CNP Print meet alert

[Raviprakash S S]

Dear all,

We are planning for next CNP Print meet tentatively on June 10th at JP Nagar club, Bangalore. Plan is to make it a half day event(starting afternoon), We will provide further details in this thread as we make further progress with the plan. Requesting for maximum participation.

Please call me or Vikas for any clarifications.

Regards,
Ravi & Vikas

[Shankar Kiragi]

Ravi, Vikas, Looking forward to it.

[Raviprakash S S]

Dear All,

June 10th Print meet plan is confirmed. We can start the event around noon and go on till evening like usual. Time to get your prints done!

Regards,
Ravi & Vikas

[Raviprakash S S]

Dear All,

Request you all to RSVP by responding to this thread. Also to plan the activities better, we need to understand if you are bringing prints or want to cover any specific topic related to printing/paper/frame. Friends(non CNP members) who want to attend or share anything on these topics are welcome too.

Based on different interactions we had Ganesh, RD, Shankar, Ramesh, Rajkumar, Umashankar, Madhav, Sravan, Vidyun, Vihaan, Prashanth, Vipin, Nithin have confirmed their participation till now.

Regards,
Ravi & Vikas

[Rajkumar]

Hi
I have three suggested session from my side
1. Gum prints, examples, process, challenges and opportunities - 30 min I could use 45 min if possible
2. 35mm slide projection and discussion - Ganesh ? Shankar and me will bring some 35mm slides and a projector ( old type not LCD) - Discussions around depth of colors and contrast in slides - 30 min ? If we can see some 4X5 slides also Ganesh it will be a pleasure
3. Ultra large from Negatives and Printing - 20 min

Can eliminate or reduce if time is a crunch
thanks

[Ganesh H Shankar]

Raj, Sure, I will bring some of my slides which are 15+ years old (Velvia/Provia 100F). I don't have many 4x5 slides. I will bring couple them! I am very keen to see your large gum prints if you have made them now (after we met).

If any of you have made more prints please bring! I think we will have enough time I guess.

Looking forward to the meet!!

[Ashwini Kumar Bhat]

Please bring the slides. I will get the slide viewer Lightbox (Kodak) and a Nikon Loupe to enjoy the slide-viewing. I will also get a few slides that I have shot recently.

I will also bring a few silver gelatin prints which I got printed recently.

Here is the list that I am planning to get for this week's meet:

1. Around 8-10 silver gelatin prints
2. Few digital prints of the same images (on Epson Enhanced matte paper).
3. Will try to get a few additional prints that I am planning to get printed this week.
4. Few Slides along with Lightbox and Loupe.

and yes, I am in for your head-count @Raviprakash .

[Ganesh H Shankar]

Ashwin!

Great! Looking forward to!!

Friends, I will try to print a few slides. I have a Leica slide projector which I have not opened for past 20 years I guess. I am not sure whether it is in working condition. I will check. It needs a 110V power supply too

[Rajkumar]

Thanks Ganesh. My plan to bring projector flopped. So if at all possible bring it. Otherwise we can shoot for next time

[Ashwini Kumar Bhat]

Please do get your slides. Even if there is no projector, we can enjoy them on the lightbox and loupe that I am bringing.

Looking at the slides through the loupe is a wonderful experience in itself. Many of you may agree with me on this.

[Shankar Kiragi]

I plan to bring some prints of my images made with iPhone.
Shall get some slides which are about 18-19yrs old.

Ravi, Vikas,
Should we publish the timings of the print meet.

Thanks

[ramesh_adkoli]

Team,

I will bring few run-of-the-mill digital prints.

Regards,
Ramesh

[Raviprakash S S]

Thank you all for your responses. This print meet looks to be very exciting!

Let us plan to join around noon. We can have casual discussions along with lunch at the Club. We can start the sessions post lunch around 2:30. Let us continue Print discussions till about 6:30 or 7:00 followed by dinner as usual.

Regards,
Ravi & Vikas

[Ganesh H Shankar]

Umashankar and myself got some prints done today. I will bring them along with some of my old slides.

[Shankar Kiragi]

Looking forward to see beautiful images from you all.

Friends,

Below is the Google map location of the JP Nagar Club (JP Nagar Cultural Association) .

https://goo.gl/maps/yzEFxZ7PCgDbkpMu7

[Ganesh H Shankar]

What a fantastic print meet it was!!

Ravi & Vikas, thank you for making all the arrangements. Thanks to everyone who participated and shared their views/critiques on the prints.
Thanks to Umashankar, Ramesh, Vihaan, RD, Ashwin, Madhav, Raj and Shankar for sharing their beautiful and artistic prints.
It was an excellent learning opportunty too.

Raj's session on Gum Printing with samples of prints he showed is very new to us. The quality of these prints is ethereal and artistic to say the least. I also learnt from Ashwin's comparison prints of slide scan inkjet prints vs. wet room prints. Infinitely smoother changes in how light fixes pixels on the paper vs how an inkjet printer sprays pixels on paper is clearly evident. Without comparison prints, we would not have known what we missed in the digital print. I do believe it is possible to replicate that finer tonal gradation on the digital outputs but then we may not know, to start with, what we missed without a reference wet room print (unless we routinely make hundreds of thousands of inkjet prints).

Here are a few photos I have captured using my cell phone. Please pardon me for the quality of these photos.

Thanks again to you all for joining. Special thanks to Prashanth and Adithya UN who had a long overnight journey to attend the event!

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The above Gum Bichromate Print by Raj is elusively very beautiful! Of course this web image above can't do any justice compared to the experience of holding the print and staring at it for long.

[Rajkumar]

Thanks all for the patient hearing and feedback . Long way to go and keep exploring . Few other points to record

- Ramesh presented some excellent Rock formation abstracts. His point on non reflective glass and demo was a useful pointer

- Loved RD bird impression. He also gave a pointer on Artist fixative as a lacquer coat on works as a alternative to glass
- Ashwin's adaptation of off beat lenses ( like a Russian projector lens ) was interesting . I saw some excellent portraits on his phone. Has good potential
- Some of the people shots - Madhav with Kids and one rural portrait by Umashankar were excellent
- Vihaan showed us an excellent bird habitat shot
- I also feel a bit of attention to final framing and presentation goes a long way in making a statement. Non flat paper takes away from the impact IMHO. IKEA solution are very cost effective and pictures can easily be changed
- Ganesh's minimalistic "Ashokan Edict" type firefly impression was brilliant and a pleasure. Best part it was gallery wrapped and final presentation form ( Ashokan Edict was in Brahmi script 200 BCE and also talked a bit about preserving nature !!!! )
- Shankar's diptych approach creates new possibilities and was interesting - Matter and anti-matter presentations
Others please add

[Ganesh H Shankar]

Thanks Raj, for adding your notes.

Dear all (those who attended yesterday), please share your notes/views.

We do have many CNP members who live far away and could not attend the meeting yesterday. The knowledge/learning may be very useful to others who want to explore this beautiful journey. As noted earlier, it appears that we need to learn from others' failed/successful attempts/experiences too, not just ours

#CNPPrintMeet

[Shankar Kiragi]

All,

Print meet has gained enough momentum from the days where only Ganesh and Ramesh started sharing prints. I remember our 1st, 2nd and may be 3rd print meets happened in Lalbagh (due to the need of natural light). We in CNP have come a long way from our creative effort in making images to re-producing them on papers. We learn new things in every print meet, we get more ideas.

We had an opportunity to see some of Umashankar’s interesting prints. He has more interesting collection and we love to see more.

Ramesh’s usual high-quality bench marking B&W prints are eye catchy. We love to see Ramesh’s collection of rocks/water abstracts in a booklet soon.

RD’s extra wide format of artistical birds’ images are unique and interesting. We love to see more unique images from RD.

Vihaan at such a young age has the potential to reach higher hights. Monkeys’ backlit landscape image was a stealer. I wish him greater skill and success in years to come.

I felt Ashwini’s practical lab on film v/s digital came live at the table, with so many variables to manage and examples of output were at the table . Some of those film native prints hit the right chord in us. I just feel there no stopping for any reason to do film photography. Hope the film industry takes U-turn and enable more souls across the world to continue film photography.

Raj’s endeavour in making real soul satisfactory image making journey continues. His hit rate of 1-2 gum print images per day is all time high of patience and it is at the other extreme end of the digital photography graph where 50-100 of hundreds digital images per day are made. Gum printing in its own sense a true art using science and chemistry. Every image made in gum print process is unique, one of its kind and great value. At the end results are just fabulous with rustic feel and are in different league.

Ganesh’s new set of fireflies’ images in large prints were awesome. They need to be printed on transparencies and must be displayed in art museums and as well as in high-end Jazz - Blues music bars in NY, Tokyo or somewhere

Good to see UN Aditya after several years and inspiring to hear his rocky mountain trekking & photography experience in Colorado.

As usual a great planning and arrangement from Ravi & Vikas.

Thanks to all who attended and made the event memorable.

Until next time.

[Prashanth Sampagar]

Dear Friends,

Thanks to Raj for the session on Gum printing. Something very new to most of us there. I request Raj for one practical session if your time permits and also if logistics is not an issue.

Thanks to the youngest CNPian Vihaan for sharing his work.

Thanks Umashankar, Ramesh, Shankar, RD, Madhav, Ashwini and Ganesh for the prints.

And thanks to Ravi and Vikas for arranging everything, also to all those who attended the meet.

To say about this meet why we put this meet at very high priority in our lists. I can try to explain what was there and what was not there from my perspective.

Not there,
Images of tiger, leopard or any other exotic species. No, absolutely none. No exotic places. No exotic subjects.
Even with this many 'No's, I believe I saw one of the best images on a print.

What was there
The collective photographic experience of more than 300 years. People with 2-3 decades of photography experience and still with an intent to experiment and learn. And great teachers, learners and human beings.

What happens when all these come together. A great learning experience. These meets have helped me to be bit more disciplined in the way I shoot, the way I process and consume an image. I've decided not to miss any of these events in future.

Thanks once again to all of you.

Best regards

[Madhav Jois]

Thank you all for making meet a wonderful one! I was amazed to see so much knowledge about this craft. The passion our members have towards making images shows in their effort! Inspired to say the least!

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[Shankar Kiragi]

Sorry, I completely missed to mention Madhav's beautiful colourfull prints which we had seen last print meet. This time Madhav's new images of those kids were just so cute.
Thanks Madhav for sharing.

[Rajkumar]

Thanks all again.
@Prashant sure will do a practical session sometime. Need to sort out issues with registration and printing Digital negatives still. Post that we can plan thanks

[Nevil Zaveri]

Great efforts n collective learning. I can only guess, how much I must be missing
Keep it up!, everyone.

Warm regards.

[Prashanth Sampagar]

Thanks Raj. Will be looking forward to the session.

Best regards
Prashanth