GregRob: SoFoBoMo blog

tick tick tick….

16 days until SoFoBoMo can start. Time to start planning!
Stay tuned.

Pages, based on a photo by Flickr member: sickmouthy

A Divergence

The fall was coming on fast. This was back in 20. You know the year I mean. It was a mean year for all. I headed my way down to New Hampshire crossing the big lake in a small boat in the dead of a moonless night. Things had been bad that summer, and I was planning to spend some time away from them in my old cabin near White Mountain.

Travelling by night and keeping to Indian trails made travel slow, but I wasn’t about to be found out now that I was away from the gang and the evil that lead them.

The rains came hard on the last three days but I kept on the move. I actually was able to make up some time as most folks with any thought in their head wouldn’t be out in such weather. But the rains hid the smell of the smoke, and the brothers almost got me, luckily they made the mistake of believing they could sleep.

I came upon the remains of my cabin, it was a pile of ash being washed away by the deluge. Luckily I came up from the little creek in the rear, and not walking down the trail up front. The harvest moon lit my way as I departed the bloody scene.

I was hurting and the cold was into my bones. I had always figured Bartlet as neutral territory, and figured I needed a real drink in my belly and a warm bed to recuperate.

As I approached the city limits I was surprised by the changes, the biggest being a new hotel on the corner where John had died. I took it for a sign and flipping my collar up, and pulling my hat down strode right in the front door.

It was all downhill from there, and you know the rest of the story.

They were so proud of what they had done! They had their picture taken and it was on the front page of the local paper the next day.

SoFoBoMo 2010

I was just thinking that SoFoBoMo 2010 should be coming up shortly, so I did a quick search on Google and found that this year the fuzzy month occurs from June 1st to July 31st. Last year it was May/June, and next year it will be July/August.
http://photomusings.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/the-future-of-sofobomo/

I like the idea of a slow progression through the year, and hope the shift towards full on summer will improve my personal odds of actually getting something done this time.

Over the last year I didn’t do anything close to creating a book, but there were some developments:
-I shot my last Polaroid on Dec 24th, 2009.
-I had a good time spending some early Saturday mornings on photo hikes with my old friend Craig.
-I bought a couple of inexpensive Jinbei QQ250 studio strobes. I have already shot some nice portraits using these lights, and I am looking to use them more this year with my large format gear.
-And right now I am completing a “darkroom in a cabinet” (which fits into my basement washroom) that I plan to use for tray development of large format film. The cabinet is about 4′ x 2′ x 7″ but folds out to be a 2′ x 2′ work area, with a 4′ x 2′ darkroom sink to the side, or the sink can come right out and you have a 4′ x 2′ work table. Inside the cabinet a good mixing valve is fed via quick connect hoses that head into the vanity for water supply. The sink is made from plywood, pine boards, and a lot of screws, with the inside all coated in a thick layer of Epoxy Resin.

So right now I’m looking forward to another SoFoBoMo attempt, I’ll again use this blog to try and capture the process.

It is now a little less than 90 days to go…. tick tick tick

I know, but its so hard…..

From Kirk Tuck’s blog: "The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." Joseph Campbell

Instant Street Studio

I so much love this!  This is the kind of photography I have read about for years and wished I could do.

When there were only two weeks (one weekend) left in SoFoBoMo the first Saturday of the Brampton farmer’s market season was that last Saturday of SoFoBoMo. I looked everywhere on the web for info on how to get a booth in artist’s alley, and I also sent an e-mail to the Brampton Arts Council asking how to get a booth. Alas I never found info on the web, and my e-mail went unanswered. Had I gotten a booth spot this is what I would have wanted to do with it!
Now would I have actually followed through? I don’t know.
I still stay up at night sometimes thinking about this stuff and hope that someday I do follow through.

On Flickr

This photo hosted on Flickr is gathering some attention.  It is a variation on the photo from my last blog post.  I shot this one on large format (4″x5″ polaroid Type 51 negative film) and spent a lot of time on the composition and droplet quality.

Water Droplets: Cube, Pyramid, Tetrahedron 02 by Greg Roberts

Could this have been a book?

For you facebook readers, this post is actually from my blog.  While facebook presents this to look like yet another facebook page you can actually click here to see the actual blog, or click on the tiny little link below that facebook provides labelled  ”View Original Post” to be taken to my blog.  The full blog page actually sets the context of all my rambling on and helps all this make a little more sense.

I wonder if I could have come up with a book of this stuff?

Water Droplets: Cube01 by Greg Roberts

I think I probably could have.

Oh well the month is up, and I didn’t create a book.  Maybe next year I will be in the right creative mood to actually get it done.  I am ok with this.  It was fun thinking up book ideas and discussing SoFoBoMo with friends, and I made a new camera too.