Just a quick note inviting everyone to drop by our booth at the Bad Girls of the North show Friday 4-9 p.m. and Saturday 10-5 at the Millenium Hotel. At last year’s show a lot of people asked us to print bigger and this year we’re happy to oblige! New images include our trip to a fish camp in Nondalton and a two-week float trip down the Sheenjek River at peak fall colors. Hope to see you there!

In late August, Georgia and I floated the Sheenjek River, which flows south out of the Brooks Range into the Yukon River flats. We were joined by our friends Cathy Hart and Eric Downey in their own raft. We were blessed with perfect fall colors and sunny skies when we flew into the headwaters near Double Mountain. We stayed at the putin for four days, giving us time to hike to Last Lake, which inspired Mardy and Olaus Murie to push for the creation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Once on the river, the high point for us was a layover day near Lobo Lake, with easy hiking up nearby ridges which provide spectacular views. Over the space of two weeks, we floated from arctic tundra to interior spruce forest, with the usual northerly mix of sun, wind, rain, and even snow. For us, this was our fifth river trip in ANWR, and our first in the fall. We will never forget the brilliant golden hues of the river valley, with bright reds on the flanks of the gray mountains. Beautiful!

In July, Georgia and I were privileged to visit a fish camp near Nondalton, Alaska, at the height of the salmon run. Here, on Six Mile Lake, adjacent to Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, we were able to see first-hand the entire subsistence fishing process: setting the net, picking the fish, cleaning and filleting, drying and finally smoking.  Special thanks to Dena’ina Athabascan elder Agnes Alexie, her husband Mike Borleske and their family for hosting us.

About six months ago it became clear to me that I needed to be able to print bigger pictures. Over the past decade I have graduated from a 13-inch printer, to a 17-inch, and then a 24-inch. But the next size up, a 44-inch wide Epson 9900, soon became a priority.

Why? I sensed intuitively that bigger images have a bigger emotional impact on the viewer; that size is part of what turns a photograph into art; and that there are subtle details in images that are only revealed when they are printed sufficiently large. Of course, only the very best images can stand up to extreme enlargement, and even those must be processed just right to look great. Almost every step in my workflow would need to be upgraded. As it turned out, getting a bigger printer was the easy part. The rest has  involved a lot of work and a lot of trial and error.

Georgia and I specialize in making stretched canvas, although we print a lot of images on paper for our customers. Until now, prefabricated stretcher bars have worked great. But they don’t come in a lot of  the bigger sizes. So I needed to be able to make my own. That required a miter saw, which I already owned. But the only place to put it was in the garage…so suddenly it was time to clean up the garage. Several trips to the dump later, I was ready to cut stretcher bars. I later found a foot-powered underpinning machine online at a reasonable price and after some practice I can now assemble four bars into a actual frame.

Meantime, my wife was wondering out loud exactly where I planned to put the new printer. The answer was obvious: move my study into the spare bedroom and turn the study into a room for the printer. You got it: another huge project, resulting in a half-dozen more trips to the dump. Of course, once the old study was emptied out it became clear that it needed a new floor to replace the 20-year-old carpet…and we might as well paint the walls first, too!

In early January Epson put the 9900 on sale and I ordered it, along with the software to run it. Soon I was printing my first big image. Called “Liftoff!,” it features a group of surf birds taking off from a rock near Cordova. It’s tack sharp with lots of detail and even at just under 40×60 inches it came out great!

The next challenge was learning how to spray a top-coat onto the canvas. I had recently switched to a matte canvas which generated beautiful images but which needed protection from the elements — and from sticky fingers. I needed a sprayer, so it was time to abuse the old credit card one more time. I also needed a place to spray. A corner of my workshop was the obvious choice but it had to be cleaned out first and — you guessed it — I had to make a couple more trips to the dump! A sheet of plastic, a few 2x4s and some lights were all that I needed to have a working spray booth. I’ve got an exhaust fan on order but this works fine for now with the door open, and I wear a respirator. Of course it took some practice to get everything working right before I tackled the big picture.

The final step in the process was stretching the image. I use a compressed-air powered machine that (of course) had to be upgraded. When I first got the new machine it was slipping and the canvas wasn’t being stretched tightly enough. A couple of calls to the manufacturer and some adjusting soon resulted in beautiful, drum-tight stretches. Finally, I was ready to try stretching Liftoff! It worked perfectly and my first giant canvas was now a reality.

By the time I got everything working right, I was less than a week away from a reception featuring large canvases. Georgia and I didn’t get much sleep that week, but it was all worth it. The reception went off splendidly. And you know what? Bigger does make a difference. The emotional impact — the “Wow!” factor — is real. And the subtle details that help the photograph tell a story were there for all to see.

As part of my ongoing obsession with generating the highest quality prints, I have tried a variety of canvases over the years. After a few recent problems, I think I’ve found one that’s going to work for me going forward.

The first time I printed a photo to canvas was on my old Epson 2200 about a half-dozen years ago. The canvas I used was Epson Matte, a thick, heavy, 100 percent cotton product which generated excellent images but which was hard to work with. As I soon learned, it was also abrasive. After a few dozen images, canvas dust started to accumulate and the printer started making strange noises. I soon switched to a true commercial printer, the Epson 4800, which was much better suited to large volumes of canvas — and, of course, it could print on wider media.

That allowed me to try a different canvas, Epson’s Premium Canvas Satin. This canvas was thinner and more supple so it was much easier to stretch. It was made from a mix of cotton and polyester, which made it more “stretchy,” which helped prevent sagging of the canvas as the humidity changed (a big deal in Alaska, where it can get incredibly dry in the winter).  I also liked the satin finish but it wasn’t a critical factor for me. What was critical was the image quality, and it was very, very good. It allowed Bennett Images to be among the first to market with Alaska photos on canvas and our business took off as a result. People liked the colors, the texture, and the fact that they didn’t have to frame the image and could simply hang stretched canvases right away. I eventually upgraded to an Epson 7900 and have been happily printing with it ever since.

Then, for some unknown reason, Epson decided last fall to stop offering Premium Canvas Satin and switched instead to Signature Worthy Exhibition Canvas Satin. I ordered some, figuring newer would be better. Wrong. The new canvas was very thick and stiff. When I printed one of my best-selling images, Susitna Sunset,

I got curious banding in the water. And when I laid out the finished prints to dry, my house filled with a nasty chemical odor. What was going on? Was I alone in having these problems?

Actually, no. One of my favorite dealers, Inkjetart.com, posted a warning about the Exhibition Canvas products, saying that when people tried to roll a protective coating on finished prints, the ink would come off the canvas. I then contacted Colorbyte Software, the makers of ImagePrint, the program I use to print with. I had noticed that they had not supplied a color profile for the Satin canvas and wondered if they were working on one. Their reply: they had tried repeatedly to make a profile but could not because too much ink was accumulating on the canvas, generating wet prints.

The last thing I needed was smeared ink. Clearly, it was time for a switch. I spent a lot of time researching canvas and finally settled on Breathing Color. They have a product called Lyve Canvas, which is a cotton/poly mix with an incredibly smooth surface. It’s heavy but easy to work with, and very white without using optical brighteners, which can yellow over time — and which allows them to claim an archival life of more than 100 years. The canvas only comes in matte finish, but they make their own protective coatings in matte, satin or glossy finishes, meaning one canvas can have many looks. Oh, and they’re cheaper than Epson.

I ordered sample roll of the Lyve canvas, installed the ImagePrint profile for it, switched my printer to matte black ink, and printed one of Georgia’s favorite images, Waiting for Monet.

The result was an image with a startling dynamic range, with incredibly deep, rich blacks and brilliant colors. It gave so much additional depth to an already-wonderful image that it brought tears to Georgia’s eyes. I was sold.

…Ed B.

Just a quick note to thank everyone who dropped by our Last Friday reception at Blaine’s Art. Georgia and I had some great conversations about photography and fine art printing. And if you missed it, our images will remain on display until Thanksgiving. Thanks again!

Georgia has designed a nice poster announcing our Final Friday reception Oct. 28 from 5-7 p.m. at Blaine’s Art, 1025 Photo Avenue. All our photos are hung and we’re buying munchies tomorrow night. Rene Haag, the owner of Blaine’s, has a new coffee bar in the store and she promises other …err… refreshments upstairs. Hope to see you there!

Yesterday when I got up there was frost on the raft. That’s an unmistakable sign that it’s time to deflate the boat and put it away for another season. My last float was a couple of weeks ago on the middle section of the Matanuska River, from Hicks Creek to King Mountain Lodge. The weather was beautiful but chilly. Fall colors were past their peak, but the groves of birches, mostly stripped of their leaves, were still beautiful. I was fascinated by the fragile-looking white trunks, clinging in groups to the tops of cliffs overlooking the river, with patches of shadow providing an element of mystery. Here’s a vertical image that shows it (I’m working on a horizontal print that I will unveil Oct. 30 at our Blaine’s Last Friday reception):

A few fall colors remain along the Matanuska River in Southcentral Alaska on a late fall day. (Edward Bennett)

I have long had a special tie to the Matanuska. The middle portion — the stretch Georgia and I floated recently — was the first river I floated with my first raft, a 12-foot Avon, nearly 30 years ago. I remember I was so eager to try out my new boat that I put in too early, and ended up floating through aufeis around blind corners, praying the river didn’t go under the ice. I also remember going over a strange drop, almost like a dam, that stretched the width of the channel, just upstream from Chickaloon River. That’s caused by a potentially dangerous ridge of sharp rock which is alternately buried, bypassed or passed over by the river as it changes course over the years. It always makes me nervous, and this trip was no exception. This year, the river drops precipitously and goes around the end of the ridge. Exciting but nothing that will flip a raft. I know people who have taken very cold swims because of that ridge.

Otherwise, this stretch of river has no rapids, and it is often wide and braided. So why the attraction? Partly, it draws me because of the huge mountains which tower over each bank, the Chugach range on the south and the Talkeetna Mountains on the north. And once on the river, the south side — the side away from the Glenn Highway — feels like true wilderness. Very few people float here. And on the far side, there are wild critters, including wolves.

The Matanuska is a big glacial river, so in summer sunshine it roars down the valley, powerful and implacable. I prefer it in fall, when it mellows out, settles down in one channel, and leads me to a sandy campsite, with a view that is beyond compare.

To me, photography is more than taking pictures. I also derive great satisfaction from printing images. Partly it’s because the image becomes something tangible, and partly  because the image looks better on paper or canvas than it does on my monitor, thanks to a printer (Epson 7900) that can print more colors than my computer can display.

In recent months several professional photographers have asked me to print their images. It’s been a joy to sit down with them at the computer, tweak the image for best printed output, and then watch the image emerge from the printer.

My favorite medium is canvas, because it does something wonderful with colors, and because the texture of the cloth gives the image depth. About four years ago, Georgia suggested printing one of our aerial shots of a rainstorm over the Brooks Range to canvas, and we were so amazed by the result that we hardly ever print to paper any more. Here’s the image:

A rainstorm passes over the Brooks Range in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Edward Bennett)

A few weeks ago, I discovered there is another advantage to canvas: it causes film grain to vanish. I learned this when I was asked to print some images that were scans of color slides. This was the first time I had ever printed from film, and the grain was plain as day on the monitor. But as it turned out, the texture of the canvas matched the texture of the film grain and to the eye, it seemed to disappear. What remained was an image with the unique saturation and tonal qualities of film, ready to be stretched onto a frame — which I did with delight!

We’ll be exhibiting our work at multiple venues this fall. Highlights include acceptance into the Bad Girls of the North show and a reception and month-long exhibit at Blaine’s Art. Here’s the schedule:

• Saturday, Oct. 1: 26th Annual Arctic Bazaar, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Hangar 5, Elmendorf Air Force Base. Follow signs from Post Road Gate, photo ID required.
• Blaine’s Art Supply Final Friday reception, 5-7 p.m. Oct. 28, 1025 Photo Ave.  Our work will remain on display through the end of November.
• Friday, Nov. 4, 4-9 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 5 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Bad Girls of the North Holiday Unique Boutique, Millenium Hotel, 4800 Spenard Road
• Saturday November 19, 2011 – 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. and Sunday November 20, 2011 – 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Christmas Arts & Crafts Emporium, Dena’ina Center
• Saturday, Dec. 3: UAA Crafts Fair, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Student Union

We look forward to seeing you!