05 February, 2009

Trial and Error





So yesterday I'm printing these images, and starting to think I'm beginning to get the hang of things.

Same enlarger, same easel, same paper, same everything.

Fresh chemistry.

I get a negative in, take a read, make a print. It's a little off.

So, I make some adjustments, some mental, some physical and begin to make another print.

The base exposure was 25 seconds. But I then had to add about 40 more seconds of burn, here and there, corners, etc.

I'm dancing at the enlarger, clumsily, but I'm working it. Hands are moving here and there, I'm making odd shapes with my hands, concentrating,

I finish the exposure. I move to the burn, I dance. I dance a little more.

"Perfect," I think to myself.

I then reach down to lift my perfect print and realize I never put a sheet of paper in the easel. Nothing. Nada.

I was printing on metal.

Luckily I was alone.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hahaha! you're just struck my funny bone. can't tell you how many times i've done that.

in fact, just the other morning, i was out swimming with the camera. beautiful sunrise, great color in the water, dolphins, pelicans. just squeezing off frames. 45min into my swim, i look at the viewfinder to see how many frames i have left. it was blank. i never put a card in the camera...

Unknown said...

Practice makes perfect, right Dan?

Unknown said...

The big one that got away, huh?