did we kill it by making it seem a killer thing to do

Posted on Posted in olden waysTagged

A Student Asks

I recieved a comment/ observation from one of the students who attended my dye transfer workshop this past july. she wondered if dye transfer had been killed because people thought it an unsurmountable mountain. She noted that in her case, she had collected the supplies more than 5 years ago. She never got started. She didn’t want to ‘waste’ them until she knew she would be able to make dyes well.
Since everything she read, or saw on the net gave her yet another thing she would have to have, and yet another course of study before being able to use that, she said her “sand castle would have to wait. with every tide it got knocked over.”

I don’t expect there was anything that could have been done. Probably not even much that will be done by some future “others.”

In my learning, I encounted dyes the 3rd day I was in a photo school, so I never had enough time to think they would be overwhelming — it all seemed like a day at the beach. Just grand fun. I was making pictures — all day — everyday.

Request to You

Anyhow, use it up, or pass it on. Please.

Film, oh the errors

Posted on Posted in the Lab

Errors Loading

“the hardest part about photography is getting the film on the reel” — famous photographer you’d recognize, but I forget just now.

Roll film is loaded onto reels to be processed. The reel permits solution to get to the entire emulsion surface quickly, and if done correctly, evenly. Loading is done in total dark; making this a task for those with finger dexterity — something that must be learned by practice. Some gain the skill and confidence quite quickly, others seem to never acquire the skill.

You will make at least 3 mistakes in the first dozen rolls of film; and oddly, you will make at least 3 mistakes in the last dozen of your first hundred rolls loaded.

This is the Learners Gap.

Early in gaining a new skill, you will make mistakes because of insufficient ability. Later in skill development, you will make the mistake of confidence of skill that you haven’t fully acquired. Your body has knowledge — links that must be continuously flexed, while maintaining an open mind to the experience of action.