Back to Analog

Since I am now working full time with Sarah, I have had time to do things that I forgot I loved. Yesterday I spent about 3 hours in our basement in the dark, however creepy that may sound, it was nice to get back to pure analog, no batteries, no computers, just film, paper, and developer.

I had rolls of film that were over one year old that I hadn't developed yet, or even remembered how to. After gathering all my chemicals (and stealing tupperware from the kitchen) I looked up my development times and locked myself downstairs.

I carefully measured my developer and fixer, memorized the times, and then proceeded to sit in the bathtub for the next hour... After nervously turning on the lights, I saw my success, my film developed correctly. I hung it up to dry and went to bed.

Yesterday I spent my work day attempting to get a usable image out of my now dry film. After blowing a fuse and having to rewire my antique enlarger with a lamp wiring kit, I was ready to attempt developing and enlarging my film (something I hadn't done in 10 years) I quickly remembered that the difference in 3 seconds and 7 seconds is enormous in photography talk. After 3 failed attempts at getting the proper exposure, I settled on 4 seconds for the exposure time, 1.25 minutes for the developing time, and I fixed it for about 5 minutes and rinsed.

This has to be the most rewarding part of this whole process. Going from a strictly mechanical camera built of metal, springs, and gears - developing the film - now finally enlarging it and getting a usable image. While it is much cheaper and easier to shoot digital, this whole process really makes me stop and take my time, rather than just firing off 7 frames a second and instantly seeing my results. This is much more rewarding.

I am so thankful that God has allowed me to stay home and work with my wife and little man every day. I hope that through my photography I can show just a tiny piece of how beautiful God's creation and his people really are.

Shoot simple and stunning silhouettes

A silhouette is the image of a person or object consisting of the outline and featureless interior, usually being black.

Have you ever tried to take a silhouette picture of a palm tree or a friend jumping against a beautiful sunset and all you get is a blown out white sky?? When I think of a silhouette, I usually think of a beautiful sunset landscape with a tree or two.

Snapping a stunning sunset takes some knowledge of photography and your manual exposure settings. The first thing we must understand is that your goal is to properly expose the sky and to capture its vivid colors. When your camera is on anything but manual exposure mode, your camera usually tries to properly expose the person or the tree, so it allows the shutter to be open longer or the aperture to be bigger, which causes the sky to be blown out and white. What I do first is make sure that my ISO is set around 200 and I usually close my aperture up to increase my depth of field. Start with an aperture of F/5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/200s and see what you get. Too light? Stop down your aperture to F/8 or speed up your shutter to 1/400s. If your subject is moving, speed up your shutter, if you want your subject and the background to be in focus, close up your aperture. If your subject is not completely black, that it is fine, it is very easy to correct with any basic photo editor.

Try getting down low and get the grass in the bottom of the frame your subject off center. With landscapes, you want to have multiple “layers.” A foreground, such as grass, a middleground such as a person or tree, and a background like your sky.

The great things about silhouettes is that you can get gorgeous pictures almost anywhere. Try getting a cityscape or a barn; some power lines or just a tree. Almost everything looks cool when it’s a silhouette. Here are a few examples we took in our own backyard.

I want to see some of your silhouette pictures. Post them here!