09 29 09 Mixed Results

The 35mm conversions from digital, even the black and white ones mounted in glass look spectacular! The 4x5 black and white for the lantern projector was an expensive bust. The image has not contrast and the black areas are grey and watery.

I contacted Dave Wood at dr5.com today. They specialize in direct positives for black and white. I think they will do what I need and it's not hugely pricey-$27 an image to convert from a digital file and reverse process to archival standards. I should have another test image back in a few days.

We had an interesting conversation about the toxicity of photo chemistry as well. He's a chemist so he's probably not as much of a nut about this stuff as I am, but he seems to feel that conventional analog photography has less of an environmental impact than all the heavy metals and pigment inks that will make their way into the landfill because of digital photography. He may be right. His point was even dichromates can and are neutralized before being put into the sewer system and that photographic chemicals when pre-treated pose virtually no environmental hazard if they go through conventional municipal sewage treatment.

09 22 09 First Digital Lantern Slide

I'm doing a Pecha-Kucha style presentation at First Person Arts on Oct. 14th. I'm going to show mostly 35mm slides mounted in glass, but I am also unveiling Boris with a slide or two.

I just sent off the first image to have it converted to a real silver (archival) black and white negative on polyester stock. The background for the composite was taken with an 8mp camera, so I had to interpolate the image upward. I did this by increments of 5%, even more slowly than the 10% that is often recommended. It looked great. So, now we wait and see. I reversed the image black to white, so when it is shot, it will develop as a positive! These conversions are fairly pricey, $20 a pop, but it obviates the need for additional optical conversions as well as a printer, copy lens, etc.

Boris is getting his finishing touches Oct 4, which consist primarily of a cruelty-free faux alligator covering on the case and the necessary handles and latches to carry the projector when it's in its custom-made case/mount. The whole projector with case weighs about twenty pounds. The projector is also getting a dimmer in case the image is actually TOO bright for the auditorium or if the slide is light, I can crank it down.

09 15 09

I met with Tom Carroll at the Pemberton Street studio on the 9th and spend about an hour and a half discussing ways I might approach the project and get started. He is interested in possibly exploring pinhole photography and this may get integrated into the project. We are going to have our first foray into the neighborhood on the 29th, meanwhile, I will continue to research.

We identified the big issue as how to connect the photographic end to the individuals and the community as a whole.

I was in Pittsburgh this last weekend and got trained on Gigapan, a new technology that can shoot extremely high resolution panoramas by stitching together smaller images. This may end up as part of the project as I'm thinking about juxtaposing the pinhole images against Gigapan images. They would look amazing as lantern slides.

09 05 09

Contacted Tom Carroll in an email discussing the issues I see as unique to the project I'm doing.

We have agreed to meet on Sept. 9.