Mark Cassino Photography - Mark's Blog

Things have been a bit quiet around here lately. I spent the first week of this month in Chicago, enjoying the urban life. It was great trip. Pam and I staying at the Congress Plaza Hotel, right on Michigan Avenue. Highlights included visits to the Art Institute, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Field Museum, and, of course, The Dark Knight at the Imax.

Since vacations are supposed to be an opportunity to get away from old habits, I decided to bring a film camera. I finally used up the last of my Ilford XP2 Super – which was considerably out of date. I also shot over a dozen rolls of Fuji Neopan 400 and Adox CHM 400 film.

The Adox film is re-badged Ilford HP 5+, and used to be sold through J and C Photo. The expiration date on the box was 7/2008 – so shooting it in the first week of August, 2008, was right on time. Remarkably, aside from the XP2 Super and a couple of rolls of Plus-X, all the film I shot on this trip was fresh. I guess I’m still using up 35mm ISO 400 B&W film.

I shot 15 rolls of film during the trip, and have been slowly working my way through developing them. The film workflow is certainly a lot slower than the digital workflow, especially when you are developing it yourself.

For development, I mixed up one of my last bags of Micrdol-X, which I’ve been using at the 1:3 dilution. The development time for the Adox CHM 400 is easy to remember – 22 minutes at 22C. For the Fuji Neopan, I’ve been working with the 15.5 minutes at 22C.

So far, 12 of the 15 rolls shot have been developed, but only a handful of those have been scanned. Did I mention that the film workflow is pretty slow?

At home, other projects have been keeping me away from blogging. First and foremost, I’m trying hard to re-do this entire website. Really – it’s time for a new look and a structure that makes a little sense. So, I’m trying to hold off on adding to the current site while the new one is in process – so no new images in the Image Stream at this point.

After a few weeks without heavy rain, things are starting to look like they usually do at the end of July. The fields are tinged with brown, the water in the marsh is receding, and the red dragons rule. Driving down dirt roads, I see a swirling vortex of dust rising up from behind the car. For weeks now the rear window has been covered with brown powder, and when I glance in the mirror I’m only looking back through a dark glass.

Things in the Allegan Forest are a bit different this year as well. I realized this last week that there has been virtually no gunfire in the woods this summer – a real change from past years. This is also a mowing year in the game area – several of my favorite fields that were last mowed three or four years ago, were mowed again this summer. Several fields off 44th Ave, plus the large fields north of the river off 125th Street have been cut. Of the places I regularly visit, only the fields off 48th Avenue remain untouched.

It will be more than a week till I return, and by then even those places may be mowed.

Anyhow, this last week I made a few desultory ventures out photographing. All things being equal, I probably should have staying in and worked on myriad other projects, but I wanted to capture the summer while it was still here.

A couple of trips to the Allegan forest were highly productive. I really worked the red meadowhawks – which I reckon now are about one third White Faced Meadowhawks with the balance being Cherry Faced, Ruby, and even a few Autumn Meadowhawks. The shot above, which was subject to some digital manipulation, is one of the more interesting dragonfly shots I’ve taken this year. I call it Jachim, Boaz, and the Red Dragon. Why not?

I also managed to get a final, goodbye shot of a Blue Dasher, below, which isn’t half bad.

Around the house, I found three or four cicada exuviae around the house this week. In one case the living cicada was on the wall of my garage, next to its abandoned larval exoskeleton. I caught it and put it on a tree, where it quickly raced towards the top – after a very frantic round of shooting (and repositioning the insect a few times) I finally called it quits when the memory card was full.

Overall, a good week and a good start to August. More photos:

Goodbye, Blue Dashers. Hello, red meadowhawks…

I guess that sums things up. I only went shooting one day this week, and that was a visit to the Allegan Forest on Thursday. I spent the time in the fields off 48th Ave. The Blue Dashers are diminishing rapidly. The Dot-tailed Whitefaces are gone. And now the red meadowhawks are out in abundance. 

When I say ‘red meadowhawk,” I’m not referring to any particular species. There are Whitefaced Meadowhawks, Cherryfaced Meadowhawks, Ruby Meadowhawks, and soon Yellow Legged (a.k.a. Autumn) Meadowhawks. There were still some Blue Dashers on the wing – but the months are turning and the red dragon’s time is coming.

Last Thursday I also encountered a couple of species that I had not seen before. The most interesting was a the Eastern Ambertail. This dragonfly is very small – just over an inch in length. I found a few individuals flying and perching in a patch of Bee Balm. Both of the individuals I saw were females, but I’ll be looking for a male to round out the photographic collection.

The other new sighting was a little less distinctive. This was a SlatyFour Spotted Skimmer, which strikes me as one of the plainest dragonflies I’ve ever seen. At first I thought it was a female whitetail or twelve spotted skimmer that I have gotten covered in mud. But the more I looked the more I realized it was something different, so I managed to get one shot of it at the edge of the temporary marsh. It seemed to be quite alone – I only saw this one individual – but there must be others around.

We’ve gone a few weeks in west Michigan without major rains, and the temporary marsh is beginning to recede a bit. However, it is still much higher now, in late July, than it often is in May or even April. Places that I walked though a few years ago, without even getting my feet wet, are still submerged. There’s been a great explosion of amphibians in the marsh, and on this trip I saw lots of green frogs and Fowler’s Toads along the water’s edge.

Two photos of hay bales in a summer field. Both taken on Kodak HIE infrared film, developed in Rodinal 1:25:

It’s been a wet summer, and the fields in west Michigan are green and verdant. Places that were dry grass two summers ago are completely submerged this year, and the populations of frogs and toads seem to be booming. Standing near the marsh now, I hear the “pliiiingggg” of bull frogs and the occasional chirps of other species. Wandering through the savannah, looking for dragonflies, I’ve stumbled into a few gray tree frogs and maybe even a couple of cricket frogs.

The Dot-tailed Whitefaced Dragonflies are gone. I found a photo of one on the memory card when I dumped this weeks work, but realized it was a hold over from July 3. I believe that was the last time I saw one, and probably marks the end of their presence this year.

The blue dashers remain out in force. They remind me of the Great Spangled Fritillaries a few years ago – they were just insanely abundant for one summer, after which their populations dropped back down to normal.

As the summer matures, the red dragonflies are coming out in numbers as well. So far I’ve seen only Whitefaced Meadowhaks. The distinctive white face on the fire engine red males make these an easy species to identify. But hopefully some ruby and cherry faced meadowhawks will be along soon. 

The butterfly weed is also in bloom and with the were Edwards Hairstreaks, Coral hairstreaks, and even a few Karner Blues.

More photos: 

Where to go on a hot July afternoon? Find a shady spot, of course. That was my logic last Thursday, when I found myself back in a clearing in the Allegan Forest - off of a barricaded two track, off of some seasonal road, off of 122nd avenue, off of M89. It was a place I’ve never been to before – I need to find more spots like that.

The Shadey Spot

You wouldn’t expect that I’d get tired of shooting dragonflies – it seems to take longer every season, but this week I finally lost the dragonfly vibe. Though the fields were teeming with blue dashers and more than a few skimmers of various sorts, I left the digital camera and the macro rig behind. I wandered back into the clearing with a trusty Pentax LX loaded with Rollei IR 400 film, a couple of zoom lenses, and an R72 filter.

I shot two rolls of the Rollei film – 72 frames, but with bracketing only about 20 different compositions. Digital has really spoiled me – I feel like I’ve wasted an afternoon if I don’t take 200 shots. That is one of the great perils of digital photography - you become your own army of monkeys, pounding at the shutter button. Accidental successes seem to be triumphs, but it’s hard to figure out how you got there and recreate the work. Not to mention that accidnets have no concept behind them.

Well - back to the fields and forest. I found a pearl in the sandy soil, often the case there.

This was my third session with the Rollei film. It was shot with the R72 filter, metered though the lens with the ISO set at 200 (thanks, Ray!) Film was developed in HC110, Dil H (1:66) at 20C for 24 minutes, with very low agitation (gentle agitation every 3 minutes for the first 12, then every 60 seconds.) I like it, but I don’t see it as a replacement for HEI. It’s much too slow with the R72 filter, and I really like using a plain red filter and being able to check and tweak the composition as I’m hitting the shutter button.

Rollei IR 400, with an R72 filter, is also a pretty high contrast film. Despite my attempt at using HC110 as a compensating developer, the film is a tough beast to tame with shadow areas virtually clear on the negative. But, when it comes to B&W shots, contrast is your friend. Not a friend I’ve really come to terms with, but working with this film has been a big boost in helping me understand and work with higher contrast mono shots.

The whitetail deer saw me long before I saw her. She bolted across the intermittent marsh, splashing water up over her head as she ran off.

I’ve encountered a deer on each of the last four visits to the vernal marsh off 48th avenue in the Allegan Forest. Maybe it is the same one, maybe not. But it is usually near the edge of the marsh and usually storms across it, making quite a commotion.

Sorry, no pictures of the deer. My slack and sleeping senses have been too dull to capture the deer in flight. I have been sincerely surprised each time this event happens, until I realize that it’s just like a few days ago.

Anyhow, I go to this place to take pictures of insects… particularly dragonflies. In that respect, it did not disappoint over the last week.

Dot Tailed Whiteface Dragonfly

The Dot Tailed Whitefaces are still out in force. I am amazed that I had not seen this species before, but looking over my older images they don’t come up. Although tye are smaller than many of the dragonfly species prevalent now, these plain black insects are still around.

Whitefaced Meadowhawk

Red Meadowhawks are back and growing in numbers. They will rule the next few months. I used to say that when the red dragons appear, fall is in the air – but these last few years have shown me htat they can come out in early summer. I expect that they will stay around for a while.

Otherwise, the blue darners, twelve spotted skimmers, window skimmers, and spangled skimmers are still abundant. And, of course, the blue dashers are still ruling the roost, and in several of the field sI visited were the most prominent dragonfly.

The sandy fields in the Allegan Forest are surprisingly verdant and green – thanks to the crazy weather we’ve been having (which includes a lot of heavy storms.) Walking back to the car after shooting near the intermittent marsh, I startled a young doe that was bedded down and hiding in the tall green grass and vetch. It was quite a sight to see this little deer – no larger than a terrier – scramble off to the wood line.

More images:

Dot Tailed Whiteface Dragonfly

Spangled Skimmer

Meadowhawk Dragonfly

Meadowhawk Dragonfly

Spangled Skimmer

Meadowhawk Dragonfly

Blue Dasher

Spangled Skimmer

Bee Hunter (Robberfly)

Meadowhawk Dragonfly

Widow Skimmer

Meadowhawk Dragonfly

Lyre-Tipped Spreadwing (?)

Whitefaced Meadowhawk

Whitefaced Meadowhawk

Six months ago Maryellen Hains pulled together a diverse group of local artists and proposed a show themed around the number seven. After a bit of reflection, discussion, and some very tasty lunches at Hunan Gardens, the group settled on the concept of working with the seven planets of the ancients.

The show was based around the concept of two artist first working independently on their pieces, and then coming together to create a collaborative piece.

Weaver Gretchen Hugget and I drew the planet Jupiter. While I was fascinated by the mythological and astrological aspects of Jupiter, I found actual images of the planet to be much more compelling.

And so I decided to create a photograph of the planet for my personal entry. A macro shot of algae floating on a mud puddle was the starting point – tweaking the color channels to turn green to blue resulted in a background that looked a lot like a starry sky. The denser part of the algae took on the form of a nebula, and the many air bubbles floating under the surface of the water took on the appearance of distant stars.

For the planet Jupiter itself, I took a bunch of photos of textures and colors and melded them together into a square tapestry. I more or less used things under the astrological rule of Jupiter to do this, drawing in the mythic and cultural aspects of the planet. After creating the square image I digitally transformed it into a sphere, and spent far too much time blending the layers and working on the shading and lighting effects.

The show opened this evening at the Carnegie Center, Three Rivers, Michigan. It’s simply smashing, if I say so myself.