Cross process- reverse lens?

Okay, this was a little experiment. I bought a 1950 Kodak Brownie Hawkeye on eBay and reversed the lens in the camera. (took it apart and put the lens in backwards) It makes the lens sort of a closeup lens and soft on the edges. (a brownie’s focus is normally fixed at infinity) Then I cross processed the film. Taking slide film (E-6) and processing it in color negative (C-41) chemistry. Intensionally processing the film in the wrong chemistry.

To put it simply, it’s sort of like a real life Instagram filter from back in the days when a phone was only used to call someone.

If nothing else this was a fun little exercise.

And the significance of using a 1950 Kodak Brownie Hawkeye? it was the camera I took my first roll of film at age 10.  More about that on this blog post.

Terrace chairs (2)

The Memorial Union Chairs seemed like a good subject for my first trial run with the cross processing.

Terrace chairs.

Terrace chairs (3)

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brownie

My eBay find used to take these photos.  A 1950 Kodak Brownie Hawkeye in mint condition in the original box. The same camera model that I took my first roll of film with.

Pope Farm Conservancy

It seems odd that I discovered a conservation park I didn’t know about just 5 miles from the house, but considering Dane County has around 300 parks I guess it’s not surprising. Pope Farm Conservancy is an interesting concept in a conservation park. Not only does it protect wildlife and the prairie landscape it also is preserving Wisconsin’s farm heritage. There are several working fields in the park and some rock fences built by the first settlers and a lot of interpretive signs commemorating the agricultural and natural history of the area.

Here’s a couple of pinhole photos from Pope Farm.

Pope Farm Tree root

The rock fence was built up over time as the farmers removed rocks out of the field left by the glaciers thousands of years ago. Every year some new rocks emerge out of the ground by frost action and need to be removed to till the land.

Pope Farm sunflowers

I had the gift of some great clouds to work with while shooting. The long exposures of the pinhole blur the clouds for a nice effect in this sunflower field in Pope Conservancy.

It’s a Madison Thing

What started as a college prank with pink flamingos in the 70’s continues on today, the plastic pink flamingo has become a part of Madison culture. It’s even been voted the city’s official bird by the Madison City Council. When I heard Bascom hill was going to be filled with pink flamingos as part of a fundraiser, I couldn’t resist getting some photos. Here’s a few new pinhole photos.

Bascom HIll Flamingos 900

1400 pink flamingos filled Bascom Hill on the UW campus.

Union Chairs 900

Near Bascom Hill is another iconic Madison  image. The Memorial Union chairs.

Roads less traveled

Here’s some new pinhole photos from my wandering last week. I spent some time driving the country roads  in the hills west of Madison. It reminded me of my days of looking for “wild art” photographs at the Greeley Tribune.  (what you do on a slow news day when the editors were desperate for photos to fill the next day’s paper)  You just get in the car and take roads you haven’t taken before looking for a photo. Sometimes that can lead to something good, sometimes you just waste a lot of time.

Gov Dodge tree and road-2

A country road with my new brown paper bag “filter”.  Not a photoshop filter… Just a brown paper bag.

Gov Dodge Barn-3A

And of course while driving around rural Wisconsin a barn is eventually become your subject matter.

Indian Lake Park Church

I revisited the small hilltop chapel in Indian Lake County Park and tried to incorporate the unique sun flare you get with a pinhole camera.

Indian Lake church 4

 I returned to try and work the sun flare some more on another day.
my second attempt with the flare shots didn’t work out, but I tried this angle with with the sun reflecting off the cross.  I guess I like the first day’s photo better. That is the way reshoots go sometimes.

Governor Dodge tree-4

I’ve always liked the look of fall colors on black and white. It gives an infrared look to the photo.

 

John Muir in Wisconsin

John Muir is probably the best friend mother nature ever had. The legendary man has been called the father of our National Parks and was the founder and first president of the Sierra Club. More importantly he inspired people to care about the natural world over a century ago. He was way ahead of his time.

His appreciation for nature began in Wisconsin where his family immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1849. The small farm his family settled on in Central Wisconsin is now the John Muir State Natural Area. His family farmed on the northeast shore of a beautiful  spring fed lake near Montello. I recently took a hike around the lake to walk in the footsteps of the teenage Muir and take some pinhole photographs.

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 Muir spent most of his life out west in the mountains, but always remembered his boyhood  home in Wisconsin. He unsuccessfully attempted several times to purchase the land he grew up on. In 1972 the land was designated a State Natural Area realizing Muir’s dream of preserving the place he grew up.

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These oak trees in a row seemed to be part of an old fence line. It is possible some of these oak trees were saplings when Muir walked this land.

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John Muir Attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He resided in North Hall, which still looks much like it did in Muir’s day. North Hall was one of a handful of buildings that made up the new university in 1860 when Muir enrolled. North Hall was the first building on the campus when it was built in 1851.  It is said that Muir’s first botany lesson was outside North Hall.

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Next to North Hall is Bascom Hall, an icon of the UW campus. Bascom Hall was one of the handful of buildings on the University of Wisconsin campus when Muir attended. It has since undergone many renovations and additions, including the addition of the statue of Abraham Lincoln out front.  Abraham Lincoln had just been elected president In Muir’s first year attending the University in 1860.

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The small wooded area next to North Hall is now named Muir Woods. Muir certainly walked these woods and even hunted in the area surrounding North Hall. Today the woods are a quiet little refuge on the busy campus.