Open Studio Weekend

This weekend, 23rd to 25th May 2009, I will be holding an Open Studio at Briarwood. If you would like to come by and see the gallery, studio/workshop and darkroom then this is an excellent time as I will be in tour guide mode!

We are open between 11 am and 3 pm all 3 days and probably a lot longer as I will be here working over the weekend and can be interrupted anytime.

Hope to see you.
Dave

New Web Site

I have been a bit for the last few weeks so no time to post thoughts here. Will try and rectify in future.

My new web site is rapidly taking shape. It should be live within 2 weeks from now. Will be quick and simple to find what you are looking for using keywords and hot links within the site. Once live new images will appear thick and fast, hopefully.

Dave Butcher

USA photos

Just finished marking up the contact prints for my USA photos, the ones from Colorado, Utah, Chicago and Boston taken in January and early February. I'm going to scan the negatives and then put them on the web. There are lots for me to do so it will take some time, doing it in between everything else.

Focus on Imaging was good. Hope we managed to speak to everyone who came by our stand. It was very busy Sunday and Monday and still quite busy on Tuesday. Wednesday was really quiet.

I'm also changing web sites from www.davebutcher.net to www.davebutcher.co.uk (net will still work), hoping to make the switch in April but it may be a bit longer. It will be easier to use, with more categories so you don't have to click through lots of pages to find the area of interest to you. It should also be easier to maintain and have a secure shopping cart system, as the current site does. I have to rescan a lot of the images so this may delay the project and both sites will run alongside one another for a number of months until I catch up.

That's it for now.
Dave Butcher

Darkroom Day

We finished Focus on Wednesday and were away pretty quickly - Jan managed to talk her way past the security gates to reach the doors nearest our stand before they let anyone else through!

Hope you managed to come by our stand for a chat, if not there are plenty of other opportunities through the year as we do shows from Edinburgh down to Sevenoaks and lectures down as far as Brighton.

Now I'm spending time in the darkroom working my way through processing 141 rolls of 120 FP4+ from our 4 week trip to the USA in January and early February. My film drying cabinet packed up yesterday which isn't going to help! Hope the local electrician can come by soon.

So far I have processed the Chicago and Keystone films and I'm sure I have some good ones. Loads of snow in Chicago to add something different to the shots. Today I'm doing Colorado National Monument, Goblin Valley and Bryce Canyon. First I have to post off my Gitzo tripod head and Lowepro camera case for repair and I sent off one of my Mamiya 7 cameras and the 43mm lens yesterday for the same. After years with no real problems I seemed to be jinxed on the recent trip. My plastic shell of my mountaineering boots also cracked and fell apart in the cold weather and the smooth plastic sole of my downhill ski boots disintegrated. I put these last 2 down to old age. What a trip!

Off to the Lakes in a week or so for some more pictures for my next book, weather permitting.

Dave Butcher

Preparing for Focus on Imaging

I have been back from the USA photo trip 10 days now. Ran my first course of the year on Thursday - a darkroom printing workshop. A very productive session for both Richard and Bob, 4 prints each and a good understanding of split grade printing by the end of the day. Had a nice email from Richard yesterday. It was a shame Nancy had to cancel at short notice - her boss was in hospital after a car crash and she had to run the office in his absence. Will have to rearrange for later in the year.

Just finished packing all of the pending orders, including one for Harman Technology (Ilford Photo). They have a set of 6 of my prints on 6 different papers on their stand at the Focus on Imaging exhibition at the NEC, Sunday 22nd to Wednesday 25th February.

I have exhibited at the last 4 Focus on Imaging shows but this is the first time I will have my own stand - stand C51a - between Nikon and the RPS. Busy preparing for it. I will have a mixture of framed and unframed photographs, a couple of fine art posters, Peak Light and High Light books and Landscape Photography and Darkroom courses. It's quite an expensive show so keeping fingers crossed it's going to be worth it!

One good thng, we're staying with good friends Peter and Sally Moore in Kenilworth so we will be close to the NEC and will have fun with good company in the evenings.

The USA trip was fantastic. I took 141 rolls in Bryce Canyon, Arches National Park, Canyonlands, Dead Horse Point, Goblin Valley, Capitol Reef, Castle Rock Moab, Rocky Mountain National Park, Indian Peak Wilderness around Brainard Lake, Boulder, Mount Sanitas, the Flatiron Mountains with and without snow, as well as in Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone and Breckenridge ski areas. Lots of snow everywhere to add interest to the shots. We also stopped off in Chicago and Boston, both very snowy and cold, for some city photos. Overall, lots of blue sky days and just a few dull or snowy days. Our best friends Rob and Annie, from Boulder in Colorado, stayed with us for the entire Utah/Colorado trip, including doing all the driving. Can't think of anyone better we could share the trip with. Here's to the next one with them!

It was quite an eventful trip too - I dropped one of my 3 cameras down a steep gully in Bryce and damaged a tripod head, the shell of my vintage plastic mountaineering boots also broke in the cold (-20°C-ish), the sole of my ski boots disintegrated and my ski goggle lens cracked; other than that nothing happened!

I may not see daylight for the next few days preparing for the show and processing films.

If you come to Focus call by for a chat.
Dave Butcher

Successful trip to Utah

We are just driving to Vail ski area after a very succesful week in Utah. Blue skies all the time and snow on the ground made for some spectacular shots.

Over 90 rolls (10 shots per roll) so far, lots more to come.

Breckenridge was very snowy so no shots but the next day we moved on to the Keystone ski area in sunshine for the first shots of the trip (apart from Chicago city shots).

This was followed by Goblin Valley, fantastic shaped rock formations and very photogenic.

On to Capitol Reef for more rock formations, petroglyphs and great tree shadows on cliff faces.

Then snowy trees as we drove over a pass at 9600 feet before continuing on to Bryce in the dark.

In Bryce Canyon there was a couple of feet of snow and some icy trails. Great for photos.we did quite a.bit of walking round the rim and down amongst the strange rock formations..Ruby's Inn was good too - fortunately as it happened as nothing else was open!

From Bryce we travelled via Capitol Reef to Moab, our base for 3 days.Not much open but enough to keep us fed and watered. The biggest disappointment was the Moab Brewery being closed for refurbishment!

Arches was fantastic too. Small patches of snow and great light. Lots of arches too with Delicate Arch being the highlight.

This was followed by Dead Horse Point, a great view over canyonlands and the Green River..Then on to Island in the Sky in Canyonlands and one of the best arches of the trip! Mesa Arch has a reasonable span but more importantly a great view of the snow capped Manti La Sal mountains can be framed by the arch. The Green River Overlook was next and late morning gave good light over the plateau and canyons below. Grand View was also good but would have been better a couple of hours later.

Our hotel had local photographs on the walls, great shots too. Spotted one location I didn't recognise but a little research soon identified it as Castle Rock. This is a pillar of rock at one end of a long butte. This is about 20 odd miles north of Moab and looks great both in late afternoon and mid morning, even found a creek to put in the foreground.

Then along Colorado River canyon with a few shots here and there, including some heavily frosted trees at 6000 feet.

Heavy snow forecast for next few days so keeping fingers crossed for showers rather than continuous storms.

That's it for now.
Dave Butcher
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USA trip update

Just arrived in Bryce Canyon. Good forecast for tomorrow.
Already have good shots from snowy Chicago, Keystone ski area, Goblin Valley Utah, amongst others. Should be some good ones! Lots of snow but VERYcold at tlmes! Lots of variety in scenery.
Lots more photos to come.
Dave Butcher

Photo trip to USA

Just waiting to board flight to Chicago. This is mainly a trip for Colorado and Utah landsapes but staying in Chicago and Boston en route for city shots too.

Using skis and snowshoes to move around locations. Fingers crossed for good weather. Blue skies with white fluffy clouds would be good to start with!

Will be kepping in touch by email and mobile phone while away.

Dave Butcher

Happy Christmas!

Almost Christmas!
Nearly the end of the year but no sign of snow for a white Christmas..

Down in Hertfordshire at the moment, fingers crossed for reasonable weather and a few photos.

Only 2 weeks until we leave for USA photo trip. Will fill orders until we leave then unable to ship anything until February.

Enjoy yourselves!

Dave Butcher

Landscape Photography course September 2008

Here are some photographs taken by Dave Crabtree on my Peak District black and white landscape photography course in September. As you can see Dave has taken some excellent photographs.