The great experiment, part 2

The experiment continues. With the exception of a light leak in my reducing back, I’m fairly satisfied with how it’s going.

I got my first sheets of color 4×5 film processed and spent some time today scanning it and digitally layering the images on top of the 8×10 scans. I tried to match the color of the 8×10 images with that of the cyanotype collages to see what a color image would look like on top of them. I made one image with the full frame shape of the 4×5 and one without; I’m leaning toward keeping the full frame, as I think it helps show that the images are in fact made from different negatives.

Here are a few of the results of my explorations this afternoon. They’re nowhere near resolved, but I think I’m on the right track. As always, comments/questions/suggestions are very welcome.

(Somewhat) live coverage of SPE

Those of you that couldn’t make it to SPE this year might want to head over to head over to Ian Aleksander Adams’ blog. He and a few friends have been doing a fantastic job covering lectures as well as student portfolios.

The great experiment, part 1

© Camden Hardy 2009

I’ve been thinking a lot about which direction to take my large format work, and so have begun what I’m calling the great experiment (I’m only just now seeing the irony of photographing a construction site for this). My plan is to dive back into collage and continue where I left off with my short-lived roadside project (below).

© Camden Hardy 2007

I’d like to take this process a step further. To this end I’m going to add an element of color photography to the collage, although I’m not sure how yet. Enter the experiment. I’ll be posting iterations of the work as it develops; feedback is very much appreciated throughout.

Monthly print club finally launched

As you no doubt have noticed, there is a new link at the top of the page for my monthly print club. You can read all about it here, but what I’m trying to do is increase my exposure by offering affordable prints and free image downloads to anyone interested.

I’d like to begin creating a network of artists who are all doing their own take on the print club idea and set up a link exchange, and ultimately a new website to act as an aggregator, so if you someone you know is already selling prints on a periodical basis please contact me at camden+printclub@camdenhardy.com.

N45.67584, W111.05180. February 6, 2009

Choose a print size:

8″x10″ Print $20.00 20″x24″ $50.00

Or, click here to download the 4″x5″ @ 300 dpi TIFF.

N45.67584, W111.05180. February 6, 2009. by Camden Hardy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Website update

Almost five months after making these images, I finally posted Suburban Studies: Lihue, HI to my portfolio website.

Explosion in downtown Bozeman. Twitterers first on the scene.

Above image was pulled from a TwitPic post by @craigdugas

I experienced the power of social media first-hand this morning.

At 8:12AM Boodles, a very nice, albeit expensive, restaurant/bar in Historic Downtown Bozeman, MT exploded. Two more bars, a children’s apparel store, and an art gallery were also destroyed. At the time of this writing, a gas leak is the suspected cause.

Where did I get this information? Twitter. Thanks to Twitter, I was aware of many of the details (I had even seen some early photos of the destruction via TwittPic) long before any of the local news and radio began reporting it.

As the day progresses, I continue to receive tweets with new information as it becomes available. Twitter users among the likes of @manifestphil and @bozchron have taken it upon themselves to cover the situation, using the #bozexplod hashtag, with a level of precision and speed that rivals the local media. They are reporting not only the current state of the disaster, but also providing phone numbers and other information for those in need of assistance as well as those who would like to help out.

While I had heard myriad commentaries about Twitter and its usefulness in a reporting context, I had never experienced this phenomenon until today. Social media has completely transformed the way news is delivered to the masses. We no longer have to wait for our local news agencies; we get the news as it happens. This is truly an amazing concept.

Update: For more information about the explosion, see the Bozeman Daily Chronicle’s story here.
Update: Updates from the Billings Gazette.
Update: Go here for updates from the city of Bozeman.
Update: Collection of photos and video here.