hanna birke photo

apples

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:25 -0600

can i share my happiness? i developed two rolls of film today one color and one b/w. they both turned out. even if they hadn't it was just nice to develop film again. i hope i don't drive everyone mad with the images though. they are very 'homemade' in feeling. this is a frame from the ancient Ansco pinhole camera. i had no idea if it would even work. there is no lens and so nothing to focus on. just a musty black box with a shutter that you can't adjust either. i don't know why i find this kind of photography so freeing but i do. this was stand developed for one hour in my homemade Rodinal developer. the negatives are huge - 6cm x 8cm - i'm not used to this size/format - it does present a different vision than a 35mm negative and even the Contax 6 x 4.5 and the square format 6 x 6. i can't wait to load this Ansco pinhole up with some color film. this film is Shanghai GP3 and there's no post processing here.

from Joshua Tree National Park

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:30 -0600

from over 2 years ago. another example of how time changes my perspective on the images. i'm sure that when i got this roll developed i passed this one over as nothing special or needing work - but now i think it's lovely as it is. this morning i mixed up new color developing chemicals and plan to develop a roll of color tomorrow. and hopefully a roll of b/w too. in june i bought an old Ansco 120mm pinhole camera and i shot a roll with it this summer but i guessed on how to load the film and how much to crank after each exposure. this morning when i took the film out i saw i'd guessed wrong and i'd loaded the film so that it was not advancing at all. so i taped the now ruined film back together and loaded it in the camera again and counted - 9 cranks to set the film up and 3 cranks for each exposure. then i put a new roll of film in and went out and shot again. i hope i did it right this time and i hope the camera works. i'll let you know.

three by sea

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:58 -0600

i don't post funny ones too often but i laughed when i saw this one again tonight. if you live where there's a long weekend this weekend i wish you a happy long weekend. note added: i've just remembered that the scale looks so odd because i'm standing on a bank much higher than the people and the palm branch is also a bank higher than the figures. so it looks like the ocean comes up to the sand where the palm branch is but in fact there is a drop off there. it's also hard to see this but the part i found amusing about the scene is the large flippers and funny caps the people are wearing.

tangle and sky

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:36 -0600

another film image from 2 years ago. this one is a single exposure. thank you Sherri for saying everyone should have such beautiful photographs as yesterday's post in their archives. sometimes i need a few years away from a photograph to see the beauty in it. like today's photograph - i've likely looked at it a few times and thought it was not worth much. but tonight it suddenly looks interesting and beautiful to me.

and then at the end of the day sometimes it all turns out all right

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:00 -0600

this is a double exposure taken two years ago. a few from this roll appeared here ages ago. i shot the roll the first time on a snowy Alberta day and the second time at the Moorten Botanical Garden in Palm Springs. if you look closely you can see the stairs in the empty community swimming pool in my Alberta neighborhood. the title expresses my happiness at getting my computer going again here and being able to post tonight. sometimes living this split life between Alberta and BC presents a few challenges. always the return here after being away for 9 weeks is overwhelming - each time in a different way. this time i came back by myself - my plane landing at 1:00am - having to be at work the next day - wondering if my truck would start after 2 months of sitting - wondering when i would find time to buy something nutritious to eat ... finding my truck did start but that the computer needed a new modem. anyway now the modem has arrived and a bunch of other problems have been solved ... hopefully this weekend i will shoot and develop some film. in the meantime i'll post from the archives.

trip to Side Bay #3

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:32 -0600

last one of the Side Bay photos for now. nothing new here until about September 1st. going down island tomorrow to spend a few days with my mother and daughter. then will fly back to Alberta.

trip to Side Bay #2

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:14 -0600

trip to Side Bay #1

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:43 -0600

we drove over to Side Bay today. it's 2 hours from here by logging road. but the road is in good condition and you only need 4 wheel drive for the last bit. i have more photographs that show the area better but i'll start with this one - it's my favorite at this moment because of the birds in flight. i thought Side Bay was a provincial park but on the way home checked the map and found out it's not a park at all - but just a place that people go. there are few signs and you can drive right on to the beach and camp there for as many days as you want. it reminded me of how Long Beach and Tofino was in the 60's - minus the crowds that used to go to Long Beach even then. it rained the whole time we were there and there's a campfire ban right now - we got soaked and a bit chilled but none of us minded - we just felt alive and happy there.

cool blue

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:33 -0600

a few photoblog friends are currently experiencing very hot weather - i hope you'll find this one refreshing. i took it late yesterday afternoon down at Sofa Beach. you've seen lots of photos from this spot. i named this spot Sofa Beach because last year someone dragged a sofa down to this beach - it was convenient and fun to sit on the sofa at the beach and read the newspaper or watch the sea otters. no sofa on the beach this year but i'm keeping the name for this spot because i like it. and who knows maybe another year a sofa will show up here again.

window and rope

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:36 -0600

last one from on the ferry