MF #6: Solar Pigeons

The last couple of weeks have been interesting. Shiff taught us a new darkroom technique called solarization. Basically, while a print is developing, you flash it with a bright light so that it all the whites are replaced by gray blobs. This is called the Sabatier Effect, and it's way good. Above is a solarized version of a photo of a group of pigeons hiding behind some kind of bush or something. It's really dark because this I actually flashed this print for twice the normal amount of time so that I could use it as a paper negative for the print below. You can still see a little bit of blobbiness, but not as much as you normally would.


This is a reversal of the solarization. When you reverse a solarization, it creates an extremely dramatic, almost pure black-and-white effect. Shiff says that this one is among the best she has ever seen, which is a little flattering.

This is a reversal of the first reversal. It eliminates even more gray, leaving a print that basically looks like a black-and-white pen-and-ink. This one looks a lot cooler in person than it does online, trust me. Shiff said this one was pushing it a little, but I still think it's awesome.

f-5.6, 1/125 sec

MF #6: Monkey Love

Okay, let me start off by saying that these are baboons, not monkeys. Let me also say that I do know the difference between a baboon and a monkey. That said, the name just fit.

I really enjoyed shooting the Animals roll, more than any other roll I've shot so far. About a month ago, I drove down to Phoenix and spent a couple of days at the Phoenix Zoo. I got a ton of really good photos, although only a few actually came out as I had planned (one photo was a group of giraffes in a perfect line that were supposed to take up most of the space in the shot but ended up microscopic).

I took this photo on Day 2, right after the baboons' feeding time that morning. I saw these two sitting next to each other quite lovingly and thought, "Eh, V-Day's coming up, why not?" It ended up becoming one of my best photos yet.

f-8, 1/60 sec