the exposure by one stop, to lighten the higher tones to what they are--not what the meter tells me is a Zone 5, or middle gray. This left me with an exposure of f/22.7 @ 1/30. I then knock off the .7 to compensate for the close focusing, which means that the films is farther away from the lens--getting less light--so more needs to be added, which I did by opening the lens up the .7 of a stop to f/22, for a final exposure of f/22 @ 1/30. This is the kind of math that goes into each exposure I make, considering that the light is not tricky.
After confirming a meeting time of 9:30 am tomorrow (Friday the 5th) with Emerald, a young lady I recruited from the local health food store, I went back to the Library during the harsh mid-day light to change out my film holders and check my email. I recruited Emerald because I have some ideas and found some places in the landscape where it would be interesting to incorporate two figures, and Emerald has a similar structure to Casey--which keeps a certain consistency as desired.
Did some work in the river with the 90mm lens (around a 28mm lens in 35mm format).
I am still trying to refine and understand/define my photographic/artistic style/vision. I think I am working towards renaissance poses, showing a thought or an action, rather than showing a figure, and very selective focusing to narrow down the focus (both literally and mentally) even further. Idea photographing, if it is possible. I have always striven to discover how to photograph the intangible, which is one reason why I use people as subjects--they can convey it. I still trouble myself--perhaps unnecessarily--about the significance of my work, as perhaps all serious artists do at some point. I do not desire to create simply a beautiful photograph--but one that inspires or impacts the viewer to any degree.
10.5
Wow. These entries are getting longer. Spent much time pondering artistic purpose last night. One thing that stuck with me--a quote from one of my mentors, Alfred Stieglitz: "The point is what you have to say and how you say it." Then I tried to solidify what it was I had to say. Too much fretting. It worked out easier just letting unfoldment happen--imagine that!!
So this morning, before meeting Emerald @ 9:30, I shot again with a tree that we worked with yesterday (the one in full sunlight on the hill-side), using Konica 750 Infra-red film this time (120 format, which I have a 6x9cm back for the 4x5). After meeting Emerald, who brought a friend and former art class model (I can relate, as I modeled for a figure drawing class my senior year in College--I suppose to better understand what I am potentially subjecting my models to, although my model's have it a bit easier, as I would have to hold standing poses for half and hour or longer without moving--they just have to wait for me to crunch some numbers in my head and make the exposure) named Heather, we made our way back up to the Pumphouse Wash, where I had worked with Casey two days before.
I initially worked with a large rock formation that I had worked with the two days prior, which is why I was now there with more than one model--because the space lends itself to more than one model. It is pre-visualization playing itself out. I have been keen on renaissance themes and poses recently, so I worked with that with Emerald and Casey--and a few shots with Heather, who ended up being a nice compliment and more of a renaissance physique than either of the other two.
We then trekked up the dry creek bed to a place I had found the last time I was here. On the way I found two large rocks, one lower in front, which lent itself nicely to a composition, and in full sun. There was a fair amount of contrast between the three models' skin tones--Casey a tan Spaniard, and Emerald and Heather fairly pale. With the two rocks I continued with a theme of each model occupied with something different--each holding a different pose, creating a more interesting and intriguing photograph--for me.
With that, I had shot about 70% of my film (before the film holders needed to be re-loaded) without having reached the next spot we were headed to. The next spot, just around a bend, was an interesting combination of steep canyon walls and a huge tree jammed between the two sides. The tree was probably four feet in diameter, and laid perfectly horizontal.
I shot half of the remaining film with the continuing theme, and the other half with a theme Heather had--a spin-off of "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." I was grateful to have Heather, as she had a naturally relaxed way about her poses, she had long, beautiful hair that added nicely to my renaissance theme, and she helped me a few times with posing ideas. It is always helpful to get creative input from models. Casey produced large amounts of methane gas in the small and confined sleeping quarters during the night.
10.6
I might have previously mentioned that pine cones are useful as a natural T.P. (or maybe it was an unspoken thought). I should add that one should check them fist for Pine pitch (tar). Today we headed out of town, stopping one place I had scouted out earlier with some interesting manzanita shrubbery.
Made it 180 miles through a rainy Flagstaff, AZ to Kayenta, AZ. Another tip: if you park at a gas station to stay the night (or a parking lot off to the side) make sure to check the wind first and make sure you are not downwind from where an early morning semi-truck would be refilling the gas station. It is quite revolting waking up to thick gas fumes. I can deal with Casey's.
10.7
The population here is mostly Navajo. It is sad to see a people who once flourished in this land that was once theirs, now living in wasteland trailer parks, making a living by selling jewelry to tourists like peddlers and by working in convenience stores. A noble people with hope taken away--then given back in small increments as seen fit by the U.S. Government. A noble people now reduced to alcoholism, poverty and crime. Gee, I'm proud to be an American. Freedom at the expense of another's.
Stopped between Kayenta and Monument Valley to photograph a large rock formation in color. Stopped and shot another one just inside Monument Valley--but wasn't as pleased with this one. Drove all day long, up through Utah, through Moab, until reaching Thompson Springs once again, where I intended to shoot some more ideas that I didn't get to last time. This was to be the first and last place that we worked along the trip.
Finding a large group of people at the initial place I wanted to photograph, we backtracked a mile to some boulders that I has spotted on the way up the canyon. I was able to produce some interesting low-angle images, despite the harsh backlight.
After that, we went back to the original location, now empty, and shot in the same spot as a month earlier, but from a side angle rather than a straight-on angle. Casey also covered herself in the white powder found below the drawings (probably from what the Natives had used to make the drawings) for added effect, and to draw a connection between the two subjects (the figure and the drawings).
With that, I drove the final leg home, reaching Aspen around 9:30 p.m. I dropped Casey off, and proceeded to the music studio that my brother and I rent--so I could play through an amplifier and rock out both the creativity that had been in me for a month as well as the frustrations, and since I hadn't gotten to play my acoustic guitar as much as I had hoped to along the trip.
