Last week, complete with its March-like weather of rain, snow, and wind, along with both ice and mud on our road, was an excellent time for research.  Our wonderful iMac is nearly ten years old, and although it does fill most of our computing needs, the system will no longer accept software and operating system updates.  So there are several things we can no longer do with it, and new photography software is not compatible with it.  The Epson R3000 Stylus Photo Printer is also a jewel, but getting it to print at nine years old, is a little like feeding a child broccoli.  The fussiness of it has been frustrating for several years. And with all the amazing research that can be done online (and the internet is an incredible tool), research still takes time.  From hardware to software, the end results have to be right.

But I was able to make some prints of the photographs from last week's blog.  I used three different kinds of Epson fine art papers including Epson Hot Press Bright and Natural, as well as the Velvet Fine Art, and to my surprise, the Velvet Fine Art Paper produced the best results.  My time, then, except for playing the role of "water person" for Team Black and minder for Fred while he was out chipping ice off the road, was spent working with past photographs of which I am fond, rendering them in black and white.  Each person, wearing either everyday clothes or costume, is "dressing the part."

Colin Henderson, a farmer who raises Navajo-Churro sheep in southern Colorado, is shown here wearing his very worthy and well-worn hat.

Colin Henderson b&w

In the image below, Jessica dresses the part of fantasy maiden in the mountains west of Tres Piedras.

Jessica Fry playing the part

Here is Fred as a modern western cowboy.

Cowboy FredKONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Finally, Ashley and Gene loved posing for a quasi-Taos gothic version of American Gothic.

Ashley and Gene

A whole group of you responded to last week's ice abstracts, and it pleases me that you enjoyed them Christina, Luella, Suz, Terry T., Robert, Lisa, David O., Paule, Barbara F.R., Steve, Susie, Dianne, Catherine, Pauli, Kelly, Claudia, Pri, Debra, TTT, and Sara.  Many thanks to one and all.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image@