Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA. 2023.

The annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival was held in Golden Gate Park the weekend I composed my October 2023 Newsletter. I’m editing the page as I’m watching the live feed from Day Three. The free live music is great to see, and gives me a chance to extend my musician series with ever more photographs of people whose work I admire. I decided to go back in for part of Day Three.

So many Stages to choose from with simultaneous good music always makes it hard to even know where to be. This year, I went all three days.

Rickie Lee Jones. Horseshoe Hill performance the day before her big Banjo Stage appearance. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA. 2023.

Trail between Stages. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA. 2023.

Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Colin Gilmore, Kelly Willis. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA. 2023.

John Craigie. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA. 2023.

Bill Kirchen, Jimmy Dale Gilmore. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA. 2023.

Doc Watson Tribute. Horseshoe Hill Stage. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA. 2023.

In the crowd. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA. 2023.

Rufus Wainwright. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA. 2023.

Hardly Srtrictly Bluegrass. Golden Gate Park. San Francsico.

The lawn at Banjo Stage. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA. 2023.

Hardly Srtrictly Bluegrass. Golden Gate Park. San Francsico.

Corpse Flower. Conservatory of Flowers. Golden Gate Park

Corpse Flower. Conservatory of Flowers. Golden Gate Park.

The flower bloomed the evening of July 3. This photograph is from the morning of July 4.

https://conservatoryofflowers.org
It did have a live Stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MW96uQgHL8

Link to Treehugger.com

Photograph was assembled from multiple averaged images, and repaired a bit in Photoshop.

the line waiting to get into the Conservatory.

Silvery Black and White Print from Mono Lake. 1979

Grasses. Paoha Island. Mono Lake, CA. 1979. Copyright 1979 Stephen Johnson. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.From “At Mono Lake.” www.atmonolake.org

The silvery highlights in this photograph from Mono Lake made me fall in love with this print from 1980. In the darkroom, a two-bath paper developer process allowed softer and extended highlight development followed by a short emersion in a strong developer to hit the more exposed (darker) areas of the print. This technique was inspired by my friend Ted Orland who used it on a wonderful print, as I recall, of an old gas station pump.

The darkroom print development for this print, as best I can recall, was Kodak Selector Soft as the first developer, in the tray for quite a long time. It might have even been as long as 9 minutes. The idea was to fully develop the highlight and mid-tone values, then use Kodak Dektol as a second more powerful developer (30 seconds to a minute or two) to take the print’s dark values, now saturated with developer, but still only dark gray from the Selectol-Soft, and let the Dektol take the dark values to a rich black. The paper I used was Agfa Brovira toned briefly in Selenium toner after development.

I was so pleased with the results that I made 5 identical prints and froze the paper to come back and do more. I was never able to repeat the effect.

I made this image while gathering work for my group show “At Mono Lake.”

Explore alternative and beautiful tonal interpretations in my Digital Black and White Vision and Printing Workshop on June 24–25. One spot left.
Register: bit.ly/45ViaJl

Some Early Zone System Work

Yosemite Aspens. 1977.

My first use of the Zone System in my photography was employing a N+ Development on the film to build density on the highlights while under-exposing the blackening leaves a bit. I was delighted by the resulting silvery glow on the bark and the rich dark values. My adoption of the Zone system at the time was multiple backs for my Mamiya RB67, each dedicated to a particular development. Using the Zone System, even with my lightweight use of it, was a very empowering technique for realizing the glow I had seen in so many black and white photographs I admired.

Digital Black and White Vision and Printing Workshop. June 24-25, 2023

bit.ly/45ViaJl

The Peregrine Falcons Are Back

Peregrine Falcon Adult with Young Ones. May 29, 2023.

It’s Spring, and the nesting Peregrine Falcons are back here on the coast. This is my third year of making a real point of watching them, and it continues to be fascinating.

The need for long lenses continued to be a challenge, so I borrowed Canon’s 2022 RF1200mm lens. Although sharpness remains a problem, from atmopsherics, to focus challenges, the added focal length did help dramatically.

Part of the challenge is angle of view for seeing into the nesting cave. The closer I got to the cliffs, the more I am looking up, and the shallower the view in. Further away provides a deeper interior view, but of course, is further away, demanding more focal length. I usually choose an in-between point, but the view of the birds depends on how close to the front of the cave they happen to be.

Canon R5 with RF1200mm lens on the cliffside trail.

The babies have grown very fast, losing their down and discovering their wings in the course of only 5 days, right front of us.

A fellow photographer on the hillside told me of a wonderful 1967 book, The Peregine by J. A. Baker. I’m enjoying his words. The book has further deepen my interest.

Falcon Chicks. Pacifica, CA. May 25, 2023.

Young Falcons. Pacifica, CA. May 29, 2023.

After a week’s loan of the lens, and many hours out on the often cold and windy cliffs, I think I’ve given a good try to the effort and present a few for you here.

I’ll add more here as I sort through recent photos.

Joan Baez “I am Noise” SF Movie Premiere. April 18, 2023.

I was privileged to be among a full house audience of Joan Baez fans at the classic Castro Theater for the San Francisco Premiere of the new documentary movie on her life “I am Noise.” A question and answer period followed the movie which is when I made these photographs.

The movie was very well crafted, containing many personal stories, artwork, and explored some very difficult issues.

2023 SFFILM FESTIVAL

JOAN BAEZ I AM NOISE

Directed by Miri Navasky, Maeve O’Boyle, Karen O’Connor (USA, France, Ireland, UK, Turkey 2023, 109 min) 

In her 20s, Joan Baez was the undisputed queen of folk music, one of the first people to recognize Bob Dylan’s talent and record his songs (the two would also make another kind of music together for a while), and someone who used her rising celebrity to fight for civil rights and justice and against the war in Vietnam. This entrancing documentary takes a long look back at Baez’s wild ride while following the longtime San Mateo County resident on her 2018/2019 Fare Thee Well Tour. The final Baez standing after the deaths of her two sisters and her parents, Baez gives an account not just of her singular life of art and activism but also spins a complicated family story. Music, archival material, and oral history combine for a stunning glimpse into the voice of a generation. Expected guests: Joan Baez, director Miri Navasky, director Karen O’Connor.

Jessie Fairbanks, Director of Programming for SF Film Festival and Joan Baez.

Joan Baez, director Miri Navasky, director Karen O’Connor.

Canon R5, RF600mm lens ISO6400

Joan’s Awesome Boots.

David Crosby. 2005.

David Crosby. Bridge School Benefit Concert with CSNY. October 30, 2005.

We lost David Crosby last month. He was an outstanding and passionate singer/songwriter. It happened to be the same day my brother passed away. Crosby’s death left me sad, with many memories of performances I had seen, the last was solo at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley. I intended to dig out a few photographs I had made over the years. Ironically, it was while looking for pictures of my brother that I stumbled into some from the Bridge School Benefit Concert in 2005. I like this one very much, as he seemed inside his head and the song. He was onstage with some of his great friends, they were making great music and I felt so lucky to be there.

I think it was at this show, as my good friend Jim Rubino and I were walking out from the backstage toward the exit, Crosby and what I believed to be his son were walking toward a bus on the pathway below. I couldn’t help but shout out to him how great he sounded. He called back, “No, it was Nash.” I called back saying it was him, how beautiful his voice was. He said thanks and then said to his son something like, “that nice man said I sang real good.” I was very touched by the interaction. 

Purchase David Crosby Print and Help Bridge School.

CSNY. Bridge School Benefit Concert. 2005. October 30, 2005. Shioreline Ampitheater. Mountian View, CA

In cooperation with the Bridge School in 2005 we sent around prints of CSNY on stage together from that show to all four musicians to sign as fundraisers for the school. They were each given a copy, The Bridge School used the signed print for their Parent’s Raffle. There is still one signed print left but there can be no more with David gone. Proceeds from this special 5 signature print go to the Bridge School. Email to make offer.

Purchase a print signed by Steve alone.

A few words about music and my photography from November 2005

Animals Among Us

http://www.sjphoto.com/copyright.html

I keep feeling the pull to explore the lives of animals living among us, not for us, rescues among them. We relate to animals in so many ways, agriculture is one way, heart is another. I don’t know if this will turn into a project, a mere gesture, or something else. But it has become an exploration and these few photographs are only the beginning.

These photos are from a few hours spent on New Years Day at Charlie’s Acres Farm Animal Sanctuary in Sonoma, CA.

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http://www.sjphoto.com/copyright.html

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http://www.sjphoto.com/copyright.html

http://www.sjphoto.com/copyright.html

Moon and Mars

Mars slipping behind the Moon tonight. Mars at 51 million miles, Moon at about 250,000 miles. Mars: 4,222 miles in diameter, Moon: 2159 miles. I was looking forward to this event. It seemed like a moment to be witnessed. It turned out to be much more than that, becoming a story of size, distance and wonder.

The International Space Station flew above us just minutes before, arcing brightly across the western sky. Suddenly a meteor streaked down just below the ISS while we were watching its transit. It was quite a space evening.

Canon R5 RF800mm lens.

1. 

   Bill Kendall

   December 9, 2022

   Wonderful! So glad you were able to capture this event – and a beautiful day in Bay Area “paradise” sure helped with the atmospheric clarity. You capture a fine sense of scale and the polar ice cap, which doesn’t show up in today’s published image at APOD: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221209.html

2. 

   kirk moore

   December 11, 2022

   Awesome!!!

Wild Horses near Mono Lake

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During my recent Mono Lake Workshop, we were told there was a herd of wild horses wandering through the Mono Basin and places southeast of Mono Lake. So we went looking and found scores of them in the open desert. The first four we encountered were happily grazing near some water. The Featured Print above shows some of the interaction.

An imperfect panoramic stitch of the horse heard with a few duplicate horses, but enough promise to work on more. 2022.

The herd we saw off in distance looked huge, with at least dozens of horses. One male seemed dominate among them and led the whole heard across the road in front of us, making for a great view, but challenging photographs with so many, all moving and for me at least, with the 800mm lens on. Some of my students had a greater variety of views with their shorter lenses. The old photojournalist technique of multiple cameras with different focal length lenses would have been a good option. Perhaps I’ll start carrying the second Canon R5 body…

http://www.sjphoto.com/copyright.html