Salt Printing Again

I am preparing for my winter ‘studio’ months….a time where I find I concentrate more on printing, experimentation, zine creation etc…. The summers and shoulder seasons are for ‘filming’….. So my trek back to my Tucson studio allows me to retool and rethink and of course to experiment.

To my Salt Printing process….. My studio has been transformed into a salt printing studio. It is not total ‘blackout’ so I can’t have an enlarger unless I deaden the light, but I did create my own UV light box which I have taken copious notes on, as well as the process…..if you read my page entitled Salt Printing.

This year I am experimenting with different forms of paper and I think overall paper size as well. I participated in a photography festival selling my zines and books in Philadelphia a few months ago and while there I talked to a young lady from Ithaca, New York (Christine Elfman) who was showing off some of her salt prints. I want to shift some of my future zines into that direction as I have pondered over it the past year or two but haven’t made the shift to actually do so. But her influence has me headed now.

So….paper….paper…which paper? I have used various papers from the ‘cheapo” from Walmart to Arches, to Fabriano, to Strathmore etc… Both Hot and Cold as well as homemade watercolor paper from Mexico. To each, well….to their own.

This year I am branching out the experimentation process hoping to really find one that just ‘hits me’ …although I am almost convinced the process of salt printing is so convoluted with multiple variables that it is pretty difficult for me to say that ‘it is the paper’ man….. No, it is all the other things!

But this year….two new papers. First one up is Hahnemuhle Hot Press, 100% cotton and acid free. I have a feeling it is going to come close to Arches but hey, that is okay….I love Arches and would use it daily but it does get expensive, especially when experimenting. But a professional paper and frankly, I am not saving any $’s over Arches!!!!

As stated…it is hot press so I am know I will get some texture. Perfect…. I want that and feel the textured nature of hot press sets it apart from just a regular photograph, let alone the salt printing ‘look and process’.

The second paper I am trying is printing paper and not water color paper. This will be Lenox cotton printing paper. The texture won’t be as fine since it is printing paper so that has me thinking just a bit. But if I look to soften up some of my prints and perhaps shift from a 6x9” size to a more square 5”x5” size, this paper should be just fine. It is worth a try as without experimentation; well….is there any real growth?

As a backup…and as long as I am in the spending/purchasing mode, I will most likely order some Revere 320 gsm platinum paper which again, is a high quality paper but not hot press, so more a smoother texture as in the Lenox. I believe my first try will be with the hot press Hahnemuhle.

Will see….more to purchase though as I need some more Pictorico and I see it is not in stock in all places I have checked. This means purchasing more in ‘bulk’ and working at cutting to fit. It does come out cheaper that way but I worry with this product; will it curl up on me? Not sure. Many rolled bulk tends to curl.

Either way…I just continue to experiment and grow. I envision that next year I will have my first ‘salt printing’ zine to show / sell. That is my goal. While I prefer to work within a thematic approach, I have a feeling that this first salt zine will not evolve around any one theme, rather….a printing approach.

So…what are your goals? What are you looking forward to do? We all need that, right?

Zine Platforms

I have been into ZINES for years…..and have not really struggled but surely had my eyes open to new ways to approach a ZINE in terms of pre-production. Pre-production is what many are not even aware of regarding a ZINE.

Yes, pre-production does involve taking images and the process, be it film or digital…. One can’t do photo zine without photos. But let’s say you have your theme or project and your images are in your files, or negatives are ready to scan. How about transferring that to a physical Zine?

This is where some pre-production once more occurs. Two parts to this process. First is the laying out of your photos as in some sort of contact sheet. In the old days of film, we would always create a contact sheet of our roll of film. Looking at this contact sheet we could determine what was good enough to be printed. Printing in the old days and viewing was a long (time wise) and a relatively expensive process with chemicals and paper etc, so very few negatives on any given roll was actually printed. Now, whether digital or film (I scan my negatives), I come up with some sort of digital file. In order to actually view my images on some broad spectrum, I need to create a contact sheet with all of my images that I ‘want’ or ‘perhaps want’ to use in an upcoming zine.

Below….is my most recent contact sheet I am using (not done with this zine pre-preduction phase). As you can see, this contact sheet has icons of multiple images. This allows me to quickly view my potential images to use. If I don’t do this, I can have a hundred ‘best’ photos from any given project all strewn within various folders and files on my computer. In essence, I wouldn’t know where to begin as I moved forward. Hence, this contact sheet.

Also take note that within or next to each image I have various aspects written in….Sometimes I use this data in my zine and other times not. But data such as F stop, ISO, shutter and focal length. As I put together my photo zine, I do so by connecting images that flow. This ‘flow’ might be subject matter, sequencing of when images taken, groupings or solo shots….whether the image is mostly black, or white or in between. All of this makes a difference in putting together the right visual appeal of a zine.

It isn’t about just tossing images in…. It isn’t about placing in sequential order of when I took the image. It is just….what makes sense to create that all important visual appeal. Now in this project, I have hundreds of photos, so after scanning (if film) or downloading….I had to open up each image to select what I thought matched my criteria. My criteria was spoken to in the previous blog, so return to my blogs and read that one.

Once I have my contact sheet printed out, and I might add data next to each image….I then have to decide….what is my first photo? Make sure you start off on the right foot. Capture your audience with the first few photos. But don’t just load up the front half of your zine with the good photos and then run dry as you get to the end. Carefully and craftily you have to spread your “WOW” photos throughout. Thus, this is where the contact sheet comes into play.

Now….okay….I am ready to go, right? Well….not quite. Have you decided on what software to use to put together your zine? You need something as you can’t just send your images to the publisher (online or local) without them knowing the direction you are taking. Thus, software allows you to piece together your photos, one by one….. place in text or any little drawn on images, or arrows or whatever…..Remember you are creating a book /zine…. so take the time in this creation process and make it stand out.

There are several software programs out there….. For instance for years I used PAGES which is free on my IMAC. While I got used to this software, it had its limitations and it was frustrating to move back and forth between pages, grouping and regrouping images and text….having things disappear on me etc…

So…I went looking on line….. I won’t provide you with a listing of software but will tell you I settled on Affinity Publisher. It was a one time $69 US dollar fee and not a monthly fee. I hate monthly fees. So for $69 I get my registration number which I can transfer to multiple computers so my IMAC is Arizona has it installed as does my IMAC in Philadelphia, as does my laptop. COOL! ….

I like Affinity for several reasons. First the $69 is cheap. Second….this is more user friendly in terms of setting up pages and moving pages around. Third, it has a ‘master page’ or pages, where I can create my own template to use for the entire project instead of inventing the wheel each page. Fourth, I can turn and twist images and text so it isn’t plain and dry and just straight on. I am creating something I want people to view, so I want to be ‘funky’ where funk is needed. Fifth….lots of room to grow. Tons of options, tons of things I have no idea exist in this software but room to grow. For instance, I can have backgrounds that are not one solid color but have gradients where colors meet, or blend or fade etc… That all offers a chance to enhance my final product.

So Affinity Publisher….. And, one of my goals is to get others on board with ZINES and teach this. So now I have a teachable software that is available for both PC’s and MACs and is relatively cheap,

Stay tuned…. my Melbourne Series is being worked on as we speak…..

Projects

Hey dude….too many photos… and I shoot film!!! Imagine if I shot digital and came back from a vacation with a thousand downloads. Dah; then what? Then I would have to select ‘A’ photo from essentially 20 identical posed shots which occurred during the same scene/photo —all the time looking for the perfect one.

Lucky I shoot film, eh? Yet admittedly, even shooting film rends me with multiple boxes of stored negatives not to mention how many I have scanned to a digital file. But is it really the numbers game; or hold up, back up….return to the point where you haven’t even taken a shot. Ask yourself….what am I shooting? And when you do that, you find the real issue at hand.

“What am I taking photo’s of and why?” For years my idea of street photography was what many people did, done, continue to do….shoot anything that moves or looks cool, or shoot the bum on the street or totally mindless ‘tourist shots’ that belong on postcards, or look for insane anal features such as capturing nosehairs or butt cracks. Whoa Dude…. I soon bored of that. The same ole crap that gets posted to Photo websites as ‘art’ becomes mindless dribble and even then, then what? Tons of photographs/negatives (since I shoot film) and again, then what?

So listen man…take some advice from an old fart photographer….I ‘Project-out’ my photo-ops. IE: as a typical photo-shoot goes: I load my film, grab my lens and lock the door knowing that I walk out that same door with a true purpose in mind as I walk the streets. Mentally I have zoned in on a certain topic and know what to look for. I have peripheral mental vision as opposed to aimlessly wandering and shooting and coming home with “tourist / postcard?” photographs.

If you look at my photos in the navigation section of my site, you will see that some of my broad topics include a ‘Zine Option Available’. Those are the projects that I have turned into projects. You will also note that I have many other photographs but they are my aimless ones, although categorized. When I want to project them out, I will re-visit those photographs and like a musician creating a song, I will begin to orchestrate my project based photo theme. What do I have, what do I need….. You get it. I orchestrate it. I find what works, get a feel of where I want to be….and go out shooting with that in mind.

Try it….you will begin to find more meaning in your photographs, more purpose. Don’t become The Dude as in the Big Lebowski. Be a photographer with purpose…No aimless wandering…no Tourist Postcard photographs.

Shoot with a Purpose...

I have evolved as a photographer….. and I like that. As a former educator, this shows me that I continue to be a life-long learner…. I evolve, adapt and adopt….

I won’t get into the ‘evolution itself’…as why bore you? But I will state my intent now…. While I still shoot street and still shoot Black and White and still shoot Analog, my evolution has taken me beyond from just shooting street photos. I now shoot with a purpose, a social documentary one.

For instance…… I have a ZINE out entitled “No Eye’s Upon Me’….where I sat on the streets of Philadelphia like a homeless person and shot from the pavement/cement….with my butt sitting on the sidewalk and my eyes looking “UP”… I wanted to take photo’s from that angle and document what ‘that person’ viewed.

I did it…. I took my camera out and knew that no one would really look at me (which they didn’t do) so my camera was not a problem. I shot…. I framed and shot by guess. I succeeded in gathering images of people staring away, busy on their phones…looking up, down…across….over, under…anyway but ‘at me’…. You can purchase a copy of my Zine for $10….just email me at lehmannmath@yahoo.com

Other ZINES to Purchase:

Urban Life: Philadelphia Street Photography Series 1
Off Season: Life on the New Jersey Coast in the off season
Caressing Light: Shots of light ‘borrowed’ as it caresses off scenes/people.

Well, that is just one of my ‘purposes’ and I have more. But the point I am making is to challenge yourself and go beyond a postcard-like shot. Go beyond returning home with your digital camera and having a 1,000 images to sift thru. What are you going to do with them all anyhow?

Find a purpose…..stick with it and shoot it. Go out with that purpose in mind and let your eyes wander the streets for that image that relates to your purpose. Be selective…. Shoot with style and art. Be creative. Evolve as a photographer.