Another image from the San Juan Creek landscape series. Others from this series are found here and here.

This image is awesome in larger sizes. The details open up.

San Juan Creek in San Juan Capistrano, California was my muse for a couple of years. There was a wild array of creative outlets for me at San Juan Creek. I miss it.

For fun I’ve got a link to it on google maps here

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Technical information, wanton opinions and general Photo tips

Shot with Crown Graphic 5×7 view camera outfitted with the g-claron 305 f9 lens that Sam shocked me for Christmas 2008. Ilford delta 100 film. Exposure 1/15th second f 32.5

This photograph is about the graphic design. The landscape is submerged the background. Actually it’s not a landscape photograph it’s an abstraction.

I process my 5×7 film in 5×7 darkroom trays in my laundry room. It’s great. I listen to music on my ipod in the blackness and dance around with my fingers submerged in developer and fixer. It only takes a couple of days for the smell on my fingers to go away.

Last year I shot with Christian in Southern Arizona for couple of days and had 15 negatives to process. I was unloading the film to be processed and as I pulled the last sheet from the holder the music hit a high point and I awkwardly danced sideways. My elbow bumped the light switch and all of the film was ruined in an instant.

Now I tape the light switch down. It’s amazing what you learn through experience.

I’m following in the footsteps of other photographers that processed their film with their fingers. Brett Weston used a developer called Amidol that turned his fingernails black. When I saw photographs of him earlier in my career I thought “this guy was goth?”. He lived from 1911 to 1993.

A good website filled with his images is here.

He was one of the coolest cats ever to carry an 8×10. He drove porsches and wore designer sunglasses. A move that he made that boggles the mind was he burned all of his negatives in the 80’s so they wouldn’t be compromised by other photographers after his death.

Looking at the image one last time. I guess it’s kind of like a Sumi drawing.

-Jon Ball is a photographer. His website is www.studiojonball.com. Thank you for reading photo tips.