a daily practice

05 June 2006

Totem - Kakaso'las

Ellen Neel was the first woman to become a North West Coast carver and among the first to achieve an international career of commissions for museums, cities, and collectors. This pole was completed in 1955 for Woodwards Department Store.

2006-06-05 8:43:38 PM | Vancouver

02 June 2006

Totem - Thunderbird House Post

This pole carved by Tony Hunt (1987)to replace an older pole by Kwakwaka'wakw carver Charlie James in the early 1900's.

2006-06-02 7:00:31 PM | Vancouver

01 June 2006

Totem

I wanted to experiment with cross processing (briefly: processing, in this case Fuji Astia slide film in a C41 chemical protocol (the bath for print film) rather than the E6 process typically used for slide film). You can expect unexpected wild colour shifts, high contrast, and often more grainy images. I thought a good subject would be the totem poles in Stanley Park - already slightly surreal and mysterious to my (white man's) eye.

For the most part successful. These images are otherwise as is, out of the camera. I wish I had taken a few brands of slide film down that day, just for a variety of responses to each film's unique chemical makeup. And I wish I had chosen at least 400 speed film: you need to overexpose by two stops, so the camera was shooting 100asa as if it were 25asa. That meant, with a polarizer attached, and smaller apertures to preserve extended DOF, that I was limited to shooting long exposures on a tripod -- sometimes slowing down spontaneity and compositional choices.

I do like the colour harmony the technique provides across a portfolio of related images, and I love the gorgeous red coppery colour of spring foliage, and those lavender skies! The additional contrast too I find attractive. I'd like to achieve a grainier image; maybe that will come with a higher speed film?

Details: Canon Rebel G; 75-300 Canon lens; circular polarizer; tripod; Fujia Astia 100 film; cross-processed and printed. This is a scan of the print.

2006-06-01 10:11:33 PM | Vancouver