tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-311705092024-03-12T20:31:18.152-07:00DarkroomersJeremiah McNicholshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11586987877676673757noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31170509.post-83734558191195215122008-08-01T06:00:00.000-07:002008-08-01T06:00:00.436-07:00Let Them Eat Cake: Cesarean ArtI've been working for the past few years at finding a way to express my feelings about my daughter's birth via unplanned, emergency C-section. I went through many different experiments that just haven't worked and aren't worth showing or talking about. But then one night, I was watching <span style="font-style: italic;">Ace of Cakes</span> and Duff said this: <blockquote>"Making a cake for someone is a very intimate thing to do. You're taking their joy and making it into a tangible object."</blockquote>I scrambled to find a pen and paper to write it down. It just struck me... if you're taking joy and making into a tangible object, can't you take pain and do the same? The more I thought about it, the clearer it became. Commemorate the "birth day" with a cake. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Pain, if not expressed, is a kind of poison; better to get it out, to air it as one would a celebration. So the cake series began.<br /><br />The plans for the cakes I've created so far were days and weeks in the making, followed by dozens of hours making cakes from scratch from a yellow cake recipe I found in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Joy of Cooking</span>. I've spent even more hours icing them first with buttercream frosting, then kneading and rolling out and carefully smoothing fondant, purchased in 15-lb. tubs, over the tops.<br /><br />Many people have suggested that I simplify my process and decorate a styrofoam box or at least make the cakes from a mix. I feel the need to make them from scratch. Something about holding on to that womanly tradition of baking, of creating for the family, of putting love and time and effort into this cake for celebration. I mean, isn't that a major part of the Cesarean issue? <span style="font-style: italic;">There isn't time to do it naturally, it's too difficult to do it naturally, so let's cut corners, let's speed things up, let's make it from a box.</span> So I make them from scratch, carefully dividing the yolks from the whites, carefully separating the pain and disappointment and dishonesty of the process of that brought my daughter into the world from the beautiful person that came out of that experience.<br /><br />In the process, I have become as intimately involved with my cakes, and what they express, as I could ever hope to be, as a necessary part of my production process. I experimented with freezing the cakes, both in uniced and in fully decorated forms, to "batch" them for shooting sessions; learned how the studio lights turned their matte finish into a sweating surface that was warm to the touch in a matter of hours; how long they'd last before they decayed, like a mummifying body, gently caving in on themselves under a thick exterior. I tend to them, baby them, replicate and refine them in the hope that, in the end, the photographs of these cakes will speak for themselves, and that they will speak for me.Jennifer McNicholshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894919245900911534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31170509.post-24275893233380590262008-07-30T06:00:00.000-07:002008-07-30T06:00:01.672-07:00Ambrotype How-To: Converting a 4x5 Film BackI've been slowly gathering the supplies that I need to make ambrotypes. I have a nice little view camera but had to modify this 4x5 back to fit the glass plates. It's harder than you think.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirMmZFUe6hzpnFO1Qkf_r5aM3iv865XLqOqPI59JH7R12Fx3XckWhdnaXjtvsQtxEVDFuXPvvT0GhhAQNsjqqHnYTeCv1cLAyF53DdDCOh0qBPFnw2DGXLwOJV5ctsMxJ6MdOgQw/s1600-h/DSC04678.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirMmZFUe6hzpnFO1Qkf_r5aM3iv865XLqOqPI59JH7R12Fx3XckWhdnaXjtvsQtxEVDFuXPvvT0GhhAQNsjqqHnYTeCv1cLAyF53DdDCOh0qBPFnw2DGXLwOJV5ctsMxJ6MdOgQw/s400/DSC04678.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5225681070069928098" border="0" /></a>I pulled both dark slides out and then marked up lines for making a hole in the septum. I had to drill the holes on the corners there so I had a place to get the coping saw started. The middle hole was just a test hole to see how hard it was to drill.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg61e374jHqfR8u8DwAFesltgvFpFbsc7B9R2OCb-EybVURM6bQN8lmjvoR2LKKm5bQudVxEFMAN4r4LLOy0gu4vTmDAGvzg5sKt-tlr9UD1zc_wBfU5a_kJmn9eDOg7sGwiYKx6A/s1600-h/DSC04680.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg61e374jHqfR8u8DwAFesltgvFpFbsc7B9R2OCb-EybVURM6bQN8lmjvoR2LKKm5bQudVxEFMAN4r4LLOy0gu4vTmDAGvzg5sKt-tlr9UD1zc_wBfU5a_kJmn9eDOg7sGwiYKx6A/s400/DSC04680.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5225681075954841730" border="0" /></a>We used some clamps to hold it to a piece of wood to make the sawing easier. You can see that it isn't cut very straight. We used a file to smooth the metal edges.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEido2KSpRM1mU_3cYTAWWHv9euEkahk-4m_GqLHTOunGs7LHLyZcn4ewQgaEL5o79Ysx6TWL2ZmC9E7e8mnCAnt5Uf93z1rQqm38720YuHmOxKjrRvgJpif1LfsxuzhUf5xS0UowQ/s1600-h/DSC04681.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEido2KSpRM1mU_3cYTAWWHv9euEkahk-4m_GqLHTOunGs7LHLyZcn4ewQgaEL5o79Ysx6TWL2ZmC9E7e8mnCAnt5Uf93z1rQqm38720YuHmOxKjrRvgJpif1LfsxuzhUf5xS0UowQ/s400/DSC04681.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5225681075268936642" border="0" /></a>These holes are for the silver wire that will hold the glass plate in place. It was impossible to find sterling silver wire locally and I ended up with some super thin stuff that didn't work. I've got to order some thicker gauge wire to make my corners here.Jeremiah McNicholshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11586987877676673757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31170509.post-69775973644028495212008-07-23T05:00:00.000-07:002008-07-23T05:00:02.842-07:00My 4x5 view cameraPurchased on eBay for around $150. Now I'm looking (patiently) for an 8x10 at the right price.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj85h-mktFR5t7nQbz_80vstgTspV-DLl73HrtktNWdRh3AQXYx7wRblA-AVGKJzus5O_9alZrDzrh42K9F0jpi65lR6klnFGB3AUJQcIk1OE4hpqAQk_RqG_kiH0omR_zWMkWe5Q/s1600-h/2492252678_50b242cfa3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj85h-mktFR5t7nQbz_80vstgTspV-DLl73HrtktNWdRh3AQXYx7wRblA-AVGKJzus5O_9alZrDzrh42K9F0jpi65lR6klnFGB3AUJQcIk1OE4hpqAQk_RqG_kiH0omR_zWMkWe5Q/s400/2492252678_50b242cfa3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5200415633559260770" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUo2QucbOABnoBnuZ5Xu71tJ9TWKFGQR9XobJwEJcdnk91Kv5frzPyGfpmN5KuhfcoXwZOeP5CpPI_1fcV3CjHuibbKnVLGmUa0rgJ6HmHtleQHxjD2RZVLg4tg9HOkUb36HjsBQ/s1600-h/2492255140_85e793cd49.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUo2QucbOABnoBnuZ5Xu71tJ9TWKFGQR9XobJwEJcdnk91Kv5frzPyGfpmN5KuhfcoXwZOeP5CpPI_1fcV3CjHuibbKnVLGmUa0rgJ6HmHtleQHxjD2RZVLg4tg9HOkUb36HjsBQ/s400/2492255140_85e793cd49.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5200415642149195394" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUmdeNdRPLcmmecPjsO27pWWBtwXGJ3igFJE_fh6T7xVmvzI_IQ_Q8WDq_0rrmwUn3zF2w3P2H5UfHzv-EP9hgGWrYbeaVAY3bbqheYEW0-W2yoHQbLdGW1LG3vC69vHREyrENQw/s1600-h/2492256280_707ac04ede.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUmdeNdRPLcmmecPjsO27pWWBtwXGJ3igFJE_fh6T7xVmvzI_IQ_Q8WDq_0rrmwUn3zF2w3P2H5UfHzv-EP9hgGWrYbeaVAY3bbqheYEW0-W2yoHQbLdGW1LG3vC69vHREyrENQw/s400/2492256280_707ac04ede.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5200415642149195410" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj74nct8IewbFwt1rB9jWs_O_H_7NWFo7xDRMMJEWW0mLY54F1wGc6G_V-9kMtt3OjAEfCFKkTkMG9TX5AySZv0zRKxI8nCaE0Yko8QB0LtPuwVHrkUmjMnbx0okO47I2kSl7OcWQ/s1600-h/2492257592_f094c9817b.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj74nct8IewbFwt1rB9jWs_O_H_7NWFo7xDRMMJEWW0mLY54F1wGc6G_V-9kMtt3OjAEfCFKkTkMG9TX5AySZv0zRKxI8nCaE0Yko8QB0LtPuwVHrkUmjMnbx0okO47I2kSl7OcWQ/s400/2492257592_f094c9817b.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5200415646444162722" border="0" /></a>More on ambrotypes to come.<br /></div>Jeremiah McNicholshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11586987877676673757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31170509.post-12476484254544657162008-07-22T05:00:00.000-07:002008-07-21T20:50:41.526-07:00New Thoughts on Creative Space<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj74vmQfNCmaOqmkIwnRURcntgnUGl5AZNdVm24vlbUwy_fW15T0lOI92zYjYUeY3cNnDj_Ippj4rFO15TZu3ebGfoiBxi36rGjCNtU5EXUOhMhR92bDyZLju-gkoMY3rfa7SVNXQ/s1600-h/DSC04684.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj74vmQfNCmaOqmkIwnRURcntgnUGl5AZNdVm24vlbUwy_fW15T0lOI92zYjYUeY3cNnDj_Ippj4rFO15TZu3ebGfoiBxi36rGjCNtU5EXUOhMhR92bDyZLju-gkoMY3rfa7SVNXQ/s400/DSC04684.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5225680851054803586" border="0" /></a><br />I spent a recent weekend in Houston working on ambrotypes with <a href="http://licensedtopracticeart.blogspot.com/">friends </a>of <a href="http://www.kristypeet.com/">mine</a> and learned that my alma mater (the <a href="http://www.sfai.edu/">San Francisco Art Institute</a>) has all but shut down their color darkrooms. At Fotofest this year, I found out that the <a href="http://www.pcnw.org/index.html">Photographic Center Northwest</a> is planning on or has already shut down their color darkroom as well. I think there's still a place in NYC that I can print but the issue of having a color darkroom of my own is suddenly much more pressing.<br /><br />Time and again, people ask me why I don't just print digitally.... "it's so much easier," "you can't tell the difference," "you can scan your negatives and then print them digitally," "you wouldn't have to wait a year between printing sessions," etc. And I get it, I really do. It would be <span style="font-style: italic;">so much easier</span> for me to print digitally. I could ditch the Hasselblad and film all together, buy a digital camera and start zipping out prints. I wouldn't have to travel to print, I wouldn't have to spend hours away from my family, I wouldn't have to ship film back and forth for processing, and I wouldn't have to scan all my negatives in when I wanted to update my website.<br /><br />But for me, I would have lost so much of what I <span style="font-style: italic;">love </span>about photography (the feel of the weight of the Hasselblad in my hand, that satisfying shutter click, the anticipation of seeing the negative, the time I get to spend alone, in the dark, headphones on turning nothing into something beautiful) that it almost wouldn't be worth it to continue. Though I suppose, if I'm forced to, I may print digitally one day but for now, I'm headed in the opposite direction - the direction of view cameras and collodion and glass.<br /><br />My Houston collaborators took me to a fabulous little darkroom and I was reminded what exactly a darkroom is. It's small, it's gray, it's crowded, it's often jammed with beakers and trays and art and most of the time something is coming apart somewhere, but it feels like home. It made me stop and think about what it exactly I have been looking for in this color darkroom that I'm trying to build. For some reason, I've been trying to make it perfect - big enough to accommodate any potential future desires, roomy enough to not feel crowded and beautiful enough to be a part of my home. Really, I've never seen a darkroom like that and honestly, it's I'm not sure it actually exists. So I've revised my ambitions and I think that I can scale it down. I think I can jam stuff in corners and make my trays a little closer together and step around things and reach up high and occasionally find something coming apart somewhere - but at least I'll be printing.<br /><br />The plan is this:<br /><ul><li>Close off our carport and have that space be for 2 enlargers and a sink</li><li>Close off our porch and use that space for the processor and chemical storage</li></ul>Neither space is quite big enough to house 2 enlargers and a processor and with both spaces, it'll be a little roomy, although not big enough to add in other things, and I think it will work. It'll mean about five new walls, one door, some windows, two air conditioner units, some sort of ventilation and a lot of hard work. Curtains may actually offer an alternative to some interior walls. Regardless of the details, the point is, for the first time in a while I think this is doable - it's just a question of priorities.Jennifer McNicholshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894919245900911534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31170509.post-44579026103275596732008-05-13T21:06:00.000-07:002008-05-13T21:09:42.559-07:00R.I.P. Robert RauschenbergYou will be <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90411572">missed</a>.Jennifer McNicholshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894919245900911534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31170509.post-9486012409164776562008-05-08T16:00:00.000-07:002008-05-08T19:58:11.381-07:00The Status of Our DarkroomI've been avoiding writing this post since I got a comment from Nathan at the University of Washington a few days ago. I've made zero progress on my darkroom. My processor sits, still, taunting me on my porch. Rental darkrooms close their doors and further limit my options.<br /><br />I got discouraged when we sat down with my brother-in-law and his wife, both trained as architects, to figure out the estimated cost of building the darkroom. Jeremiah and I were under the misguided notion that we could do it for somewhere in the range of $20,000. Even with the cost of the building being only $9,000 our "real" estimates ended up in the $50,000 - $60,000 range. It just seems like an unreachable goal. There is no easy place on our house to turn into a darkroom - especially with a three-year-old who is already susceptible to asthma. So we are left with building a building.<br /><br />Since our last post (over a year and a half ago), I was also injured in an accident and have spent thousands of dollars on medical bills that I would have been able to save for the darkroom. We're still dealing with the effects of that accident (financially, physically, and emotionally) so progress has been minute.<br /><br />I do plan to build a color darkroom and I have created a newer, stricter budget to allow for greater savings to pour into this project. I have a greater sense of urgency now as I hear professionals proclaim the irrelevance of learning darkroom techniques.<br /><br />I am not sold on this digital revolution - and no, the irony of expressing this on a blog is not lost on me. I mourn the loss of Polariod. I mourn the loss of the latent image. I feel sad for those who will know photography as an image flashing on the screen on the back of an image and who will not discover the magic of the image slowly emerging from a canvas that was blank seconds before. I feel my grasp on analog photography grow tighter. I want my daughter to experience this wonder of creation, to experience that moment when an image - even a test strip - appears. Something from nothing. Something she created.<br /><br />And so for the time being, a name change is in order for this blog. "Darkroomers: Building An Analog Color Darkroom" will be just "Darkroomers." I'll update it with links I find interesting, news on the analog photographic world, thoughts about my work, and hopefully, progress on the building of my color darkroom. I hope you stick around for a while.Jennifer McNicholshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894919245900911534noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31170509.post-1159317278175485532006-09-26T17:28:00.000-07:002006-09-26T17:34:38.183-07:00Book Pinhole Camera<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sreiny/222954757/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/91/222954757_5e5380e8a5.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sreiny/222954757/">Book Camera / Back inside</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/sreiny/">Sreiny</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> A Flickr photoset detailing a great pinhole camera project.</p>Jeremiah McNicholshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11586987877676673757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31170509.post-1156304428879253982006-08-22T19:36:00.000-07:002006-08-22T20:40:28.936-07:00When we were considering our building type options, I gave away some contact information to steel building companies in order to get price quotes on metal buildings. The prices were a bit higher than what we'll get with a Tuffshed barn kit, and the overall value of a metal building is a bit lower in my book, so we didn't end up going that route. I still get the occasional email from some of these building companies offering me a building someone had cancelled the order on, which they have now been authorized to sell at a reduced price. I have always instinctively ignored such emails, but a few days ago got an intriguing one and called up. The email from the company said they had a 30x40x12' building they needed to unload and they'd sell it for the outstanding cost. Here is basically how the conversation went:<br /><br />Me: Hello, I'm calling about an email I received from Robert.<br /><br />Receptionist: Okay, hold on a minute.<br /><br />[A few minutes later.] Robert: Hi, how can I help you?<br /><br />Me: Hi, Robert. I heard about a building you had a customer cancel and were trying to unload. I was curious about it. It was 30x40x12'.<br /><br />Robert: Oh, okay, let me see. I know it was 30' long, but let's check that length. That building may have already sold, so hold on a minute while I look for the file. If it's still here I'll grab it for you.<br /><br />[Another minute later.] Robert: Okay, it hasn't sold yet. Let me tell you about this building. First of all, what are you building it for?<br /><br /> Me: A darkroom. For an artist.<br /><br />Robert: Ahh. Well this is a 30x38x12' building we contracted for from a Richard B. in Texas who was going to use it to restore antique cars. He ordered the building in our Sandstone Tan and he upgraded pretty much everything. All of the fittings have been upgraded to stainless steel, and the roof has been upgraded to a PBX - do you know what that is?<br /><br />Me: No.<br /><br />Robert: Well, it's a much better roof, which he bought a 25-year warranty on. He also asked for burnished brass door handles, a decorative weather vane, racing stripes, and a solid steel replacement door in case the original door is kicked down by drug lords in search of antique cars. But since he ordered the building he has acquired an additional parcel of land and decided he needs a bigger building, so he authorized us to sell this one for him to recover the balance due.<br /><br />Me: Oh, so he doesn't want to get his money back that he's already paid on it?<br /><br />Robert: No, no, we're making him a deal on his new building. And we said we'd help him sell this one to make his life easier.<br /><br />Me: Wow, okay. How much are you asking for it?<br /><br />Robert: Well, let's see. Where is that price? Let's see here. [Audible shuffling of papers.] I don't see it. [Yelling.] <span style="font-style: italic;">Where's that price in this file?</span> Oh, okay, I see it. Always in the back. Well, with all of the upgrades this guy had on this building, it came out to about $25,361, but he paid down $3,600 and has paid an additional $9,500 on it, so the balance due is only - well! It's only $12,261 - and that's <span style="font-style: italic;">delivered</span>. You'd just have to put $3,600 down on it and could pay the rest on delivery.<br /><br />Me: Wow, that's some discount.<br /><br />Robert: Well, does this sound like something you could go with?<br /><br />Me: I'll have to talk with my wife about it.<br /><br />Robert: Well, I ask because this building is set to - let's see, if it isn't purchased by Thursday, they'll break up the order. And that's a real pain in the ass for us, I can tell you. I hope I'm not on the crew that has to do that job!<br /><br />Me: Yeah, that sounds like a lot of work.<br /><br />Okay, I made up the bit about the brass and the racing stripes. But my point is, this is a scam. I suspected this the moment he told me about Richard B. and his antique car restoration, and of course had my suspicions confirmed when he mentioned that the building had basically had every upgrade possible. Since the company's website doesn't offer any prices up front - you have to call and speak to one of these guys to get any numbers - it seems clear to me how simple this scam is. Sure enough, when I did a quick search on Google I found that several smaller steel building suppliers advertise on their site's home page that they do not engage in such practices, a sure sign that this act is all too common. I also found a case where the State of Colorado had taken a steel building company, General Steel, to court for <a href="http://www.ago.state.co.us/press_detail.cfm?pressID=52">deceptive business practices</a> which included:<br /><ul> <li><div align="left">Misrepresentations that General Steel was a manufacturer;</div></li><li><div align="left">Misrepresentations that General Steel was selling existing buildings, when in fact it merely ordered buildings from suppliers only after consumers placed an order;</div></li><li><div align="left">Misleading use of the term “clearance buildings;”</div></li><li><div align="left">Falsely implying that its buildings were available at 50 percent off the normal price; </div></li><li><div align="left">Failing to disclose that the building being sold were simply “shells” and did not include doors, windows, or even opening for the placement of doors and windows;</div></li><li><div align="left">Misrepresentations regarding the non-refundable nature of the deposits; and</div></li><li><div align="left">Misrepresentations in the process of selling windows, doors and other components.</div></li> </ul> I have no idea how many of these claims would hold up against the major building company who contacted me, but I'm pretty sure proving the second and fourth ones would be an open-and-shut case. Given that the company is currently advertising a "Summer Clearance" sale, despite the fact that their buildings are created from raw materials that can be cut to any length and do not reflect any appreciable design changes from year to year, chances are the third one would be a safe bet as well, although that's common practice in many industries. Who knows what I'd learn about the latter issues if I had actually ordered a building from these people.Jeremiah McNicholshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11586987877676673757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31170509.post-1155270751421069462006-08-11T20:59:00.000-07:002006-08-12T13:58:47.076-07:00We spent a long time researching what type of building to use to create Jenni's darkroom. A long time. Too long, probably. Options ranged from enclosing our home's carport and screened porch and converting it for darkroom use, building an addition or separate building using standard wood-frame construction techniques, sinking a chunk of change on a down payment for a small commercial building, or we didn't know what else. We even considered shipping container building, which has had some interesting links quite recently. But commercial space, even in our small town, was too expensive, wood frame construction also a bit high, and the shipping container option would not have made for very navigable spaces, considering the constraints imposed by the various darkroom functions. We tend to research all major decisions pretty exhaustively, and the challenge is to maintain momentum despite the unknowns - to know when you have enough information to make a good decision, at which point new information offers diminishing returns.<br /><br />Here is what we were committed to having in the darkroom:<br /><ul> <li>A 26" Kreonite ProMate color processor (purchased used on eBay for $500, with additional parts - so far - coming to another $250)</li> <li>A water panel for temperature regulation and a reverse-osmosis filtration system for amending hard water</li> <li>A color enlarger for the main darkroom, plus two additional color darkrooms that could double as black-and-white darkrooms, all set up to print up to 20x24" prints</li> <li>A sink for black-and-white print processing (again, up to 20x24") and a print drying rack</li> <li>A color film processor</li> <li>Cabinet space</li> <li>A light area with a light table and 2x8' work table as well as some storage for prints</li> <li>An air compressor with hoses running to each enlarger</li> </ul><br />In the end, we were surprised to discover that the super-cheap barn kits from Tuffshed could be heavily modified, and their promise of a quick build (one day!) on an existing foundation was too good to ignore. The cost of the barn, including construction and a one-day build, will be about $9,000.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4656/2775/1600/DSCN1852.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4656/2775/320/DSCN1852.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />We will put in a foundation and get water and electricity to the site first, then have the Tuffshed contractor come and build a 16x24' shed on it. We will probably be building it close to the house, both for convenient access and to minimize the cost of the water and electrical lines.<br /><br />Fortunately, we have architects in the family - my brother, Josh McNichols, and his wife, Emily Hennigs. The two of them spent hours with our specifications - all of the components we needed to have in the darkroom, what their sizes were and what relationship each part had to the rest - and it was only through their help that we became convinced that this fairly small building could actually serve our needs. Below, you can see our plans for the building, which will feature a 26" color processor with a color enlarger and two additional color darkrooms which we will build on as an addition to the main space.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4656/2775/1600/side.0.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4656/2775/400/side.png" alt="" border="0" /></a>For one thing, the shed has an optional loft addition, but the resulting loft has very low ceilings - it's meant for storage, not for occupancy. We learned that we could pay a few hundred bucks more and get the walls raised from 8' to 10' tall, and decided that we'd build the loft ourselves so it didn't have to rest on the top of the wall, which will allow us to toss some of that extra space upstairs. Here's a view of the loft, which will also feature a writing nook for me, and space for photo, art, and writing reference books, as well as space for temporary access for materials needed for a current book project:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4656/2775/1600/loft.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4656/2775/320/loft.png" alt="" border="0" /></a>The desk overlooks the light area of the photo area, and the chairs and table offer an additional space for Jenni to show work to collectors.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4656/2775/1600/ground.0.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4656/2775/320/ground.0.png" alt="" border="0" /></a>At left is the planned layout of the main floor (click on the image for a larger version). The area at the top of the diagram is the dark area, with the 26" processor and room to swap it out for a larger one, as well as the sink for black-and-white work and some cabinets; the light area contains a wall-mounted light table, storage, and a work table; and we will add the two additional darkrooms to the side. The horizontal dotted line represents the overhang of the loft. The ground floor, including the two attached darkrooms, is about 410 square feet; the loft is, to be vague, about 175 square feet. (I'm eyeballing this, and will get the correct info from Josh.) That makes for about 600 square feet overall.<br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span>One of the hardest things for Jenni and I to figure out before we got the real architects involved was the issue of access to the upper level. Our original plans had secondary darkrooms or flat file storage upstairs, and we would have needed a pretty straightforward staircase to get up and down easily with large prints, which consumed an obscene amount of the interior space.<br /><br />We gradually worked our way to the idea that we would only be able to have a "nice ladder" going to the loft, and that the loft would be used for writing, books, and entertaining (nimble) clients; Josh and Emily suggested a "ship's ladder," which is a cross between a ladder and a staircase - at 60 degrees, it's pretty steep, and probably much like what you use to get below decks of a ship, but much more accessible than a ladder and much less space-hogging than a proper staircase.Jeremiah McNicholshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11586987877676673757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31170509.post-1155316666688912572006-08-11T12:14:00.000-07:002006-08-11T10:17:46.703-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4656/2775/1600/pinhole9.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4656/2775/320/pinhole9.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Make has a great <a href="http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/08/make_video_podcast_weekend_pro.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890">"weekend project"</a> video podcast on making a pinhole camera, setting up a simple black-and-white darkroom and making contact prints.Jeremiah McNicholshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11586987877676673757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31170509.post-1153882876680770992006-07-19T19:42:00.000-07:002006-08-04T16:36:00.636-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4656/2775/1600/trasheater2_b.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4656/2775/320/trasheater2_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />My wife Jennifer is a fine art photographer who works in chromagenic printing, which was the dominant form of color photography prior to recent advances in digital technology. The primary goal of chromagenic printing is to minimize one's exposure to toxic chemicals while producing images that are of a character quite different from that of digital photography. While many commercial and fine art photographers made the leap to digital and never looked back, Jennifer decided to take a different path, one that has defined her subsequent career and will continue to do so for the forseeable future. As a consequence of that conscious choice, she has found herself increasingly working as a preservationist and an advocate of the craft of photographic printing in a field that is undergoing a technological revolution. It has, so far, been an interesting place to be.<br /><br />Modern color darkrooms depend on expensive processors which contain the chemicals and limit photographers' exposure; combined with additional requirements of ventilation and temperature control, the constraints make establishing and running a color darkroom for medium- or large-scale printing far more expensive than a black-and-white darkroom that can be set up in an apartment bathroom. As a result, the artist's independence in producing color photography on the scale favored by most galleries is far more limited than in black-and-white work. A few highly successful color photographers have built their own darkrooms, but emerging and even mid-career photographers have relied on rental darkrooms. But as casual photographers have embraced the ease of use and versatility of digital photography, these businesses have struggled to adapt and many have converted entirely to digital labs.<br /><br />Since graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2001, Jennifer has located less than six color darkrooms available for rental in the United States, and has traveled to San Francisco and Seattle to print twice a year since moving to Texas in 2002. (In San Francisco, she prints at SFAI, which welcomes her as an alumnus; in Seattle, she prints at the Pacific Northwest Center for Photography, which awarded her one of the center's first printing scholarships in 2005.)<br /><br />Dependent on key manufacturers for her materials, she has watched the news as film companies have disbanded, specialty papers have ceased production, and photo industry leaders like Kodak ignored digital photography at their peril, then attempt dramatic corrections by abandoning many of their analog products altogether. It is a surreal experience, akin to a ceramicist following the news to learn when the last of the world's clay will be all used up.<br /><br />Our belief is that the decline of the traditional photographic industry will reach a plateau, that specialized uses for negative film, photographic paper, and analog cameras will survive the cataclysm, and that the art world will continue to recognize the medium's value, just as black-and-white photography survived the coming of high-quality color printing decades ago.<br /><br />We also believe, and are proof enough, that as the industry sheds its skin a historic window of opportunity has opened up for young photographers interested in preserving this method of printing, and that the world of analog photography will turn more or less upside down as the major players abandon the format. For those willing to accept the medium's new challenges - equipment maintenance in the face of diminishing outside expertise, the "antique" parts market that is sure to develop as more and more machines go out of commission, the increasing cost of film or paper or difficult decisions made in the face of a narrowing field of choices - much of the expensive infrastructure of the traditional darkroom is turning up on eBay auctions and reseller sites for a fraction of its original cost.<br /><br />With this in mind, we have decided to build an analog color darkroom. We have no experience in doing this, and thought it would be interesting to document our learning process. This blog will be that document.Jeremiah McNicholshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11586987877676673757noreply@blogger.com2