On-line fine art photography gallery<br>featuring the photographic art prints of noted Pacific Northwest photographer Allan Bruce Zee: unique<br>landscapes; abstract textures; oriental, architectural, and botanical motifs; international locales.
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About the Photographs: Camera/Film/Prints

About the Photographs: Camera/Film/Prints

When it comes to photographic equipment I favor familiarity over fancy. I purchased my first camera, a Pentax Spotmatic SLR, in 1969. I still use that same camera today, along with an additional used camera body purchased in the late '80s. I use one of three lenses: a 28mm wide angle, a 55mm macro lens or a 135mm telephoto. I treat the camera like a larger format camera and always use a tripod and slow, fine grain film for maximum sharpness when enlarging prints. I have always used slide film because of its saturation, color balance and sharpness. I used Kodachrome 25 until the 90's when I switched to Fuji Provia. Currently, I exclusively use an exceptional slide film from Fuji (Professional Velvia 100).

In the early '80s I began developing all of my own photographic prints in the darkroom. Over the years I learned more and more about expressive possibilities that come with printing one's own work. For me, the slide is like a musical score. It can be interpreted many ways. In the darkroom (as in the concert hall), what is witnessed in the final print (or performance) is dependent on the expressive skills of the artist (or conductor and musicians) along with the quality of the materials (orchestra and instruments) that are used. Some of the prints I have produced take as many as 7 separate exposures to achieve the densities that I am looking for to keep the eye moving through and staying in the frame. The images that you see on this website are from scans made from my slides and then worked on in Photoshop to represent as close as possible the quality that is in the final print. One must be aware, of course, that computer monitors display images at a low resolution which will be much less sharp than the actual photographic print. Also, every monitor will give a slightly different rendering of an image that is dependent on the inherent color rendering of the monitor and how recently it was calibrated to keep it at the manufacturer's specifications. What you see on your monitor will be somewhat different than what I see, but the image you view should certainly give you a good approximation.

In the past year, with the discontinuation of Fuji's manufacturing of the paper I was using for my prints, I have accomplished two goals: first, to spend many hours in the darkroom printing an inventory of my favorite images in a variety of sizes that would be available for immediate purchase; and secondly, to begin the transition to producing from digital scans of my slides prints that equal the quality of my darkroom prints.

The photographs that you order will either have been printed on a Fujichrome Type R glossy paper (or Supergloss, if you prefer the polyester based material) in the darkroom or on the Fuji Crystal Archive papers from digital scans of the slides. The Fuji papers are some of the finest photographic papers available and known for their excellent longevity and the vibrancy of their color. They even have a UV filter layer embedded in the emulsion to add to the archival nature of the photograph. Both of these papers are superb traditional photographic papers where the image is the result of light causing a chemical reaction in the emulsion. In the case of the Type R print, projected light is projected from the bulb in the enlarger through the slide and lens onto the paper. With the Crystal Archive prints, the digital file of the image directs an LED light that floats over the paper to do the exposure. These prints are distinguished from digital inkjet prints (giclée or Iris prints), which are inks or pigments sprayed onto non-photographic papers.

I am extremely demanding when it comes to the quality of the prints I produce and trust you will be as satisfied with them as I am. I invite you to read the comments of people who have purchased my photographs to learn something about their experience working with me and owning my photography.

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