Last night I went for a ride up Logan Canyon to make a few photographs and collect some plants for some Lumens. I left a little early in the afternoon, so I rode quite a ways further up the trail than I’d previously ridden, and saw some real beautiful scenery, and made several mental notes of places I need to return to to photograph.
I’ve passed one of the many dams on the Logan River on each ride (I think this particular dam is the Second Lower Dam…I can’t keep them all straight right now), and have wanted to photograph it but hadn’t until last night:
Tuesday morning I got a call from Craig Law (the head of the photography program here at Utah State), wherein he asked me if I would assist in teaching a group of Korean teenagers who are here for a brief study abroad program. I was more than happy to accept the offer.
The little crash course went four days: Tuesday through Friday (today), and it was a good experience for myself, and I’m sure it has been for the kids, who still have a few more weeks of sculpture/ceramics, I think graphic design, printmaking, etc… The whole program runs the whole gamut of the Visual Arts.
The first two days Craig and I spent time helping them create photograms and lumen prints, and the last two days were spent on computers printing out photographs they had made with their digital cameras. They all did really well, despite language barriers and never having considered photography as Art. They made some very interesting photograms and some gorgeous lumens (which were made on Agfa RC paper, which I had previously shunned, but after this week, I’ll be using more often…the colors were simply stunning).
Anyway, here are a few photos of the students, and their work:
Photograms and Lumen Prints Drying
Lumens Exposing
I even managed to make a few Lumens myself (these are just digital captures; as soon as I get access I’ll get them scanned and posted):
Craig Giving a Printing Demo
Students Making Prints
Last night I went for a ride up Logan Canyon. I had originally planned on only going to the Canyon Entrance Park to make a few photographs, but once I got there I decided to continue up into the canyon and collect some plants to do some Lumens.
A little ways up the trail I found some Thimble Berry plants and pulled over to snack on some of the berries, and ended up making this photograph:
While I was here I gathered a few Thimble Berry leaves, as well as a few twigs from the trees in the left side of the photograph. When I got home, I started exposures on a couple of the plants. I’m not sure how long I’ll let them go. They’re both plants I’ve never used before, and I can’t decide if I want to let mold grow, or fix them out sooner.
I went back tonight to photograph the tree that the Parks and Recreation department has been cutting down. It’s all but completely gone.
As I mentioned in the last post, I was going to try to make it to Pioneer Parkway again to photograph the continuation of the removal of a beautiful, giant tree. I went there and they’re making good progress (not that I’m happy to see such a gorgeous tree go).
Last night I rode my bike out to Cutler Marsh, west of town (a 17-18 mile round trip). The ride out there only took about half as long as I had anticipated, so I sat at the little picnic shelter there and watched and listened to all the birds flying about and singing. A few got pretty close and I had to take a couple photographs:
A couple (now correct me if I’m wrong Darren) of Barn Swallows have a nest in the roof of the shelter and got within eight feet or so.
Then this bird landed on the fence (can you tell what kind it is Darren? It’s not the best angle)
After I was done with the birds, I got a bit serious and started looking for photographs. I didn’t come back with a whole lot of anything useful, except it being a good research trip.
On my way back home, I decided to swing by Central Park again just for fun, and I’m glad I did.
I guess the damage to this tree was so great they have to take the whole tree out, or maybe if a limb from the back of the tree goes it could cause serious damage to the power plant behind it. I’m going to go check it out again today and see how much more of the tree they remove.
Today as I sat at Einstein Bagel Bros. enjoying my Dutch Apple bagel and listening to the latest Net@Night podcast, I heard the man sitting twenty feet away say something. I didn’t hear exactly what he said at first due to the traffic going by, and my attention was directed at what was being discussed in the podcast. I turned the volume down, not sure if he had actually spoken to me, and asked “what?” He repeated himself, but I still couldn’t understand what he said, and again asked “what?”
Now, when I am sitting, I often bounce my leg up and down. I don’t know why I do it, it’s just something I’ve done for as long as I can remember.
“Quit fidgeting!” was what the crotchety old man was saying. Puzzled, I asked him why, to which he replied: “Because you’re not entitled to monopolize the scenery!” Some scenery: a Smiths parking lot, a gas station and the traffic driving by on 400 North.
I was and still am completely befuddled by the whole incident, though it’s things like that in life that just make you laugh.
Tonight I hopped on my bike and rode to Central Park to make some photographs. The park was pretty packed, so none were made in Central Park, but I managed to find a few really good photographs in the adjacent Pioneer Parkway:
I was pretty impressed with this tree and the huge scar where a (I assume) very large limb once grew:
After Pioneer Parkway, I found another adjacent park (I couldn’t find a name for it, so I assume it’s part of Pioneer Parkway, but I’m most likely wrong):
Edit: I just discovered the name of this “park” today: Garff Wayside Gardens.
Here’s one more photograph that I made last night but didn’t post for whatever reason:
I went over to Willow Park tonight to photograph and came away with a few successes:
I also discovered a cool feature on my new camera: when shooting monochrome, the camera includes settings to simulate a red, blue, or green filter, as well as different intensities of sepia and cyanotype tints. I was pretty excited. Unfortunately the monochrome didn’t come through in the import to Aperture. I’ll be trying to fix that this week.