blueheART STUDIOS

Como, Colorado

Dan Kuehn — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 15:47:39 +0000

I have returned to this cemetery near Como, Colorado for, well, a long time. I still don’t have it recorded, documented, photographed. However you want to spell failure.

Maybe it is because I do not see well in “square” at the cemetery. I seem to see well in square with my other work. I dunno.

Maybe I don’t spend enough time. Maybe I spend too much time.

Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

I will return Tuesday with my view camera and see if I cannot just see better. Feel more. Show more.

I leave you with a few from the cemetery.

TekTok

Hasselblad, 80mm lens, #15 filter. Ilford Pan F at 50 ASA, Photographers’ Formulary TD-16 at 1:3, 68º for 11 minutes, running water as stop, Photographers’ Formulary Archival Fix, running water as rinse, 10-minutes wash, PhotoFlo, hang dry, scanned on Epson V850 at 600 dpi TIFF, converted to 300 dpi JPEGs.

The River/September

Dan Kuehn — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 16:03:13 +0000

A Big Yellow Tree. Red Leaves. The River, Yellow Tree and Heart Rock.

Thank God my little bottle of Rodinal (who needs and big bottle of Rodinal?) was crystals, not liquid. Tells you how much I use Rodinal. And… thank God it was full of crystals. Because…

I discovered Photographers’ Formulary TD-16, diluted 1:3 (250cc to 750cc water) is Molto Bene for Ilford Pan F. I found my developer for Ilford Pan F. And I get the box speed.

Formerly, my Rodinal 1:50 with Pan F was sooooooo contrasty. Now…

TD-16 (with 30cc Crone C Additive making it C-16) has been my go-to for Kodak TMAX 100, Kodak TRI-X, and Ilford HP5. The directions for Pan F with Crone C Additive suggested 4.5 minutes. That’s not enough time to successfully develop film to gather all the shadows and highlights. So…

I processed Pan F in TD-16 at 1:3 for 11 minutes and…

Bingo.

I leave you with:
1. Big Yellow Tree
2. Red Leaves
3. Yellow Tree, The River and Heart Rock

TechTok

Hasselblad with 50mm, 80mm lenses, Ilford Pan F rated at 50 ASA, TD-16 (1:3) for 11 minutes at 68º, running water as stop, Photographers’ Formulary Archival Fix, running water as rinse, HypoClear for 2 minutes, 10-minutes wash, PhotoFlo, hang dry, scanned on Epson V850 at 600 dpi (TIFF).

The Optimist

Dan Kuehn — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 13:18:54 +0000

The perfect mind-picture of an optimist is a hermit with a see-saw in his back yard.

Where hope is, one day, to experience life’s ups and downs with another.

And…

Is that not how we should live life? Together in spirit. Up. Then down. Then up again. To rejoice in the ups and refresh in the downs?

If life is only up, up and away in a beautiful balloon (sorry Fifth Dimension) how do we ever come back down, to arrive, at the center and essence of who we are?

My Orvieto…

Orvieto is like Disneyland. Except the magic is real.

Even when I am not there, Orvieto is where I live. Italy is in my blood. Transported there by the wine, no doubt.

And the streets…

Up. And Down. As it should be in a hilltop town. Where the ups make you stronger and the downs give you time to breathe and reflect. And if you can reflect, you will shine.
So… here’s to all of you who desire a partner on a see saw.

You are not alone.

I leave you with a very dark wall and a bright bush. Because even in the darkness, you will be seen.

“The Wall,” from The River series.

TechTalk

Zone VI 4×5 Field Camera, 305mm Schneider, TMAX 100 (why did Kodak put four, FOUR notches on TMAX 100 and ONE notch on TMAX 400… they had one job to do…), at 100, 1/1 at ƒ/64, C-16 (my concoction) for 6.5 minutes in a Spearman Press tank, running water at 68º as stop, Photographers’ Formulary Archival Fix, running water as a rinse, HypoClear to rid the stain on the negative, wash for 10-minutes in a Zone VI 11×14 Archival Print Washer in a Zone VI 4×5 sheet film-rack-thing that sits at the bottom of the archival washer, PhotoFlo, hang dry overnight, scanned on Epson V850 Pro (because I am!!!) at 600 dpi.

The Beauty of The Mistake

Dan Kuehn — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 12:41:07 +0000

Yesterday I offered you a look at an image I made in Orvieto. It is here again today. Why? Did I run out of images? Hardly.

I offer it again today because I am human. Sometimes too much human. Allow me to explain…

I offended my neighbors. No. Not them. The ones I love. Of course I did. And of course I apologized. And now the big reveal.

I have looked inside. And I do not like what I see. So… a complete rebuild is necessary. That reconstruction began on 28 July, and will be finished when I done. I, morbidly, digress…

Here’s the same image from yesterday. My best friend, and yes, I have one, Larry Price, sent me a video of how some Japanese photographers view themselves and their work: through the filter of the beauty of the mistake. And here is where I land on this image.

I was so tough on myself because I wanted the man at the bottom of the “V” in the frame. But, as per usual, I was daydreaming of My Orvieto, pinching myself because I cannot believe I live here, or planning my next dish of pasta when the man walked past me. I didn’t see him coming. It was what we called at The Denver Post, a grab shot. When I saw that I was about 1/1000 of a second late, it just tormented me… a chance at a perfect frame and I was not prepared.

“Chance favors the prepared mind.” Ansel Adams. And here is what I have learned about myself…

I am human. And that makes me perfect. It isn’t what I make or what I miss. It is how one frame leads to the next. Until I come to the end of my roll. So to speak.

The Japanese phrase, Wabi-Sabi… loosely translated is: the simplicity, austerity, and finding beauty in modest, imperfect and humble things.”

To seek perfection in my art and in my life, is to see things through vulgar eyes. I will return to soft eyes. Because soft eyes lead to a soft heart and a soft heart leads to a firm mind. So…

It is onward I go, in silence, to spare those around me from unclean eyes that, at a snail’s pace, become clearer.

All you all… I love you most. I do…

Here’s the video:

Until October

Dan Kuehn — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 12:23:31 +0000

Wow.

I am $850 lighter.

You see… I have representation at the Bracci Gallery in Orvieto. In Olivia’s (owner/operator Olivia Bracci) new digs on the second floor of the centuries-old Teatro Mancinelli. It is a great space. I digress…

I went to FedX and shipped (a quite heavily fortified box) of FotoOils, Digital Archival (are they really???) prints on Red River paper (shameless product placement), and some archival silver gelatin prints, my specialty.

But…

If I sell every foto in that big box I will, after commissions, make 400 euros. I kid you… But, you get my drift. So…

I have made a decision (and these are few because I am “retired”). I will only print from my darkroom at Casa Terese. It is a nice darkroom. It is even nice when it is dark. I digress…

I will now, and possibly forever, print, mount, mat and frame from My Orvieto darkroom. Oh… and this is the best. The Italian translation for darkroom…

Camera Obscura!

How can I not love that?

So… until the end of October…

I leave you with one archival silver print and one FotoOil .

I am with a hot chick.

Dan Kuehn — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 22:12:49 +0000

I am a lover of dogs. Love. Dogs.

I just found out I love chickens, too.

My neighbors in Denver went away for a week and asked if I’d check in on the chicks. Of course I said yes. I’m that kind of neighbor. I digress…

The first day I let the four ladies out of their coup they congregated around it. Not sure if I was friend or fowl (sorry).

The second day they got closer. And today…

Here is Nyx.

I have been told she was named after the Greek Goddess of The Night. I think I met her when I was a magazine photographer. WAYBEFOREIWASMARRIED!!! I digress…

So… here is Nyx. She’s just saying hello.

A.I.

Dan Kuehn — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 16:29:38 +0000

AI is the electronic drum kit behind John, Paul and George

Someone wrote about a group of “photographs generated completely by AI,” but “AI is not the central theme.” That makes about as much sense as fucking for virginity. And get this…

The photographs were generated by AI (ai?) “made” by a fictitious photographer… ANDTHEBESTPART… those photos are on display at a gallery in Berlin.

And that got me thinking without the aid of chatgpt. And… and… if you Google chatgpt, its header asks, “Where should we begin?” Let’s begin here… just for now…

AI!!!
The gift for the gift-less.
The experience for the inexperienced.
The talent for the untalented.
The lie that replaces the truth.

Henry Ford was first, I suppose without deep research, in automation, assembly line. A man completely out of his lane who made things designed to stay in their lanes. Interesting.

Honor, one among many failing attributes, is a weakness in this current political climate and tills the field that produces a crop of crap.

Automated societies cannot endure life’s pleasures or pains. What becomes of manual labor? What is the value of 10,000 strokes of the paintbrush on canvas? What of the experience of 10,000 exposures (on film) in a camera before you make your first visual statement?

Daily we are forced-fed on a plate piled high with fake news and fake photographs and fake portraits and fake feelings and fake resumes and fake experiences and fake emotions and fake food. We sustain ourselves on the calories of callous carelessness.

A social construct top heavy in technology will, one day, bottom out when there is nothing to eat, nothing to wear, nowhere to go, and the only place to hide will be the vault of artificial thinking… our newest political party.

Complaints without possible alternatives are merely boo-freaking-who moments stacked with quip-less quibbles.

Without the pressure of “make something of yourself,” just make something for yourself.

Awaken as the sun rises to proclaim another glorious day and to honor your presence in it.

Lean into the light and likeness of yourself with the knowledge of your profound promise, wonderful worth, capable competence, and limitless love. Because there is nothing artificial about any of that.

Happy 6th of July

Dan Kuehn — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 13:54:39 +0000

Around the Fourth of July, for nearly 20 years, I would get this wonderful sensation of my heart expanding and my pulse quickening because August was just right around the corner and soon the start of a new semester. I could not wait to get back to the classroom.

Same thing happened to me this year as we celebrated the 250th birthday of our nation… well… except the classroom has been replaced with a return to My Orvieto.

I have so many projects that need attention to completion… A screenplay and treatment, my first limited edition portfolio of silver prints from my newly completed darkroom at Casa Terese… stay tuned.

I play a bit of music. Guitar, mandolin, banjo. Okay… I own a banjo. What was it Mark Twain said? Oh, yes…

“The definition of a true gentleman is one who knows how to play the banjo yet does not.” I digress…

Took me three years of begging a most famous guitar maker to build me one of his “Small Jumbo” models. So precious is this guitar I ordered, in brilliant orange color, a hand made case from Calton Cases, with the name David Mello engraved on the nameplate. And the nameplate got me thinking.

I will sign my new “fotos” under that nom de plume, David Mello. They are not even a frontage road to the work I have made over the past fifty years. These go in a reverse direction. Maybe even entering parts unknown illegally. So…

I am here to give this new pseudonym a soft opening.

I leave you with “Wine Glass and Wall, Orvieto.”

FotoOil by David Mello.

I have Come Out.

Dan Kuehn — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 15:12:50 +0000

In Orvieto I am who I feel I am. I have come out of the darkroom… temporarily.

I am committing art in an unusual way. A far departure from my classical training as a “purist” photojournalist. So pure, that when I discovered Henri Cartier-Bresson in undergrad college, I took a file to my 35mm negative carrier so I could print my negatives with a black border. Sorry Alan Ross. I digress…

That signifies that I print 100% of the negative. I never (except sometimes) crop in the darkroom. My compositions are 100% of the frame… If you have the subject in the frame and must crop to get it, you were not there. And if you do not compose in the camera, you will decompose in the darkroom (Lightroom). I digress…

So…

This image. Is it even from me? How could I? To some of you it is kitsch. To me it is freedom. Freedom…

I thought I discovered freedom in grad school, Vermont College of Norwich University. The first night, at the “students'” exhibition, my photographs were the last that were critiqued by the highly educated full-time faculty (Ph.D.) Miwon Quan, who stated in front of the 30 students who started the program (11 finished), “Well, we all know this is photojournalism. And photojournalism is not art. And Kenn, I don’t see any of you in this photo.” That was the best compliment I ever received as a photojournalist. I digress…

What I came to realize at that critique is this: the fine art of photojournalism is the captured critical moments that illuminate the human condition. I have written extensively on that subject. Illustrated, of course.

So, here I am. And whoever (whomever?) I am, I am in My Orvieto.

I leave you with Tables and Chairs, Corso Cavour, Orvieto. FotoOils.

Happy Monday. On Tuesday.

Dan Kuehn — Tue, 26 May 2026 16:15:34 +0000

Went to The River, I did. Did my close detail exposures of The River. And yet I long to make “landscapes.”

But… landscapes terrify me. Why, you wonder? Well because there is Alan Ross. And before him there was Ansel Adams. Before him? Was there anyone worth mentioning? Yes.

There was William Henry Jackson.

All scary photographers.

As Paul McCartney said, “It’s only art.” And… if my attribution is incorrect, Paul should have said that. I digress…

So… I made an exposure of an almost “landscape.” Riverscape??? Maybe.

Hey… Writers write. Painters paint. Photographers photograph. And so, I did.

TechTok

Sinar F 4×5. TMAX 100 at 100. C-16 for 7:00 minutes.
Sunbathing Branch: 19″ Red Dot Artar, 1 second at ƒ/64.
The River #2: (Riverscape?) 240mm Schneider, 1 second at ƒ/64.
The Wall #2: 240mm Schneider, 1 second at ƒ/64.
©2026 The Kenn Bisio Family Trust. All rights reserved worldwide.

The River #1

Sun Bathing Branch #2