I've been trying to determine which print sizes I prefer. In the darkroom I usually print 8×10, mostly because it's the largest convenient size. Lately I've been making quite a few 5×7 prints and I'm finding I prefer them to the 8x10s. An 8×10 photo is just a little too big to hold, and just a little too small to hang. <p> I've also made a few 13&#215;19&#8243; digital prints and it made me realize that for hanging, bigger is better.

My iMac at home has been acting up. After confirming at the Apple store that it was not a hardware issue, I decided to wipe and rebuild. This is something I do occasionally, and I hate myself for it every time. I do it anyway. One of the benefits of a clean start is that I get to revisit the list of apps I consider essential. The list of apps I use changes over time as I try new things but the first things I install is a good way to determine what I find necessary at the moment.

Too often lately I read about the demise of yet another film. Prices keep going up as availability goes down. In order to help stave off any imminent film shortages, I've begun stocking up on my favorite emulsions.  <p> I'm not in a hurry, since I think we've got a few years yet before things really start slimming down, but I do want to start planning.

I’m wrestling with an old shirt in the wind as a focusing cloth while using the loupe to view the ground glass and trying not to drop the loupe when I discover I left the film holders in the bag so I stuff the loupe uncomfortably into my pocket, wipe the sweat from my eye and almost choke myself when the strap from my meter catches the tripod as I reach for the holders and now the t-shirt has blown away and so on oops I forgot to pull the dark slide.

As a fan of Neil Gaimann I was excited to read his new book, “The Ocean at the End of the Lane.” I’m glad I did. There was much to like and I enjoyed it while it lasted. The problem I had was that, once finished, I wasn’t sure what the book was for. It didn’t really add up for me. I’d still recommend it, though.

I sometimes forget that Tinderbox can do everything. I was shuffling some things around here today and that means repeatedly needing to push the changes out to the server. This normally consists of exporting the HTML out of Tinderbox and switching to Terminal to run rsync. I have a tiny shell script called “pushblog” which runs rsync with all of the correct switches, etc. It dawned on my that I could run the pushblog script directly using Tinderbox’s “runCommand()”.

Ron Baty (2013). Crown Graphic. Self-processed. It’s nice that my family puts up with my requests for them to model all the time. After making a number of successful black and white photos using the new Crown Graphic I finally had the nerve to try some color. The above image of my dad was shot on Kodak Portra 400 and processed in the JOBO using the JOBO C-41 Press Kit and scanned with the Epson V750 and SilverFast.

I took this candid recently and it's turning out to be a favorite from this year. I like that it's simple and yet there's a lot going on. If Steve and Bryan were an indie band I think this would make a great album/tour photo. They're not, but still.

I’m still trying to get a handle on making prints in the darkroom. It’s not easy. Last night I tried printing this image of a dandelion. It was shot using the Hasselblad 500C/M, 80mm lens with an extension tube, handheld in a slight breeze. By some miracle the image was focused precisely a the edge of the flower and quite sharp. The problem was that it was underexposed a little. This meant that I had to crank up the contrast filter to get a good black, but that also muddied up the flower.

I always come back to Stephen King whenever I just feel like reading a good story, well-told. Joyland did not disappoint. Joyland is a simple coming-of-age story taking place in and around an aging amusement park. There’s murder, mystery, love, ghosts and Speed Graphic cameras. That’s everything, right?

Added a new blog for random notes, mostly as an excuse to try blogging with fargo.io. The new blog is at notes.baty.net. It’s not really a blog as much as a place to keep random thing that pop into my head during the day. Things either too long or too snarky or too stupid for Twitter. UPDATE: See Changes at Small Picture.

My dad is 72 years old and I'm almost sure his doctor would advise against this. To his credit, he did teach ladder handling at the phone company part time after retiring. Plus, he's properly using a safety belt. But still. <div> </div></p> </div></p> </div> <div> <div> <a data-title="" data-description="" href="/img/imported/DSCF1371.