Back to Work

The 7900 in the "new" studio, running the first print in weeks.

It's been three-and-a-half weeks since I last made a print. In that time, the printer was moved to a different room, the studio was sheet-rocked, painted, and trimmed out, lighting and track for future lighting have been installed, and we've begun moving "stuff" back into that room. That stuff includes the 7900, which we moved back into the studio a couple of days ago.

Although I had no immediate need, I wanted to run a nozzle check print, and then print a photo for a show coming up early next month (Moon Over the Mission Mountains at Sunrise", shown below). We got the room organized and cleaned up enough so I could do that today.

Humidity is a little higher than normal for the room, currently about 46%. We've had some recent snow and a little rain, but I suspect the increased moisture is simply the drying out of the sheet rock mud, the texture layer, primer, and two coats of finish paint. Regardless of the source, the increased humidity seems so far to have had no affect on the printer. Today's nozzle check was perfect, as was the print. This is a fairly dark image, but there's nice detail in the mountains and in the foreground trees, which don't show up well in the small jpeg here. The full disc of the moon is also quite visible, which is what attracted me to the scene in the first place.

Although the studio is far from complete, with flooring, track lighting fixtures, storage cabinetry and shelving, and work-surfaces to be installed, the room is already a great improvement over the bare wood studs and insulation it's been these last few years. It's warmer, quieter, and more comfortable. I'm back to work!

Up next is a series of 12 painting repros too shoot. For the 7900, this means I'll be making test prints, but doing little in the way of "fine art" printing, or printing of my own work. With a little luck, I'll find time to get out shooting. The snowy owls are still here in town, and I've been going up to that location several times a week. You can see what I've posted so far in the Snowy Owl gallery on my site. I've quite a few more to post, but to be honest, I'm itching to do some scenics, in particular some "grand landscapes" from locations I've scouted while visiting the owls.

  --Jay