TexasGirl Photography

Friends, it’s been a wild few weeks! I find myself now with the Big Project that occupied my time and brain completed, with even the show portion done and dusted, so now I have hopes of getting back into the darkroom to print whatever strikes my fancy. I would like to start revisiting the body of work I’ve built up over the past few years making road trips out west. Recently I wrote and published a whole slew of sonnets on my Medium account; they were surprisingly popular to the point where I am considering making a little book of them.

And speaking of road trips out west, we took one last week to Big Bend: our annual pilgrimage, to the back country yet again. We went out a day early to visit Marfa, having been there nine or so years ago with puzzled minds (we honestly couldn’t figure out what it was about that town that so many people go bananas for). I’ve wanted to go back ever since that first trip, and this was the perfect time.

Above are some cell phone pics from the evening we spent in Alpine, including the tail-less welcoming committee at our interestingly basic but clean motel.

Our time in Marfa is a subject for another post! Big Bend was amazing; we arrived on Sunday and had wonderful weather every day. It wasn’t too hot, and – best of all – it wasn’t too windy! BUT FIRST let me sing the praises of the French Grocer in Marathon, TX. Delicious coffee, friendly people, a place we always look forward to stopping. I was sad we didn’t make it there on the way back; we ended up leaving at 10pm for Ft Stockton from the park, but again that adventure is a topic for another post.

The back country was gorgeous! We camped on Pine Canyon Road for a second year in a row, and were not disappointed. It’s wonderful being so secluded. You can’t even hear your camp neighbor’s car door slam, and the only light you see at night is either your own lamp or the ones that are celestial in origin.

Since we have been to Big Bend a few times, I decided to play around with some experimental films. I did that in Marfa, too, knowing that somewhere I have a whole army of proper negatives of the place. I exposed my Frugal Film Project roll with my Holga there, and one of the rolls I got from KONO!

It was the same story in the park: I used a roll of new-to-me Ilford XP2 that I received in a Find Lab mystery box. The advice they sent with the film was to overexpose it a stop, so I put it in my Ondu pinhole camera, since I pretty much always err on the side of overexposure (unless I’m using color film).

I exposed another roll of KONO! film there too.

Like I said, we had an incredible time, with so many beautiful moments and some great hiking. I have already started developing the b&w I brought back, and am planning on treating myself to some processing since I already have a credit with the Find Lab. All the Big Bend color will go to them (no pressure y’all).

On Friday (March 17), we rolled back into town around 3pm. I underwent a frenzy of unpacking, cleaning, and showering, and made it to the Gala Reception for the Georgetown Photography Festival on time! It was a wonderful evening; I loved meeting the other featured photographers and speakers, plus David Valdez (the founder) gave us each a terrific plaque! Here’s an instant photo my friend from the Williamson Museum made of us with my Lomo Automat camera.

The photography festival itself, on Saturday the 18th, represented the final culmination of everything I worked for with my project last August / September. All the photo making time, the developing, the printing: it all paid off beyond my wildest dreams – seriously. It was an amazing day! I had a constant flow of kind people coming to see what I’d made, I had so many great conversations, made so many new friends, and had the time of my life. I was thrilled to meet a bunch of other film photographers, too, including a guy who was making wet plates on the square! I could go on and on about this, but I’ll spare you. Instead, keep tabs and make sure you go next year. It will mean the world to the featured photographers, trust me.

I brought along the camera I’d used to make all the work, AND a book I threw together almost at the last minute to showcase every single photo (minus the absolute duds) that I made for the project as a whole. There are over 200 photographs inside.

The book was just a proof copy, and I didn’t anticipate anyone wanting a copy, but the feedback I received said otherwise: I need to add a location index and tweak the cover, but once I have that done I will post about it here and provide a link for anyone who would like to have one. They will be available via Blurb and – possibly – at the Williamson Museum shop.

It also occurred to me, having had a number of discussions with people on the day, that there might be a need for a local film photography group. So, watch for news: more than likely, I’m going to get one up and running. We have a different workflow, after all, so I reckon we need our own little space to geek out about film stocks, developers, alternative processes, and our gear.

Here’s me and my man cheesin’ in the back country – one of our happy places. Thanks for reading, y’all!