Photos by Invoco Luz, Andrea Baldi, Dennis Raines, and Paul Reul.

“The English scientist and astronomer Sir John Herschel discovered this procedure in 1842. Though the process was developed by Herschel, he considered it as mainly a means of reproducing notes and diagrams, as in blueprints. It was Anna Atkins who brought this to photography. She created a limited series of cyanotype books that documented ferns and other plant life from her extensive seaweed collection. Atkins placed specimens directly onto coated paper, allowing the action of light to create a sillhouette effect. By using this photogram process, Anna Atkins is regarded as the first female photographer.” Wikipedia

I really need to make some headway on subset of my bucket list that covers printing. Cyanotype, featured in the four fabulous photos above, is one of the processes that I’d love to try. How can you not love something so very blue?

Photo by Angel Yanev.

Photo by Juli Werner.

Photos by The Gentleman Amateur and Ritchard Ton.

Photos by Bert Wootton, kozyndan, and nautical mile.

Photos by Brooke Schmidt.

While the ever fabulous people at the Impossible Project are making magic with their new film, I will confess to small moments of sorrowful joy when I see images like those above created from the finite pool of remaining Polaroid 600 film. I’ve a few packs tucked away and engage in quite a vigorous internal debate when heading out the door for a photo wander. When is “now”?

THE CAMERA

“EOS 5-D, 14 mm lens, 580 EX strobe. I prefer the 5-D over the 1-D for the full frame sensor since the relatively slow motor is very detrimental in my newspaper work. 3 fps vs. 8 results in far too many missed moments. But for something such as these it doesn’t matter.
I have all kinds of cameras, from a Kodak #2 Folding Autographic Brownie (circa 1916) to a 1950′s 4×5 Graflex Crown Graphic to my most recent love, an iPhone. I still shoot film because, well, I can, but digital is so convenient and that phone serves quite well as of late.”

THE PHOTOGRAPHS

“From a wonderful solo wander on our annual summer vacation to my wife’s home state of Michigan. I had two days to go to Detroit and Cleveland and did it all on back roads. I abhor interstate driving unless there’s a time constraint. I set out with the intent of making a set of scenes using a 14 mm lens to give myself a challenge and the set some coherence. One must be very deliberate about using that lens or the distortion is irksome, at least to me. All the photos employ a strobe in broad daylight too, a technique I use to add some snap. Under exposed ambient, over exposed strobage zoomed to 105 for a spot effect. Like anything, there’s a trade-off involved in using a strobe and having to shoot most everything at f/22 or so. But I was pleased with the results.”

THREE WORDS

“Make no apologies”

Photos by David McNamee.

I’d write that pinhole is my happy place, but you might get the wrong idea. Happy Sunday!

Photo by Jim Lucio.

Photo by Steven -l-l-l- Monteau.

“8 week exposure on the very top of a tower crane with one of my ‘Sunchaser’ pinhole solargraph camera.”