Blog Facelift

You'll notice I change the template on my blog somewhat often. I never really like the "stock" templates you're given by blogs, webpage developing software, etc... So I decided to try and make my own. Ok, I actually didn't make this exact one, I just...changed one that someone had already created. I had always wanted one of my OWN photographs at the top of the blog...now I have one.

Anyways, in my last post, I mentioned that I had gone down a dirt road and under the highway next to the Provo River. All this week I've been camping near there. It saves gas (it's only 20 minutes away from the job site instead of 50), and it get's me outside. So thursday I decided to take advantage of the situation and go photograph. Here's a (bad) photograph of the bridges of the highway that go over the Provo. I made a photograph with the 4x5, pretty much where Tex (that's what I've decided to name the Pathfinder) is, then hiked up a little bit to get a better angle with my crappy camera phone. At least it's something new, right?

....

I apologize (to anyone that happens to even look at this blog) for the lack of photography-relevant posts lately. And for the lack of any kind of posts at all, for that matter. I don't really have any kind of excuse, other than the fact that I've gotten blog-updating-lazy. Nothing really exciting has happened since the purchase of my Pathfinder. Except for me finding dirt roads all over the place north of Heber on the way to Park City. One of them takes you down off the highway (Highway 40, FYI) and parallels the Provo River and below the bridges of the highway that spans the river. I went exploring Monday, and ended up going down that road. I'm kind of certain that anyone who isn't Fish and Game or BLM isn't supposed to go there after looking/researching the area a bit more--it's all part of the Provo River Restoration Project. Despite the sentance in one of the posts about the Pathfinder, about me being an environment destroying SUV owner, after I realized just where I was, I got out of there. But I did manage to make a photograph of the bridges. I'm excited to see how it turns out...Just gotta get another batch of negatives developed...Ughh. I need a DLR.

Anyway, here a few kind of old, and really poor pictures I snapped with my camera phone a few weeks ago bouldering in Rock Canyon. Enjoy, or...whatever.

Nissan Pathfinder part 2

I have officially joined the ranks of the environment-destroying SUV owners.
I got the Pathfinder last nite, and I couldn't be happier. It drives like a dream, and it'll be excellent when the snow hits, which is soon...like, tomorrow, soon. We got a little of the white stuff today, but only for about five minutes.

Nissan Pathfinder

I went out car shopping today and found a 98 Pathfinder. All the financing stuff should be finished on Monday or Tuesday. I'm real excited to get it. Going through Provo Canyon and up to Park City won't be so bad this winter.
Winter is pretty well on it's way, I think. All the mountains here got a pretty good dusting last night. I think Park City is high enough that it saw some of the dust as well, which might be bad news for us framers. We're about done with the roof of the house we're working on, and then we get to finish framing up the interior walls in the upstairs and finish out the basement, and finish the porch and deck (which are quite large). And then we have another house to start that will be ready in 2 or so weeks. This new company is really good. It has been a good switch. Except for the coming winter. We could do without the several feet of snow that will be on the ground soon.

The Blog Stays

After playing around on my vox blog, I've decided to keep this one as my photography blog. I'll use the vox one for miscelaneous stuff...probably like a journal. I do have a bunch of my photographs that were on my old website on the vox blog though.

Website update: still coming along slowly.

New Domain

So a while back, I said I was redesigning my website. It's still in progress, but things are coming together. For some reason I can't renew the domain I had (andrewduncanphoto.net), so the new website will have a new address www.20photographs.com (and .net, .info, and .biz...GoDaddy had a good deal for all four domains). There is a wierd reason why I chose that name. All the other domains I could think of were taken, (this is something occuring across all types of websites, not only photography web sites/galleries) so I started thinking of other names with numbers in the address, such as 4x5photography, or 5x7photography (the two formats I work in), but scratched that idea, because I plan on getting a Nikon D200 as soon as I can afford it, and 4x5 and 5x7 will no longer be my main method of original image capture. Wednesday at work, I was toying with these new URLs, and 20photographs.com popped in my head, and kept popping up. So I started thinking if I should limit each gallery/project to 20photographs, but scratched that idea, but I still liked how 20photographs sounded, so I decided to go with it. Pretty soon the site will be up.
Oh, and I've requested an invite to Vox, a blogging service still in beta testing. I heard the owner of the company on Inside the Net, and it sounded like a very powerful service. Hopefully I get the invite. If I do, my blog will be changing locations as well. I'll keep you all posted.




Edit: I got my invite to Vox this morning (much sooner than expected). My new blog address photographicdepartures.vox.com.

New Job

So I start a new job on Monday. I'll still be framing, but I'll be building log cabins up in Park City for Custom Scandinavian. I can't wait. It'll be fun to learn some new skills, but it'll be an awefull commute. Oh well. Oh, and I got a new hammer. My old one started getting a crack in the handle, so I decided to replace it now.

Anyways, like Jon, I had neglected my camera for too long. WAY too long. This morning I was out running errands and drove by the BYU campus and there was a little "park" area that looked excellent, and decided to come back in the evening when the light was nice. So I loaded up my film holders and headed out. It turned out to be quite a nice little "park." Although with all the wedding bridal shoots in this one "park," I actually started to gag. Just kidding, but seriously, it was redicolous. Anyways, on with the photography stuff....I think I came away with some nice images. I almost didn't make one or two of the photographs because I wasn't too sure about them, but decided to make the photograph anyway. If they don't turn out well, no big deal. I won't have lost much. Well, anything at all really. All in all, it was a pretty satisfying date, er, evening with my camera. Now I just gotta work on gettin my negatives developed and scanned.

Digital vs. Darkroom?

Whoever says printing digitally is easier than the darkroom is full of crap. Easier to create multiple copies of the same image, yes. But easier to come up with a finely crafted print? Not really. I've been toying with some images lately and the first print is not always what I expect and/or want. True, working on the computer is easier to see the changes immediately (i.e. during burning and dodging), but it's still taken me some hard work, precious time, and precious money in paper getting that final print. One goes through the same process of making a print, examining it, finding what needs to be lighter, what needs to be darker, then going back and starting over and fixing what needs to be fixed. After up to, I don't know, 5 tries, sometimes, I finally get a print I'm satisfied with. Who knows, maybe with a quality monitor calibrated correctly, I might get better, more consistent results, but maybe working this way makes me feel a little like I'm back in the darkroom (which I miss terribly).

New negatives soon!

I got all the rest of my chemicals down here last weekend, so I'll be able to start developing all the many many negatives I have. Now I need a way to get the scanned in...I'm thinking of calling up the photo departments at BYU or UVSC and seeing if I can use their scanner...if they have one. So hopefully within a week or two I should have BRAND NEW photos up here!

New Apartment

So I'm in my new apartment. I got moved in a week ago, and I'm "borrowing" someone's wireless. (shh...don't tell). I'll have my own in a week though. I'm liking it so far...except for one thing: the walls are completely bare. All of my frames are still up in Idaho. And the way things are going, I won't be able to go back up to Idaho for 3-4 weeks. I may just go buy one or two frames to get something up. I really want to have my photos all over my walls here. Other than all that, things are still pretty much the same: work in the day, do whatever in the evening. Once I get all my developing trays down here I'm going to get to work with getting negatives developed. I mentioned in my last post that I have a lot of them. I still haven't figured out how I'm going to solve thescanner situation; it's going to be a while before I can afford my own, unless I want to max out a credit card. Maybe after I get my skill saw and nail gun paid off I'll do it...we'll see.

Here are a few more new/old photographs:

I printed this off, but I'm still not sure if I like it. The tree right in front looked better on the ground glass than I thought it would...I'm torn. By the way, that one is in Discovery Park in Seattle.
This next one is really old; I took it on the last trip Darren, Jon, and I took to the City of Rocks. I don't think many people have seen it, but I like it, especially after adjusting the contrast and levels. I almost think I could go a bit further though.

Another Redone Photograph

Here's another photograph that I refixed and printed on my R2400. The first posted version of the photograph can be found here.

I really wish you all could see the print. It looks so much better on paper than on a computer screen. The grays that I'm getting from this new printer are so rich and beautiful. It never ceases to amaze me with each print I make.

Finally! A photograph!

So, a few weeks ago I said I had a few retouched photographs from after I got my printer, and that I would post a few. Well, I have one to put up today. It's one of my favorites ever (you can see the original in the August 2005 archives).


And, in other news of goings on in my boring life, I got my own apartment in downtown Orem, and I move in Tuesday. It's gonna be a huge burden for 2-4 weeks (and I got 2 speeding tickets in two weeks to add to the burden) so I won't have internet for a while--not that I posted that much anyways. But I also got a $2/hr raise at work that takes effect this pay period. So in a few weeks I should be back on my feet and able to post more photos.
I'm looking forward to this new apartment...I'll be able to use the bathroom there for a darkroom and finally get my negatives developed (I have many that are a year old). The next step is getting my own scanner.

Photography Unrelated

I went home this weekend just for fun...to hang out with my family and see my mom for Mother's Day. My dad showed me a really cool internet radio website. Its called Pandora. If anyone who reads this (all, what, 3 or 4 of you) is in to music, I strongly suggest you check this site out. It lets you create custom radio stations. For example, I searched for Wilco, and it searched and found Wilco and other artists similar to them and plays the songs. It's really a sweet site.

Sorry, still no pics....I've made some corrections to some previously posted photos and printed them out on the 2400, and the prints are gorgeous--for a first print. There are a few tweaks I need to do to really make the prints the best they can be. I just gotta get them resized and ported to the web and get them posted here.

Nothing new...'nuf said

Website Makeover

So, my website has been down for almost a month now, and due to the purchase of the printer and a car insurance payment, it's gonna have to wait another two weeks before I can get it back up. So I've decided to revamp it...I would like to do a flash site, but I know nothing of flash. I've been looking for some tutorials, but so far nothing decent has turned up, except for Lynda.com, but I have to pay for those, but, money's tight for now. Oh well, I'll think of something.

It's Mine!

I just got the R2400 today, and just ran off my first print and it is gorgeous. Okay, it's my second print--I forgot to check a certain setting on the first one, and even it turned out beautifully. Anyways, I'm soooooo excited to be able to output my photographs again...it's been a long and painful year. I'm hoping that within a month or so to get a good scanner to import new images and get those printed.

Something must be wrong

Two posts in two days? Could this be a come-back? We'll just have to wait and see.
After some snooping around the internet, I've decided to just get an Epson 2200. Evidently it's still better than the R1800. I'm not sure how it compares to the R2400, but that ones out of my budget anyways. I'm pretty excited for it...it's been WAY too long since I've printed anything, in the wet or digital darkroom. And hopefully Adobe will have the beta version of Lightroom available for Windows soon so i can play around with it. Looks a lot like Apple's Aperture.

Back, perhaps? It's still in the air

Well, I figured I'd post something quick after....3 months or so?
Works kept me INSANELY busy....The framing buisiness is much more fast paced here in Utah. The past 2 months I've been putting in 10 hour days minimum. This last week and a half have all been 13 to 14 hour days...From sun up to sun down. I don't know what I'm still doing up.
Anyways, my tax returns should come in next week, and I will probably buy and Epson R1800...I need something to output images with and a darkroom just isn't a viable option right now. For several reasons.
Well, off to bed...I hope I can update this more often now...I'm feeling a bit more motivated to do it lately.

PS... I know my website is up for renewal....just been really lazy, and can't remember my godaddy stuff. It'll be up soon tho--I hope.

Happy New Year!

Happy new year, those of you occaisionally glance at my poorly updated glimps into my life.
Today I was surfing around the internet for photographers, and found someone doing carbons on glass. I thought it was pretty cool, and maybe something i may try my hand at someday. First I gotta get carbons on paper dialed in better though.