Duke and Parson 4×5

One more for the road.  This was also shot at the bowling alley during the Christmas party, though I didn’t really feel that it went with the others.  I try to print a copy for each subject though I didn’t see either of these guys last year, so this picture along with a few others that I had spares for, are all hanging up in our office.  I’m glad I work at a place that appreciates what I do.

And here’s the alternate because I almost always make one:

So that’s it as far as large format work goes.  I did have a few more that I’d developed before the COVID shutdown near the end of March, but I never was able to get them scanned…I also have 12 more sheets waiting to be developed.  It will take a while before I’m able to get that done also, but my photo instructor promised to let me back in to finish all that up when this thing is all over.  This post was just waiting at the bottom of my queue but since tonight is this year’s “Christmas” party it seemed a fitting time to publish.

In the family way 4×5

This is a bit of a change for me, family portraits: my brother, our mom, his wife, and her mom.  My brother doesn’t like getting his picture taken and hates sitting still for it even more so I suppose this tried his patience the most considering the slow workflow of large format, but I think I got what I wanted and hopefully the rest of the family did too.  I printed two of these and gave them as presents so I see them in person rather often.

The big news was that my sister-in-law and brother were expecting their first baby; the poses were all her idea (I suppose she saw them online somewhere and because it was cold outside we used the big bay window in my mom’s upstairs living room.  Looking at them now I think that the background might be a bit busy but it was the best room in the house for it.

This was me still learning development techniques and you can see it around the edges of the frame, I think this would have been Thanksgiving of ’19 but I’m no longer sure.

Cowboy and horse 4×5

An actual real cowboy, that is, part of a dying breed.  I’m not a real cowboy, I just play one on TV.

He was patriarch of a family of horsewomen that run a stables up in the mountains; when we do horseback riding tours we take them up to his family’s stables.  Sadly he died this Summer and I hardly knew him or got to speak with him.

This is the outtake, the horse was less cooperative than the human.  The more I look at these the more I think that I should print them in a landscape orientation and cut off the top/bottom, they’ll be better framed that way.  I would have done it in camera but I wanted to shoot fast and let the guy get on with his day.

I went back and reviewed my work over the last few years and found several posts with pictures shot up at the stables.  Here they are:
Dutch
Colorado Elk
Project Pt.II, Adv.Photo Redux
Horses
Jeep Tours 2017 Super 8 Edition, Pt.I
Eve’s Cantina

Eve’s Cantina 4×5

Up at the stables again.  The Cantina opened up this year and has come in handy when my passengers need a last-minute shot of Dutch Courage to handle 1000-foot drop-offs and windy dirt roads.

She had to stand really still for this exposure, I think I timed it at 15 seconds or somewhere around there.

Bowling alley cowboys 4×5

(and cowgirl)

These were from last year’s Christmas party held the end of November, this year at a large place on the North side of Colorado Springs, with bowling, but also laser tag, an arcade, etc.  I told everyone to come dressed in their work outfits and I would take pics, but only a few did which made it into more of a prank than I intended, plus so many people refused to sit still long enough.

Ilford HP5+ pushed to 1600.  The lighting wasn’t terrific and even with the extra 2 stops my shutter speeds were very low.

Clementine and Mustang Sally 4×5

Two of the cowgirls at our outfit, Clementine and Mustang Sally.

Happy December.

Dutch 4×5

He used to be a photographer, which I might have mentioned.

I’m still trying to get a couple of his cameras…

Curly Bill 4×5

He’s not the Sheriff so don’t be fooled by his badge: it reads “Official Brothel Inspector.”

.

Kid Carson 4×5

He primarily runs the desk at Garden of the Gods.

I took this on a slow day when there wasn’t much going on (which has been hard to find since).

Eagle Rock 4×5

A guy I had a hand in training.  Actually as I’ve been driving tours for 5 seasons I’ve had a hand in training a majority of the drivers now!

This was toward the beginning of my developing sheet film and is still very splotchy; the other shots that were in the tank at the same time came out better but I think the lighting was a bit more even there.  I only bought one 10-sheet box of Kodak film (T-max 400), I wanted to support the cause but Kodak has given up even trying to compete price-wise in their large format film.