Last Few Days

Well I am done all my film development for the next few months, unless I shoot some new stuff with the 4x5. I expect to spend all my darkroom time working on printing photographs for next weeks theme judge at the club and for my group show in June. The June show takes precedence of course but I do want to print the 4x5 Khon Thai photos so I can see the final prints (make sure they match up to my minds eye view of the work) and get feedback.

Last night I worked in the darkroom for 8 hours or so, it was not really that productive a session but I did manage to print 2 negs (2 prints a piece). I worked on using multiple contrast filtration on the print (something relatively new to my printing style) and also did a lot more bleaching to bring out areas. I printed darker than normal and tried to bring out the shadows and highlights using bleach (W. Eugene Smith loved to work that way). I really want the June 3rd group show photographs to speak to the viewer. My goal is to improve the tonality the focus (message) and the detail of the prints, I am trying to make the prints sing.

Will try to go into the dark tomorrow afer working my 12 hour nightshift tonight and work on a new negative or possibly reprint some I did last night if I do not like the dried end product. I need to find a way to print daily. I have a beautiful darkroom, tons of negs and photo paper, just need to get my ass in there more often. The only way you become a master printer is from printing and I want to become a master printer, so print Gerry print!