Richard Vanek - Black and White Photography

Tomorrow is opening of exposition. I am curious :-) Yesterday I print two prints, Snowman star and Hiding in a rainy day just to try them out. They both turned quite OK. I am planning to do more prints next week and send some out to see reactions.
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I have add my site to Black and White Photography web ring, in hope it will bring more traffic to my pages. At the moment it is not fully functional as my site wasn't confirmed yet. I will see how does it turn and consider a future than. I do not really like much colors of the links, but maybe I can modify it in future.
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I have just received my test print from S. done with UT2 on Epson 1290s printer. He was so kind he did for me print in cool, neutral, carbon and sepia tone. Details in prints and quality is the same as I am use to with UT1 on EAM paper. UT2 has advantage that scale of toning is bigger. I didn't see yet print on glossy paper with UT2. But I know now that when I run out of my UT1 bottles I will buy UT2 with CFS either for my Epson 890 or maybe for some future printer I buy. But I have to consider costs new Epson 1290s is now priced little over 400 euro and I really find that little bit too much for me. And that will gave me only print twice a size of my current Epson 890. Well, this is future, when it comes I will make decision.

Today is the D-day for me. My first photo exhibition in The Netherlands. As I mentioned elsewhere, I am exposing with other people, members of photo academy year 2003/2004. I am wondering how it will be. Opening is today at 14:00.

Yesterday, opening of exhibition went quite all right. I was expecting certain people who didn't come, but others who I wasn't sure come. And that was nice surprise.
I have god few advices yesterday about going to school and getting some kind of official paper declaring that I am professional photographer, or something in that sense. But after more consideration I am not sure if I want to go to school. You know I do not want to learn technique, style, history and what ever they teach there. I like to do photography and therefore I will probably go to different route.
I have also got advices about my pictures. The important information which came in from more people was that my images are nice and little mysterious, but they could be more. So advice was to add more mystery in pictures. This come from people who knows more of my work and they saw some images which were really mysterious and surprising. They like those and they advice me to go more that direction. Next was to put more sharper view and less quietness to my photographs. People find my images too calm.
When I think about it I must say that some of that I can see myself and it is good to hear it from outside.
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As you can see on top page I am part of web ring about black and white photography now. I will see if this will bring me some additional traffic and after while I will consider stay or leave in this group.

I have developed Ilford HP5+ in Aculux 2 for 11 minutes. I went for shortest time. That is disadvantage when you develop film long time after exposing it, than I do not remember what was the conditions under which film was exposed. If I knew it was dark rainy afternoon and some inside shots, I would go for longer time. As I wasn't sure I went for shortest. Film would be better is I developed longer. It is not bad, but could be better. I still have few different films (non Fuji Neopan 400) which I need to develop. It is a bit distracting as I want to get maximum from Neopan 400 in Aculux 2, but at least I have some examples. Between is also test shots I had made with Neopan 1600 exposed at 800.

When I was with T. walking in the Sweden city Trosa and looking for some place to eat in that cold wet day, I saw this two same small houses next to each other. It was still snowing more snow than water and even I was quite wet and mood less I find this really funny.

Time is flying, isn't it? I have few new orders for prints. After I open exhibition together with few friends I have got already second order for print.
I am also printing some stuff I didn't have time before and having very positive responses from people about exhibition and also about web. It is good feeling :-).
I am planning today develop some test rolls of Fuji Neopan 1600 exposed at 800 and 1000. I am wondering how it will be. The reason is that on my current Childhood project I like to do some night shots. I also will be ordering CFS system from MIS for my epson 890 with new UT2 inks. This will save me time with filling cartridges. I still have some UT1 ink and I am planning to use it all.

It is Friday again and I post new image named Before crash. You can read more about it on its page but I just have now envelop with two prints of them prepared to fly to Sweden. I hope they will enjoy it.
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The feedback from exhibition gets on power. I received five e-mails yesterday with very positive comments. And traffic on my pages increase a lot. Thank you all for your support.

When I saw this things sliding down there from Sofia church in Stockholm I coudn't believe. Two boys sitting in it were gaining incredible speed. After they come to jump they were catapulted over two meters in the air. Landing was fatal for the things which breaks down and one of the boys had some problems with breathing as he probably land very hard on his back. I was quite worried and with his mother we were helping him.

Long weekend includes Monday and I was busy with other things than photography. Mostly rebuilding garden :-) But anyhow, I did few prints and did interesting film development. I developed my test roll of Fuji Neopan 1600 exposed at 800 with different exposure of the same subject in constant lightning. And also some two rolls of Fuji Neopan 1600 exposed at 1000 ASA. I believe I will publish soon detail 2700dpi cropped scans on Last Roll page, but I can tell you few things about it right now.

I developed both exposed films in Paterson Aculux 2 at dilution 1:9. The one exposed at 800ASA I developed for 10 minutes. While first 8 minutes I was agitating by inversion each minutes 3 times in about 8-10 sec. The last two minutes I didn't make any move with developing tank in a hope to get more development in shadow parts. All shots on this roll where done in low contrast overcast day and I have feeling that time could be little longer than 10 minutes. I made it based on Paterson data for 1600ASA which is 12 minutes minimal.

I had quite a discussion at photo.net about suggested Paterson Aculux 2 development times which turns out to be too long in my first experience, but more and more I work with this developed and Fuji Neopan I realized that development time really depends on light which is used when exposing film. For example I had rolls exposed on beach, where I was overexposing by one stop and all those where heavily overdeveloped even with minimal suggested time from Paterson. Than I developed few rolls with normal time and there went as the best rolls I ever developed. But the where shot with different camera and in overcast day.
I will come to this subject more in on e of my articles I am preparing as a part to replace notes page.

All this observation was more or less conform on other two rolls I developed Sunday, which were exposed on 1000ASA and developed for 12 minutes where agitation was same as before. Three inversion in about eight seconds for first ten minutes than last two minutes no inversion. These films turn out little better, but what is interesting on one roll there were shot done (this roll wasn't mine) in night in room and other shots done on mountains in snow in full sun light. Shots in night would be better with maybe one or two minutes more with now inversion to get more details in shadow parts. On the other hand the shots from mountain are just perfect.

What I wan't to show on my last roll page is effect of different exposure of Neopan 1600 when developed same time. Difference in achieved details in shadow, and who knows what I will see when I look on grain.

I have updated Last Roll page with simple test for details in shadow and highlights of Fuji Neopan 1600 exposed at 800 developed in Paterson Aculux 2. It is nothings extremely scientific, but only real life experiment.

For the few last years I was following and joining some discussions on different web forums about photography. I do not know really why, but lately I am just getting tired of it. Most of them just going all around about the same useless discussions. Talking about it, but very few or nobody actually try and present some results. It takes a lot of energy from me which I like to spend on actually doing my photography. Only one or two forums I am still following. Digital B&W print forum on yahoo and from time to time B&W forum on photo.net.

A lot of thoughts coming through my mind when I thinking about my photographs and the way I am going further. Few people gave me advices which triggers more thinking and open new view on certain things. Like C.S. did when she told me I should work on theme. As she did when she told me that my strong point is in light and atmosphere catching on my photos. And that I should focus that way. As N.B. said that having human as a part of my picture, even not in focus is advantage which adds to feelings and story of the photo. All those and some more advices and comments are running in my hand and hopefully it will drive me to right direction. I feel it, it will. Thank you all for that!

I have found one, forgotten roll of Kodak TMY exposed about year ago. I just take it and developed with Paterson Aculux 2, as that is what I am using. Film is hanging to dry now, but it looks very good. I used times from Paterson sheet, 12 minutes. And for who is interested, I agitate by twice inversion each minute for about eight sec. I will scan it soon and than maybe if some shot is any good I will place it here for you to see.
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I just finished scanning and I must say that film was little overexposed. That time year ago I was using Bessa-R2 and most of the shots from that time are overexposed by one stop. It is not error of the camera but I was most of the time keeping same setting for whole series of shots and it end-ups most of the time by overexposing. This makes it little difficult for scanner to get through but it is not uncorrectable. There are one or two nice shots. But more for family album than for publishing here ;-)

I had finish packing last three orders. Yes, order are coming. Majority are from people I met or I know personally. Last few orders are reaction on the exhibition.
I was thinking to put few prints on eBay. I have no experience with selling there, but that could be good indication what people like and how much they willing to pay for it. I made small list of things I need to prepare before I try it. It seems to be nice and funny experiment to sell there. Maybe it will fail totally, but I will see.

I made small plan what to add and improve on my web site to be more prepared when I start selling on eBay. Past weekend I did quite a update, which is running on my home copy. When I am bit more satisfied and things are nicely cleaned I will upload it on piskoftak.com.
Among the other things I have changes or add is also removing thumbnail navigation between images. I realize and also had feed back, that visitors in majority are looking on thumbnails and not on bigger pictures. Than when actually look at bigger image they realize that they miss some interesting photos from thumbnail view. Therefore I made change that galleries (and in future projects) will be displayed as series of only big images and there will be no thumbnails preview.

I have received issue of bi-monthly magazine LensWork. I have order this tryout issue based on suggestion from Daniel Staver. Magazine is made on quality paper and in very handy size. Nice to read and look at with cup of tea under a lamp in quiet evening. I have complete issue in less than two hours. Some of the article are interesting some less. That is quite usual. They also publish some interviews with photographers on DVD/CD and extra silver gelatin prints and, as they call it, folios of photographer. These things are order-able extra. It is nice but for Europe quite expensive as subscription fee for two years is almost double of US one. I will probably order first 40 issues on CD and print some articles and read it. Much cheaper, thought less enjoyable for evening reading.
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I have shot whole roll of Fuji Neopan 400 today after I didn't to much of shooting for few last weeks. Some shots in early morning strong contrast light. Some fog and springers on fields. Two horses I was writing about few days ago. Than on my way from work I stopped with my daughter on playground and finished a roll there. One thing I realize I need less sensitive film for this light and summer. I will try Fuji Across 100 and Ilford FP4 and will see how things are working with them.

It is great feeling to be again out of backlog with film development. Yesterday I shot new roll, yesterday I developed it. Nice. I feel again like I am doing something nice and having feedback right a way is great. Today when I will be back from work I will scan it and maybe print something. Yesterday was nice sunny day and I went with my daughter out afternoon. That gave me nice possibility to take some shots without being too much visible between all the kids. I have tried view things I have in my mind for some time. Shots from behind a bush toward boys playing soccer. Some close up faces with other kids in background playing. Stuff like that. I'll see if anything is worst to print after scanning today.

Morning was a beautiful light. With Ilford FP4+ in camera I was biking to work. When passing by those two horses I stopped and they come close to me. I made few close up shots, portraits like.
Now still very sunny, I am looking forward to go out and stop on playground again...
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As expected I end up with my daughter at playground and she played and I did some picture. In few minutes I was out of roll. Later the same afternoon I went back there, alone this time. There were still few kids in full swing of fun. I was definitely disturbing element with camera. Even some of them recognized me once I did few shots they start looking to me. I was trying to tell them few words, but my lack of Dutch language didn't alone me to do the same what I was able to do back home, make them comfortable and communicate with me. I did few shots and when out of that place pretty disappointed by myself.

I just finished developing first roll of Ilford FP4+. This one was exposed by my colleague from work. I use 6:30 with Paterson Aculux 2. It seems to be little too less for that dull weather in which shots were done. I didn't new that so I coudn't adjust. I know that next roll, which I exposed yesterday in high contrast light will get little more development.
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I have just returned from city. I have found Fuji Super Prodol (SPD) developer in one photo shop. I am curious, this is the developer suggested by Fuji for its Black and white films. I will try it, just curious. I believe is very hard to find it in Europe. But first I am going to develop next roll of Ilford FP4+.
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Film is developed, looks little better. Nicer contrast, but that can be also result of more contrast light. Still shadows do not have that information I would like they have. Of course I could be completely wrong as this observation is based purely on look on wet negative. Let's wait for evening when I will scan both negatives and see.

We went on a beach today. To the new place we never been before. Our friends told us that it is possible to find shark's teeth there. Well we didn't find a one, but we had nice day anyway.
I exposed two Fomapan 200, just for a test as I like to select some less sensitive film as addition to Fuji Neopan 400 which I use normally. After scanning Ilford FP4+ I am sure that I need to make longer time and possibly more inversion to increase contrast. More than low contrast I am missing shadow details. I would love to test Fuji Acros 100, but they do not have it in one shop here around and ordering two or three rolls fro internet makes it quite expensive with postage. But maybe it will be the only way how to get it.

It has been longer time, since I wrote here. I must say that reason was simple, I didn't want to write just anything only because I have to. Well I do not have to, but I like to write when I have something to tell.
Maybe your remember when I was writing that Daniel Staver was pointing me to photography magazine LensWork. I am more and more enjoying that magazine and most articles which comes on attached CD or those I downloaded from theri web site.

One which particularly strikes me was on the CD. Maybe you also remember that I am preparing my web site for a lot of changes. One reason for that is that I like to start selling my work on eBay. I sold few prints already to friends, colleagues and lately to few people who saw my work at last exhibition. Those prints are marked as numbered prints from limited edition. As I never sell my photographs before I had feeling that this is the way how it should be. But I didn't feel really comfortable with saying that I will not print more than fifty or hundred copies of certain print. Why would I. Maybe I never get to so many copies and maybe I just do not want and maybe I like to make more before I get tired of that particular print.
That, few days ago I have read article What Size is the Edition written by Brooks Jensen and published by LensWork magazine. He has a great idea which I am going to follow. Instead of doing limited edition he propse to prints multiple edition of the same image.
So with a certain skills and technology (paper, developer,...) in one run you print let say 5-10 prints of the same image in one go. Those will be market as first edition of this image and will be numbered 1/10 - 10/10 of the first edition. As you skills improve or you start using different paper or technology and you able to produced better quality of the same image you can make second edition. And so on as one wish. Maybe later on you move to digital and you will produced prints with as carbon pigment prints. So make a third edition. Each prints will be marked and signed and will carry description how and when it was made.
This way authenticity is guaranteed, print is uniquely identified and nobody limits anything. Later collectors (if that happen) can be maybe looking for you particular image from the fifth print edition which was made with unique paper and in very big size in only four copies.

I really like this idea. Read the article and you find more interesting ides there or on LensWork web page or magazine itself.