Double Exposures

I tried out some double exposures with the Velvia 100 film I got recently.

Nunn-Winston House with flowering quince

Trumpet daffodil and flowering quince, both in the gardens around the Nunn-Winston house.

Snowflakes from my garden, on the same roll

My scanner had trouble with the double exposures. They were a little underexposed, and I think I just don't yet know how to scan them well yet. The actual slides look amazing. The scanner had no problem with the snowflakes. I'm loving Velvia 100 so far. I'll definitely keep shooting with it.

Lotion Recipe

I'm not a huge fan of lotion. I don't like slimy or sticky things on me, or anything that feels heavy. But, my hands and feet dry out a lot, especially in winter or when wearing sandals. For the most part, I've used oils instead of lotion. I now run a drop or two of argan oil through my hair and over my face after a shower. It absorbs quickly. I like coconut oil on my hands and feet. Recently, though, I experienced the wonders of glycerin. My heels were pretty severely cracked, and glycerin softened and smoothed them up in a week. My hands were cracking and peeling, too, after building spray guns at work. Glycerin cured that almost instantly. Another great thing I've come upon lately is squalane, a component of olive oil that has essentially the same properties as squalene, which skin produces naturally. I made a lotion recipe which I quite like. I put it in a little bottle that pumps a small amount at a time.

2 parts rose water glycerin mixture (You can buy this at stores, or alternatively dilute one part pure glycerin with two or three parts water.)

2 parts jojoba oil (a liquid wax)

1 part squalane

A few drops of argan oil or other plant oil

Shake bottle before each use until it forms a milky golden emulsion. Put a small amount in hands and rub together before applying. Allow to dry.

Daffodil Journal Preview

Today I was looking up how to develop color film at home. Apparently you can get a full setup for under $200 and it takes less than 10 minutes to develop a roll. I may get into that next. The daffodils have been blooming for two weeks and I'm still waiting to get my film back from the lab. :/

Today I took some photos on my phone of daffodils currently blooming, just to get a snapshot of what's going on currently. As I may have said before, I've moved to growing most of my daffodils in terracotta pots. It allows me to control temperatures, lighting, and watering more precisely. It also makes them easy to photograph and easy to move out of the rain (helpful this week, for sure). 

'Abba', a double sport of 'Cragford' (see below). Fragrant. Some flowers had dead tissue. Maybe the humidity?

'Bittern', just opened today. Looking forward to seeing how it develops.

'Cragford', fragrant tazetta, sport parent of 'Abba' (see above)

'Grand Primo', a famous heirloom tazetta. The cups started out light yellow, then faded to white. Pollen is dark orange. Fragrant.

I bought this as N. elegans var. intermedius in 2007. I think it was mislabeled, as N. elegans is a fall-bloomer with white flowers. It's probably N. x intermedius, though I'm not sure of that either. In any case, it has tiny flowers: perhaps the smallest of all my daffodils. It hasn't flowered in several years but now it's flowering again.

'Odoratus'. I absolutely love this one. It is my first time growing it. The flowers smell like ripe apricots.

'Princeps', another heirloom daffodil. My first time growing it. The flowers are quite large and nicely fragrant.

I'm pretty sure this is 'Pueblo', but it's one of the daffodils I dug out of the yard last fall. The confusion is why I decided to move to pots. It's like a white 'Trevithian'.

'Trevithian' - well, I've raved a lot about this one on this blog. The ones in pots are way ahead of the ones in the ground, which will flower in a week or two.

This is an unknown daffodil to me. I don't think it bloomed last year, because I don't remember it. I'll have to look at my records to try to find out what it is. It looks like a Jonquilla hybrid.

Busy-ness

Since when is being busy a status symbol? I believe it is a status symbol; it indicates what it did in the ancient world: low status, slavery. Someone who doesn't have enough time for others may think of himself as important, but I think of him as deprived and poor. What man in history ever boasted of wealth because of what he lacked being able to give? Time is no different. A slave is unable to give because he lacks and not free to give because he is not free. Only the slave and the poor are unable to do what they want because of what they lack. The rich are at leisure. Sometimes a salary and a title are enemies of leisure, and so what status do they really confer? So a busy person is a slave; that is his status.

Daffodil Journal

We're having some unseasonably warm weather in Alabama. It's hot, humid, and sunny. The temps are currently in the mid-70s, but because it was humid, I was sweating while gardening this morning. It has me a little worried about the daffodils. They're exploding into bloom very fast, and some of them do not have long stems yet. 

This week the following are flowering:

'Abba'
'Sweetness'
'Gigantic Star'
'Grand Primo'
N. jonquilla var. henriquesii
Unknown N. jonquilla
'King Alfred' type
'Twinkling Yellow'

'Stella' has already finished blooming
Crocus tommasinianus is also about done flowering.

Opening today or tomorrow are:

'Odoratus'
'Cragford'
'Trevithian'

I'm trying to take a lot of photos. Here's one of N. jonquilla var. henriquesii:

Ash Wednesday

I went to confession today for the first time in several months. To be honest, I haven't received communion in several months. It's not that I lost faith; it was more that I felt I needed to work on some things before I could approach the sacraments again. One of my friends warned me against this. He said you can't fix your life without Jesus's help. Well, he is right. The problem is that there were some things about my life that I knew were incompatible with the Catholic faith and I wasn't sure that I was sorry for them. Since I wasn't sorry, I didn't want to go to confession or receive communion. During that time, when I prayed, I mostly told God that I was sorry that I wasn't sorry, and asked him to help me be sorry. Mostly, though, I avoided talking to God, because I didn't want to have to think about those things. Last night, though, I woke up in the middle of the night, and suddenly I had it on my heart that I was ready to talk to God, and I did. I told him everything that I didn't want to say, and I told him I was ready to listen to all that I didn't want to hear. This morning, I went to Mass, and I didn't receive communion, but the priest said he was going to hear confessions afterward and, though I hadn't planned on it and it made me late to work, I went to confession. Actually, I didn't need to say much to the priest. He knew me well enough to understand my case. He gave me warm advice and encouragement. I'm glad to be back.

Also, a couple of phone pics:

Viola odorata 'Duchesse de Parme'

This is a violet I'm growing in my greenhouse. It's in full bloom. It's a Parma violet, a flower beloved by Napoleon's Empress Josephine. They are essentially highly-fragrant double violets. The flowers have a powerful, old-fashioned scent that reminds one of his grandmother's house. Since violet is the color of Lent, I thought I'd post the flower that gives the name.

Film that arrived today

A bunch of film I ordered came in a day early. The CineStill films are the same films used to make IMAX movies cut down to be used in still cameras. They have a cinematic aesthetic. The 50D is designed for outdoor bright conditions and the 800T is for low- or -poor-light situations. I've already shot a roll of the 800T in 35mm, which I should get back this week. Portra 800 is a high speed Kodak film with vibrant colors. I ordered two boxes of FujiFilm Velvia because I've read rumors that this film might be discontinued in a year or so.

Another look at 'Wintersun'

I've been scanning negatives I got back from the photo lab. I'm finding that the (sometimes) unusual colors from the lab's scans differ from the colors I get. From what I've learned, scanning color negatives is largely a subjective exercise. Since I'm the one who saw the original scenes in person, perhaps I'm the one best equipped to make the subjective choices, if realism is the goal. 

Most striking are the differences in how the lab interpreted my photos of Narcissus 'Wintersun' vs. how I did. In a previous post I wrote about how the colors rendered on film (from the lab's scans) differed from real life colors. Here I show my scans, which are much closer to real life, compared to the lab's scans.

Lab scan

My scan

Lab scan

My scan

Lab scan

My scan

Lab scan

My scan

Lab scan

My scan

As I said, every scan is an interpretation, and I like the aesthetic of the lab's scans. I think they do a lot of weddings, and I kind of get a wedding vibe from their scans. Still my scans have more accurate colors.

Another Roll of Provia

I received back a roll of Provia 100F film I shot in October, the week of my trip to Indiana. I scanned it in myself and there were some differences between my scans and the film lab's. In other news, I had three daffodils bloom this week: N. jonquilla var. henriquesii, 'Sweetness', and 'Stella', a historic daffodil I'm growing for the first time. Photos are already sent to the lab and should be back next week.

Part of the Civil War armory in Tallassee 

Tallapoosa River in Tallassee

Alabama Highway 14 crossing the Tallapoosa River in Tallassee

Cemetery at the Oratory of Ss. Philomena and Cecilia in Brookville, Indiana

View from Ruffner Mountain in Birmingham, taken on my way up to Indiana

Another view from Ruffner Mountain. The lighting was gorgeous that evening.

Some asters and vegetation at Ruffner Mountain

My harpsichord

This was the film lab's scan of the same photo above. They tweaked the color, perhaps to make it daylight-balanced, resulting in a green wall (it's actually a white wall). My scan is more faithful to the original, which was taken in incandescent lighting, but I kind of like the green too.

Pitcher plants at sunset.

My dad's dog Fancy

Fancy

Snow Day in Auburn

A few weeks ago, we had a snow day in Auburn. I got up early and walked around town with my Hasselblad, loaded with Fuji Provia 100F film. Here are the photos on that roll of film:

La Palma Mexican seafood restaurant. I liked the palm trees covered in snow.

"Twice the Ice"

Juniperus

Auburn University

Samford Hall

View from Toomer's Corner

Pine Hill Cemetery 

Pine Hill Cemetery

One of my Buddha's hand citrons

Camellias and snow - Pine Hill Cemetery 

Cara Cara, a pink navel orange

The film held up to light (sorry for the dirty window - it's at the shop)