My brother has been the subject of a number of my photos over the years. This one, also from 2006, has been sitting in a Workbox since then. I don’t know why I ignored it. I think it might be the best photo I’ve taken of him to date. Compare for yourself, here, here, here, here, here, here & here.

I was shooting a lot of large format B&W back in 2006. My friend Nate was teaching in Pflugerville, and he offered to pose for a photograph in his classroom. I never got him a print of the image, so this evening I scanned the negative and printed it digitally. If you take a look at my original post, I think you’ll agree I’ve learned quite a bit about contrast and shadow detail in 4 years. Of course, it helps to use a far better scanner.

I was never really happy with the most recent incarnation of my portfolio site, WalkerPickering.com, as the design was really just centered around the way I designed my business card . So over the past couple of days I’ve worked (and re-worked) a design into something I’m pretty sure I like… for now. I seem to redesign about once a year, so I’m sure it won’t be long until the design bug gets me again.

This can all be traced back to two things: my love of web design in the mid-90s and my short stint as a graphic design major in undergrad. Even though I don’t really enjoy designing for most things, I still like having creative control over how something like my own portfolio is laid out. I know that’s a good thing, but it means I spend too much time changing it to actually establish any kind of real long-term brand identity.

So please feel free to leave some feedback on the design. I’m happy to field any questions and resolve complaints—if I happen to think you’re right, of course.

Also, I’ve updated a few of the different portfolios on that site. If you liked the Joe K. work, there are a few new (never-before-seen) images there, as well as fresh stuff my New Work portfolio (along with a new title, etc.). (I love parentheses.)

Stacy and I are driving to Texas for a 2700+ mile roundtrip Christmas visit. Both dogs are leaving with us, only one will return. Crazy Homer the Basset Hound will spend the winter months with the in-laws, and I will get some sanity and sleep back. We’ll be gone for 11 days to such exotic locales as DALLAS, TEXAS, HOUSTON, TEXAS and ORANGE, TEXAS. We may even drive over Lake Charles, LA if we’re lucky! Ha.

I’ve been really happy with how this image turned out, so I made a silver-gelatin print from the negative. I like the print even better than the ambrotype version.

Here’s the other ambrotype I’ve scanned (so far) as a negative.

One of my first nearly-successful ambrotypes. It’s fogged and has various problems. But this is really more the aesthetic that I’m going for. So the goal for the summer is to be able to get a really solid ambrotype so I can get back to this.

Also, Happy Birthday, Stacy!

In a neighborhood off University Ave. in South Atlanta, in the rain. It’s brighter when I save it for the web… and the color is a bit different. Ah well.

I had just set up my shot when a little boy that lived in this trailer got off the school bus. Yeah, I just left right away so as not to appear to be a weirdo. I love those situations.

These two ladies were kind enough to sit for me for a moment while on their rounds up here at the school last night. This is actually a scan from a color paper negative. In other words, I took RA-4 (color) paper that I use to print color photos in the darkroom, and I put it in an 8×10 film holder and exposed it as if it were a sheet of color negative film.

You should notice the obvious color cast, which reminds me of a cyanotype. I believe this is due to the layer of blue which is on color paper before it is processed. Does that make sense?

This was shot a few months back, and I just got a chance to scan it with our Imacon drum scanner at school. I’d shot Fischer Hall before, and have another image of it I’d like to post soon.

I finally made a proper scan of this negative. I think it looks a bit better than the first scan.

One from the archives that I never had a chance to scan properly. Now that I’m at school, I can scan up to what looks like a 16×20 transparency… or close to it. It’s a flatbed Microtek ScanMaker 9800XL. But the sweet scanner is the Imacon drum scanner that I can do my 4×5 and 120 film with. Very exciting indeed. I’m learning so much.

It covers everything in the South. I think it’s beautiful.

Another one with Polaroid 59. It turns out I wasn’t allowed to be as creative with the ID photo as I was told. I don’t like this one as much, but it’ll have to do, because I’m out of film.

The image I’m submitting for my student ID at SCAD.

Sure is hard to frame things up on a focusing screen in the dark. 6.5 minute exposure. Took three tries, and it freaked the owners out… a big white guy with a funky mustache across the street with a view camera for 15 minutes.

I asked Parnell to come over after work today. I’m asking several of my co-workers to come over for a shot or two before we leave town. You can read more about that on CrazyWalker. This was shot with expired Polaroid 59 (it’s the only kind I can afford now).

Check out this gorgeous image from my friend Polly Chandler.

Taken the other night at the nursery I pass every day on my way to and from work. They occasionally leave it lit up at night, and it always catches my eye. This isn’t exactly what I had in mind for the shot, but there’s not a higher vantage point from which to shoot. I may try again, though.

And for the record, Atlanta is pretty dang cool so far.

So this shot was a TAD underexposed. Scratch that… it was underdeveloped. But I managed to (almost) salvage these two square inches in the scanner. I’ll be reshooting it properly, but I must say I’m pretty disappointed with how bad the negative turned out. Anyone know of the time/dilution for using J&C 100 Pro in Ilford Ilfosol S?

I scanned this negative as just a sheet of paper on my flatbed scanner the other day (in other words, no backlighting). I haven’t had the time to get into the darkroom lately, and I just wanted to get an idea of how it turned out. It’s not the first time I’ve shot with my (relatively new) 8×10 camera, but this is the first image I’ve posted from it. The negative is pretty dense, as I don’t have a shutter for the lens I’m using (8 in. at f4.5, which is wide open). But I’m getting the aesthetic I’ve been wanting for awhile, I believe. And the good thing is this format will carry over to wet-plate nicely.

Now for the big news: I got into grad school. After applying every year since December 2003, I’ve finally been accepted somewhere, and I’m happy to say that the somewhere is Savannah College of Art & Design. Not only that, but I’ll be attending the new Atlanta campus. As you may know, a metropolitan area was a major factor in where I could even apply to school, for Stacy to find work. You can read more about it at CrazyWalker.