No Rest for the Weary — Mitch Baker

My first order of business this month, was to fix the light leaks that were plaguing some of my photographs. It seems to come and go randomly so I decided to get a little help¹ on what to do. This video helped a lot to put me in the right direction for figuring out how to isolate variables in the equation. First, I had to rule out my film holder, so I loaded a film into one side of the holder and just put it outside for 10 minutes. That came up blank (No light leak).

Next, using that same tested holder, I tested the removable camera back. I carefully taped cardboard and matte board to the inside of it so that there would be no chance light would enter from the camera side. Then I Inserted the film holder into the spring back like normal and pulled the darkslide out just like I would expose a photograph (There were light leaks here) (fig. 1).

The results here got me very excited because I intentionally produced light leaks from my camera’s removable back. The springs were not very strong on this camera since its over 100 years old, so that had to be causing the problem. I took the springs and ground glass off and added a felt lining to where the film holder sits (fig. 2).

My third trial yielded no light leaks after the same 10 minute time (fig. 3), I used rubber bands to hold everything in place (fig. 4). I was pleasantly surprised how quickly and relatively painless this process of finding the source of the light leaks were. The ultimate source of the problem were weak springs and perhaps the old wood has warped slightly, but the felt lining might have killed two birds with one stone there.

This whole procedure took about 2-3 weeks because I need to wait for the sun to be out to optimally expose the equipment. I am now thrilled to take my camera out again. It feels like its new again. On that note, there was a new moon this month, on the 11th. I had a planned photography project involving the moon. The concept was that I am bathing in moonlight. I did take photographs for this, but they turned out quite terrible (fig. 5). The moon is much brighter than I expected on a dark night. I have underestimated the moon. And everything else is way too dark. My exposure zones are like 12 stops apart. I will have to plan for even better conditions, when it isn’t so dark at night to really nail this one down. I just need to be patient.

I need to get more filters. How often does this come up? But in black and white photography, not having a full color spectrum really limits the creative control of the photographer. I went out and I wanted to make this very yellow-green object look black in the print. But, I was in a little bit of a rush so, my fast thinking brain assumed it was simply green. And what is the opposite of green? Red! I used a red 25a filter in the photograph, but it was more of a yellow then a green, like stated before. So the negative I made didn’t produce a black object it just didn’t do anything. I think I actually needed a blue or magenta filter to create the image in my mind that I was imagining. However, I do not own either filter. So, just like the painter, who owns a full collection of paints and colors of the rainbow. I, the photographer, need filters of the same. At least these filter colors, I’m thinking…

Green #58
Yellow Green #11
Deep Yellow #15
Orange #21
Deep Red #29
Magenta CC30M
Deep Blue #47

I’m going end this entry here. The progress of one’s art is relative to the consistency one applies to it. There probably wont be any breakthroughs or epiphanies here. Just solid work and a stream of consciousness.

On a separate note, I want to share what I am currently reading: Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Selected Readings in Aesthetics from Plato to Heidegger, by Albert Hofstadter & Richard Kuhns. This is my bedtime reading right now. I’m just barely cracking the first 50 or so pages, but this is not a recommendation on what to read, per se. More about what I enjoy reading and what I am curious in learning as an artist.