Rain: More Rain--Lots More Rain (November 28 to December 1, 2018)

Heavy rain overnight on the night of November 28 and 29 and into the morning hours left us with 2.3 inches of new precipitation as of noon on November 29. That brings our total for the 2018-2019 rain year to 7.00 inches. Judging from clouds on the horizon, there will be more, although its clearing right now.

[Sprinkles following this post added 0.15 inches to the total, which is now 7.15 inches as of 8:00PM November 30.]

[Still more rain later added 0.75 inches, to bring the total to 7.90 inches as of December 2, 2018 at my location in northeast Santa Rosa.]

[And yet more in the following days added 0.35 inches, bringing the total to 8.25 inches. More rain is predicted for the weekend of December 14-16] 

Art I'm Making: First Cyanotypes (November 25, 2018)

The cyanotype process has always fascinated me, but it's only been in the past couple of months that I've started investigating it in earnest, thanks to my brother, who built me an amazing UV exposure box, and to Bob Cornelis, who has been extraordinarily generous with his time and advice.

After many trials, I printed my first actual attempts at making photos yesterday. Some tweaking is still in order (the midtones are greyer than I would like), but generally speaking, I'm quite pleased at having achieved crisp whites and dark, velvety blacks--or blues, I should say. 

This view of the Transamerica Pyramid, in San Francisco, was done on Arches Platine paper using the traditional cyanotype formula, coating the paper twice. 15-minute exposure. Processed in water with one tablespoon vinegar/quart of water for one minute. Then rinsed in a bath of one tablespoon hydrogen peroxide/quart of water for 30 seconds. Washed 15 minutes. Off to a good start. :) 

[My very first cyanotype was actually more than two-and-a-half years ago. Here's a link to a comment about that attempt.] 

[And I've made some progress since posting this ]