What were you thinking?

[h2oman]

OK, let's see if this will work. What I have in mind is creating a thread something like Ansel's Examples book. Post one of your most successful images (by whatever measure you choose) or a near-miss. Tell us some things like

*what inspired you to make the photograph? Give any "back story" you wish.

*was there any particular mood or feeling that you were trying to express?

*any special lighting/composition/etc. concerns you addressed.

*tech details only to the extent that they significantly affected the aesthetic you were trying to achieve.

*printing actions/processing used and why.

*your assessment of the result, and/or reactions of others (photographers and non-photographers).

*anything else of relevance to the image that you wish to relate.

My hope is to gain insight in how folks go about creating successful images, in the hopes of improving my own photography.

[Vaughn]

One of my favorite images from my bicycle tour in New Zealand almost 30 years ago...taken about one month into my 6 month trip. The Tolaga Bay Wharf, East Cape, North Island. Gowland 4x5 PocketView with Caltar IIN 150/5.6. TMax100, 16x20 silver gelatin print.

I had camped a couple nights by the wharf in a motor camp. Each night storms came in and I had to find big pieces of driftwood to hold down my tent. But the days were beautiful -- but in the photo, one can see the first clouds coming that will become that night's storm. This was taken after a morning hike out to Cook's Cove with the 4x5.

"Under the pier" images are a dime a dozen and I hesitated to add another to the world's supply. But it is an extremely long pier, and the roughness of the concrete, the shadow line and light drew me to it. I set up the camera and all was looking good, but the tide was quickly moving out, so I moved the camera forward a couple pilings up and quickly reset it, hurrying to keep the shadow line running under the pier from moving too far to the left. I did not get it centered down the middle, but actually prefer that I did not.

I used a red filter. My thought was that since there was so much blue light, the red filter might help to reduce the difference between the values under the pier and the rest of the image...seemed to have worked. I have lots of detail under the pier and not blown out elsewhere. The exposure was f64 (the image restricted any use of camera movements) at 10 seconds, I was looking forward to the waves smoothing out.

Printing was pretty straight forward. A little careful burning of the sky to even it out side to side. I did a little burning in the upper area (upper 1/3 of image). Still plenty of detail and texture in the shadows under the wharf, but I wanted the viewer's eyes slide down to where the shadow line meets the horizon (or up from the bottom to the same place), and not be distracted too much by the detail of the underside of the wharf.

About 2 hours of spotting required due to damage to the negative from high-humidity static discharges while the film was in the film boxes on the bicycle for months on bumpy roads in the rain.

[h2oman]

Thanks for getting this ball rolling, Vaughn. I was beginning to think I wouldn't get any takers - hopefully now that you have taken the plunge, others will too...

I really like the combination of symmetry with just a touch of asymmetry. (I had originally written a bit more, but then realized I don't want this thread to end up being a bunch of critiques by me!)

[Vaughn]

If no one jumps in, I'll do another image tonight or tomorrow. I like your idea for a thread! It is interesting that after 28 years, I can still remember and feel myself standing in the sand under the wharf...though exposure data is written down so I did not have to remember that! This image is also my first published image -- in View Camera magazine way back in the first year or two or three it was published.

[Kirk Gittings]

Up west of Espanola NM, this was an image I worked on literally for decades to get it right. I was told by a local Native American that this was where they believed the Katchinas lived. That made this dramatic landform "come alive" for me and I set out on many occasions over some 25 years trying to get the location and then the right light-finally got it a couple of years ago on the leading edge of a storm. I waited a long time and thought it wasn't going to happen and was about to give up and started to take the camera down but this perfect shaft of light opened up. Phillips 4x5 with 210 Symar S, FP4+, Orange filter, Pyrocat HD, BTZS tubes, normal dev., drum scanned by Lenny and printed from the digital file both inkjet and silver. The burning and dodging is too complex for me for a traditional enlarged print and I knew from the time I made the exposure that I would have to work up a file. Burning skies precisely without darkening an adjacent landform is tricky and un=satisfying usually to me-where as on a file I can build a mask to precisely exclude the landform on virtually a pixel level and burn right up to it without halos or bleed onto the landform.

[sanking]

My example is much less inspiring than the previous one by Kirk, but it should be very clear what I was thinking!!

Sandy

[vinny]

I grew up with pine plantations like this all around and I've always found them very interesting to explore. I get ideas in my head of perfect images in a various settings and sometimes I find them. I had been to this grove once before without a camera and new there was something worth photographing. I happened to return on a day during a sticky snowfall which completely changed the trees. It was so quiet I swear I could hear snowflakes landing. I had walked a considerable distance having a hard time finding something in the chaos of tree trunks when I came to the base of this hill. The image is quite a departure from the low contrast scene. I now have my "pine grove" shot and can move on to something else.
Home made 8x10, fp4 n+1 210mm fujinon

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7427/12563784594_647e015267_o.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/62218065@N00/12563784594/)
pines in snow (https://www.flickr.com/photos/62218065@N00/12563784594/) by vinnywalsh.com (https://www.flickr.com/people/62218065@N00/), on Flickr

[David R Munson]

I like this idea. Here goes...

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7133/7552515020_4be8169b3a_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/cvoBAd)
Train, Osaka (https://flic.kr/p/cvoBAd) by David R Munson (https://www.flickr.com/people/70117898@N00/), on Flickr

I made this image when I was in Osaka, Japan, in 2011. I was on a trip there from Taiwan with my girlfriend and it was a particularly hot, swampy Osaka summer day. We had been out most of the day already, so late afternoon she decided to take a nap and I went out with my 4x5. We were staying in a cheap business hotel, just a simple tatami room with shared bathrooms down the hall and showers on the first floor. It's in Shin-Sekai, one of the more run-down parts of Osaka, but one of my favorites. This was shot just down the street from the entrance to the Tennoji Zoo. I had been wandering for a couple of hours at that point and was on my way back to the hotel, but there was something about this place that I liked. The small road I was on made a T with another smallish road that ran next to stacked train lines and an elevated highway. I've long been interested in what I've come to think of as the spaces/places between things, and this was the sort of non-place I'm often attracted to. The intersection of so many things, but still without any sense of significance and I find that fascinating.

There wasn't anything in particular I was trying to express, and there almost never is for me. I find something, I put it on film, I move on. Any real significance tends to come after the fact. I was in a quiet mood, which I find I have to be to find these places. They're interstitial, we're trained by everyday life to ignore them, so it's easy to pass them by.

I think I made one slightly different composition, and a total of about six exposures, mostly based on train activity on the tracks. I liked this one best, in part because of the gradiation of the train from opaque to almost completely transparent. I like, too, that the more transparent end of the train basically acted like pre-exposure to boost the low values of the concrete structure and changed their relation to what would have otherwise been a continuous curve of near-black underneath the highway.

The shot was made on TXP 320 and the negatives were tray-developed back in Taiwan in HC-110 dilution G. About a year later the thing got scanned, finally, on an Epson V600 (two sections, stitched). Nothing special about anything technical for this photo aside from some of the post-processing. I wanted to bring some value back into the sky, but that meant spending entirely too many hours masking power lines to keep them from going black when bringing down the sky.

I haven't printed the image yet (part of the problem of moving country to country to country), but when I get set up again next year (finally) it'll be one of the first. I spent a lot of time working on it, have spent a lot of time looking at it since then, and it's one of the few images I actually feel satisfied with. It relates something that I've been trying to capture for a long time, and am slowly edging closer to actually understanding how to photograph. I think of it as a signpost of sorts. It's not the destination, but something that signals that I'm on the right path.

[Struan Gray]

One problem I struggle with is how to take and present landscape photographs of the Scottish Highlands without falling into the unspoilt wilderness trap. In most of upland Scotland, the conformity between what the land looks like and Romantic ideas of the uncharted wild is anything but an accident. Most often, it is the direct consequence of deliberate policies of land use and ownership, even if those policies were not explicitly concerned with aesthetics.

I am also trying to find ways to indicate the omnipresent signs of the Highland Clearances in these landscapes, but without being too didactic or strident. This is partly driven by a sense of righteousness (it adds insult to injury to photograph the places people were cleared from and pretend that they are, or ever were, wilderness), but also by the contemporary relevance of land reform in Scotland, as community ownership, conscious attempts at ecological restoration, and new forms of land use in general, take over from the old aristocratic and sporting estates.


http://struangray.com/miscpics/bmc.jpg

The picture shows the back way up Ben Mor Coigach. It has become more popular as a walking route since this photograph was taken, and path is eroding fast and becoming more of a scar. The small township below this rise is now mostly holiday cottages, but it was settled by people cleared from a stunningly beautiful area further north (which is now a mainstay of the calender photographers' unspoilt nature canon). This clearance was not some historical injustice, with redcoats fighting claymores amid the mists of time, but happened recently enough that the grandchildren of those cleared were still alive when I first started visiting the area.

The old summer pastures - truly lovely sheilings in sheltered birchwoods - were denied them, so the poor grazing up in the clouds in my photograph was used. Instead of seasonal transhumance, what is now a somewhat brutal start and end to a good day out in the hills was climbed twice a day to milk and tend the cattle. In spring, after a hard winter with too little fodder to go round, some of the cows would be *carried* up that slope because they were too weak to make it themselves. They would then be tended full time until fit enough to care for themselves.

The hill is now owned by a wildlife trust, who have proved to be more open and generous towards the local community than any of the previous wealthy private owners. I find it odd that my thoughts, and my photography, have been channelled into what are essentially classic socialist or even communist patterns of thought - patterns I have never fully agreed with in my conscious political life, despite instinctive sympathy for the underdog. These patterns, and the language used to describe them, are emotive ones, and tend to induce strong reactions in viewers and readers. My problem, and it's an interesting one to grapple with, is how to force viewers to look at a photo like this without getting all misty-eyed and Romantic, and yet not let them dismiss it as just another outdated Red Polemic - I want to stop ideas becoming mere labels.

I don't expect the photo alone to carry the weight of all this intellectualising, but the background information, and feelings, are important to me in making the photograph, and in deciding to show it to others. Current plans - good intentions - are publication along with a written text, which will be more integrated than a conventional photobook essay, but without turning the photographs into mere illustrations.

[alexn]

https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10666078_828975083819751_2740808587725074165_n.jpg?oh=e81f7909def40bcafcd17bb05702b43a&oe=54CF4F17

With this, I was really wondering how much dynamic tension I could create within a single scene.

98% of my photography being the natural landscape, everything is very mellow, calm & has a sense of flow and harmony. In the urban landscape I really wanted to accentuate the exact opposite of my usual work by focusing on chaos. The architecture of this bridge really lent itself to suiting my vision with this, as none of the bridges lines, framework, support structure or even the direction that it crosses the Brisbane river is square, vertical, or parallel in any sense.

I hoped that by looking directly across the river, skewing the bridge from left to right in the shot, I would start to build that dynamic tension. Once I had the camera leveled off and applied a generous front rise I realized that if I moved as far right on the bridge as possible, and shifted slightly to the right also, I could put the tallest building into already intersecting lines within the bridge structure, making a three-way intersecton of lines, by doing so I also managed to overlay another building with not one, not two, but three of the bridges structures... With all these angles and intersections throughout the image I was really pleased with the overall composition on the ground glass.. the next thought was... What am I trying to say with this image...

In as sense, This image was simply a story of the chaotic city lifestyle. Being shot before sunrise on a sunday I had 0 chance of getting some busy foot traffic across the bridge in the shot, so I thought if I expose it light and bright, the feel of the exposure would contrast with the feel of the composition a juxtaposition that maybe only I would see, but I felt that would add another level of complexity and chaos to underlie that of the compositional tension...

I was really trying to layer many different senses of clashing using contrast, brightness, lines, intersections and asymmetry. All the while one of my golden rules stayed on strong... If you're going to shoot Large Format, your perspective needs to be as neutral as possible.. The buildings MUST remain completely vertical... I wanted the rest of the shot to look as wonky and out of this world as possible, while keeping viewers completely grounded with the sense of perspective (another mental clash in the image, very distorted sense of perspective whilst maintaining very precise perspective in the shot, and proving that with very straight verticals...

I really feel this is one of the first shots on LF that I've produced where the final output 100% matched my original plans (plans made before I even loaded the film into the holder, or drove to the location)

[Colin D]

One problem I struggle with is how to take and present landscape photographs of the Scottish Highlands without falling into the unspoilt wilderness trap. In most of upland Scotland, the conformity between what the land looks like and Romantic ideas of the uncharted wild is anything but an accident. Most often, it is the direct consequence of deliberate policies of land use and ownership, even if those policies were not explicitly concerned with aesthetics.

I am also trying to find ways to indicate the omnipresent signs of the Highland Clearances in these landscapes, but without being too didactic or strident. This is partly driven by a sense of righteousness (it adds insult to injury to photograph the places people were cleared from and pretend that they are, or ever were, wilderness), but also by the contemporary relevance of land reform in Scotland, as community ownership, conscious attempts at ecological restoration, and new forms of land use in general, take over from the old aristocratic and sporting estates.

The picture shows the back way up Ben Mor Coigach. It has become more popular as a walking route since this photograph was taken, and path is eroding fast and becoming more of a scar. The small township below this rise is now mostly holiday cottages, but it was settled by people cleared from a stunningly beautiful area further north (which is now a mainstay of the calender photographers' unspoilt nature canon). This clearance was not some historical injustice, with redcoats fighting claymores amid the mists of time, but happened recently enough that the grandchildren of those cleared were still alive when I first started visiting the area.

The old summer pastures - truly lovely sheilings in sheltered birchwoods - were denied them, so the poor grazing up in the clouds in my photograph was used. Instead of seasonal transhumance, what is now a somewhat brutal start and end to a good day out in the hills was climbed twice a day to milk and tend the cattle. In spring, after a hard winter with too little fodder to go round, some of the cows would be *carried* up that slope because they were too weak to make it themselves. They would then be tended full time until fit enough to care for themselves.

The hill is now owned by a wildlife trust, who have proved to be more open and generous towards the local community than any of the previous wealthy private owners. I find it odd that my thoughts, and my photography, have been channelled into what are essentially classic socialist or even communist patterns of thought - patterns I have never fully agreed with in my conscious political life, despite instinctive sympathy for the underdog. These patterns, and the language used to describe them, are emotive ones, and tend to induce strong reactions in viewers and readers. My problem, and it's an interesting one to grapple with, is how to force viewers to look at a photo like this without getting all misty-eyed and Romantic, and yet not let them dismiss it as just another outdated Red Polemic - I want to stop ideas becoming mere labels.

I don't expect the photo alone to carry the weight of all this intellectualising, but the background information, and feelings, are important to me in making the photograph, and in deciding to show it to others. Current plans - good intentions - are publication along with a written text, which will be more integrated than a conventional photobook essay, but without turning the photographs into mere illustrations.

A powerful and compelling narrative Struan that provides a hidden back story to the image and what it represents other than just what is very well presented on film. Land clearing in parts of Australia have led to horrendous environmental consequences I should make the effort to photograph some day. It is stark and haunting to see barren salt crusted earth no longer viable for anything to be sustained. Similarly to your story the land was once rich with thriving plant life and wildlife and provided for the local indigenous tribes who survived for 40,000 years on them. However this scenery can hardly be considered romantic anymore like your depiction.

[Ari]

Up west of Espanola NM, this was an image I worked on literally for decades to get it right. I was told by a local Native American that this was where they believed the Katchinas lived. That made this dramatic landform "come alive" for me and I set out on many occasions over some 25 years trying to get the location and then the right light-finally got it a couple of years ago on the leading edge of a storm. I waited a long time and thought it wasn't going to happen and was about to give up and started to take the camera down but this perfect shaft of light opened up. Phillips 4x5 with 210 Symar S, FP4+, Orange filter, Pyrocat HD, BTZS tubes, normal dev., drum scanned by Lenny and printed from the digital file both inkjet and silver. The burning and dodging is too complex for me for a traditional enlarged print and I knew from the time I made the exposure that I would have to work up a file. Burning skies precisely without darkening an adjacent landform is tricky and un=satisfying usually to me-where as on a file I can build a mask to precisely exclude the landform on virtually a pixel level and burn right up to it without halos or bleed onto the landform.

That is simply gorgeous, Kirk; no words needed. :)

[Alan Curtis]

Kirk
That is spectacular, you really captured the drama and light that NM provides. Even if it took decades. I have several very unremarkable photos of that location. I'll just save film from now on.

[h2oman]

This is turning out exactly how I had hoped, with already a diverse set of images and engrossing narratives. A portrait anyone? Still life? I'd call a few of you out by name, but that might be going a bit too far! :D

[Eric Biggerstaff]

121620


Here is one from 2003. Why I picked this one is because it represents an early image where my printing technique caught up with my vision to get a print that came close to what I had in mind when I made the image.

The image was made up on Independence Pass outside of Aspen, Colorado. The day was overcast with a light rain falling and I was walking along the creek trying to find pleasing compositions. I hiked up above the creek a bit and came to a 20 foot cliff with the creek running below. I walked to the edge, looked down and found this image. At the time I was using a 4X5 Tachihara and the longest lens I had was a 210mm Caltar II-N. Luckily it was exactly the lens I needed so pointing the camera almost straight down I made my exposure. I knew that if I had done everything correctly then this might be something I liked. Back home in my small darkroom using BTZS tubes, I developed the Ilford FP4+ in D76 for what I thought was a "Normal" time. The neg came out beautifully and once dry I quickly set up the enlarger. I wanted the water to be dark while letting the rocks underneath have a glow to them and stand out. In addition, I knew I had to control the brightness of the rock that was partially above the water with spots from the light rain that was falling. It took me a few tries but I was finally able to get the print I had envisioned when I made the image.

The challenge for most of us is moving past the point of simply making a picture and into the area where we can make art. In my opinion art can only be made when first there is a vision of what the finished piece will look like. Often, we have a vision but we don't yet have the skills needed to realize the finished print and it can take a very long time and lots of work before the vision and the skills are at a point where the artist can realize the final work. This can be very frustrating for new photographers and is true for both film based and digital processes. The digital world has brought the photographer more tools than every before to help realize a vision, but what happens more often than not it seems, is that the photographer uses all the tools to try and force a vision where one did not exist to begin with.

Today I print the image a little differently as my techniques have continued to improve. For example, I now use Selective Masking to help me manage the high number of print manipulations required to get the final print just the way I want and the image is a bit lighter and lower in contrast then represented here. However, the end vision remains exactly the same as when I made the image almost 12 years ago.

[Michael Graves]

121631

This shot of Huntington Gorge came about on my fourth trip to this location. There is a singular cliff/water torrent that I've tried two or three times to get, but never to my satisfaction. I got there just a little late for the light on the formation I was targeting, but then I saw this. This is pointing almost straight down. Had I stepped forward another six inches, my outfit would have become part of the scene. I would have liked to have been over to the right about two feet. However, that would have made ME part of the scene. My tripod and camera was set up on a triangular outcropping not quite as big as I needed. I used either an 8.5 or a 10" Ektar for this one. Can't rightly remember. But I think it was the 10, because I was trying to compress perspective. The tree you see is a full sized maple. Or used to be, anyway.

[Kirk Gittings]

Kirk
That is spectacular, you really captured the drama and light that NM provides. Even if it took decades. I have several very unremarkable photos of that location. I'll just save film from now on.

Thanks. FWIW I don't believe that any one image is the final say on a place. You should go for it.

[Kirk Gittings]

That is simply gorgeous, Kirk; no words needed. :)

Thank you for those kind words!

[Boscoe]

I grew up with pine plantations like this all around and I've always found them very interesting to explore. I get ideas in my head of perfect images in a various settings and sometimes I find them. I had been to this grove once before without a camera and new there was something worth photographing. I happened to return on a day during a sticky snowfall which completely changed the trees. It was so quiet I swear I could hear snowflakes landing. I had walked a considerable distance having a hard time finding something in the chaos of tree trunks when I came to the base of this hill. The image is quite a departure from the low contrast scene. I now have my "pine grove" shot and can move on to something else.
Home made 8x10, fp4 n+1 210mm fujinon

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7427/12563784594_647e015267_o.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/62218065@N00/12563784594/)
pines in snow (https://www.flickr.com/photos/62218065@N00/12563784594/) by vinnywalsh.com (https://www.flickr.com/people/62218065@N00/), on Flickr

This is very nice. Well done! Could I possibly have a 1600 x 900 res for my desktop background?

[Emil Schildt]

This is turning out exactly how I had hoped, with already a diverse set of images and engrossing narratives. A portrait anyone? Still life? I'd call a few of you out by name, but that might be going a bit too far! :D

Well - this one was due to a (typical) mistake...

I made the portrait of Eva in 13x18 neg and wanted to make it into a Bromoil Print. Nothing new there...

But for some reason (which I don't remember) I had put several different colors on the palette (which I normally wouldnt' do at that time), and the very first I chose was the mistake... not so clear now, but her lips and the purple/reddish color on her left cheek (our right) was not my choise... And it looked horrible!!

I thought "crap", but then my nature of image making set in: In stead of cursing and then throw the image away in order to re do it, I decided: Well: It is already ruined, so why don't I try and experiment with random different colors for this print?

This turned out: My very first multi colored bromoil print. And I have been doing it ever since.

Story of my life: My biggest break throughs has been due to mistakes...

[Struan Gray]

A powerful and compelling narrative Struan that provides a hidden back story to the image and what it represents other than just what is very well presented on film. Land clearing in parts of Australia have led to horrendous environmental consequences I should make the effort to photograph some day. It is stark and haunting to see barren salt crusted earth no longer viable for anything to be sustained. Similarly to your story the land was once rich with thriving plant life and wildlife and provided for the local indigenous tribes who survived for 40,000 years on them. However this scenery can hardly be considered romantic anymore like your depiction.

Thanks Colin. One silver lining: Australian landscape restoration projects have a clear sense of what restoration should aim for. Scotland has the problem that nostalgia is mostly for a landscape which is just one of many possible - and justifiable - options.

I don't shoot to a list, or an agenda, but I do try to understand why the visual things which appeal to me look the way they do. Sometimes that leads down unexpected paths.

[Heroique]

The day before, I had pitched my tent on the top of that hill (in the middle distance) and enjoyed a nice view of Mount Adams – a volcano in the Gifford Pinchot NF (Wash. state). After a few shots from that location, it occurred to me that the very hill I was shooting from would be nice to have in the shot, and might add some pleasing topographical variety in front of the volcano. So next morning, I packed up and hiked to the hill where my tripod now stands. Much better. The middle hill, I remember thinking at set-up, seems to offer a "pretty" version of the sublime shape rising-up behind it, while providing scale for the viewer. The early-evening shadow on right, which was lengthening fast, was an unexpected, but pleasant surprise since I thought it mimicked the left-side slopes of the volcano and the middle hill, adding some rhythm to the composition. Alas, I wish clouds had offered more – I added an orange filter to better dramatize the sky. When it was time to develop the film, I used compensation development to save the shadowed trees, which my 4990 does a fair but not great job of preserving. The print from my Omega D2v is, of course, superior. As for the shots from the previous day, they're nice enough, but they are static by comparison – I have never printed or scanned them.

121658

Tachi 4x5
Fuji A 240mm/9 (w/ Lee orange filter)
Ilford FP4+ (in dilute D-76)
Epson 4990/Epson Scan

[Arne Croell]

This is one of my more "Anselesque" images, although the moon was not originally planned. The image shows the Fründenhorn in the Swiss Alps (Bernese Oberland), seen from the shore of Lake Oeschinen. It was taken during a Christmas vacation on December 26, 2006 at 2:34 pm. Equipment was a Technikardan 45 and a Nikkor-T 720mm, red-orange filter (B+W 041), f/22 1/3 and 1/4s, on T-Max 100 developed to N in TMAX RS 1+9. At this time of the year the sun is pretty low on the horizon even at noon, giving the snow and rocks a nice texture. To get to the place I had to take the cable car and then it is a 20min short hike to the lake. Nothing too difficult or dangerous even in snow, except for the fact that the path crosses a small ski slope! Feels like crossing the highway. Fortunately, I decided to take the 720mm, which I usually only bring when I am in the car, not when carrying a backpack. When I arrived at the place, I first took a few images of the frozen lake and the cliffs above it. Then I became intrigued by the diagonal staircase-like division between sunlit and shadow areas on the mountain plus the textures in the raking light and I made two exposures. There was no moon at the time. With the 720mm, the Technikardan is at nearly full extension, so after the two exposures, I decided to recheck focus just in case things had slipped a bit with the camera pointing upward. Under the dark cloth I suddenly saw something white on the left side of the mountain, which I initially thought was a cloud, but when coming back out I could see it was the rising moon. It actually disappeared behind the mountain again for a few minutes, before reappearing above the top, so I stayed and made some more exposures with the moon. The image is actually not unspoiled nature, it has one man-made object in it, although it is much more benign than in the previous examples. The Swiss Alps have a lot of huts at high elevations for climbers and hikers, most of them are only open for about 3 months in the summer. The "Fründenhütte" is straight below the moon at the bottom of the small dark cliff, at about 1/3 image height. One can see the snow-covered roof and a tiny flagpole to the left of it.

[h2oman]

Arne,

That shadow line is very cool, as you obviously observed on the spot. Great image!

[Jerry Bodine]

Here is one of my favorites. It’s a scan (low quality flatbed) of an 8x10 print made not long ago. It was taken from Third Burroughs Mtn in Mt. Rainier NP, looking down on the Winthrop Glacier - before I started keeping field notes and before learning the zone system.

So from memory:
4x5 Sinar Norma, 90/8 Super Angulon, Tri-X in D-76, tray developed, one of three exposures with filters yellow/orange/red (can’t remember which filter was used for this enlargement). From print records – 5x7 Omega/cold light, Galerie Grade 3, Dektol 1:2 2 minutes, burned sky upper right 20%, dodged “horn” 45%, dodged lower left ground 33%, toned KRST 1+10.

I had made two previous attempts to reach Third Burroughs. Departing from Sunrise area on the NE side of the mountain, the route would travel over Burroughs Mtn – a multi-humped feature – to First Burroughs, then the higher Second Burroughs, then after a long descent followed by a long gain up to the highest point, Third Burroughs. Actually it’s a ridge from which the Winthrop Glacier can be seen far below. The first two attempts were in clear weather, but were cut short at Second Burroughs when clouds formed around noon and ended all viewing.

I attended an early 70's AA workshop dedicated to darkroom printing shortly after making a first print from one of these negatives. Participants were encouraged to bring along a negative that was challenging. So I selected this one. This was at a time before variable contrast print materials were commonplace. He put this negative in his 4x5 Beseler and asked what my challenge was. I told him I wanted to find a way to increase the contrast locally in the open crevasses of the glacier to accentuate them more. The light source on his Beseler was a Ferrante Codelite VC system. He made an exposure, after setting the mix of blue and green in the light source, on a Dupont paper, then changed the blue/green mix and burned in the crevasses (all without making a single test strip). It came out just as I wanted, but I learned nothing from the experience since I new nothing of vc technology at that time. Examining his wet print, he pointed out the poor separation between the sky and summit in the upper left corner and asked me what filter I’d used. I sheepishly had to ‘fess up and tell him I hadn’t entered that into my non-existent notes (knowing he was a stickler for notes). He just looked at me with that questioning look that said “So what have you learned from that?”

The attached image is a result of my current learning stage of printing.

[Alan Curtis]

Jerry
Great Photograph and story. Your persistence payed off. That's a long time to work on a negative but worth the time.

[Alan Curtis]

121701
I'm thinking hurry up the light is going to change. This image was taken not too far from Kirks stunning photograph in northern NM. I was waiting out a huge thunderstorm when the the setting sun dropped below the clouds brilliantly lighting this peak. I ran down the road to a location I had used before to photograph this formation. The storm moved behind the peak with the light coming across the desert. While it looks like I used a deep red filter I did not, I didn't use any filter. The sky was that black behind the peak. With this much light hitting the peak the shadows on the right side are about zone II. Yes, I got soaked one minute later.
Zone VI 4x5
Schneider 210mm
TXP rated at 180
scanned with poor quality scanner from 8x10 print

[h2oman]

It was starting to look like "Post your glaciated peaks" there for a bit!

[pdmoylan]

[QUOTE=Arne Croell;1170608]

Beautiful. Many of us go a lifetime with such images in mind - you have taken us there.

The Nikkor does the image well.

As always, I would have liked to see this in color.

But great in any event. Thanks for sharing.


PDM

[ImSoNegative]

Great images everyone

[Joe O'Hara]

Good idea for a thread, Gregg.

I don't consider this to be necessarily the best photograph I have made, but the circumstances
under which it was made are special to me.

I was working at Tuckerton Bay in NJ at low tide. This is a salt marsh area that is readily accessible
without a boat. When I arrived, I made a mental note of this little pond but passed on to make
some other pictures. By and by the tide started to come in, and the wind picked up, and I did not
want to be stranded out there in knee-deep mud, so I started hiking back. I saw this pond again,
and I passed it by.

After a few more steps, I had this strong feeling that I should turn back and look at it again. And
at that time, the wind had created these beautiful ripples on the water. I set up my camera and made
the picture. I do not generally record technical details, but I believe that I used my 210mm lens,
a little bit of tilt, and gave the negative normal development.

As I think of it, the pond spoke to me, and I made a photograph of it. I think that this is the first time
that something like that had happened to me.

I find this happens to me from time to time now, when I am paying attention.

[pdmoylan]

Good idea for a thread, Gregg.

I don't consider this to be necessarily the best photograph I have made, but the circumstances
under which it was made are special to me.

I was working at Tuckerton Bay in NJ at low tide. This is a salt marsh area that is readily accessible
without a boat. When I arrived, I made a mental note of this little pond but passed on to make
some other pictures. By and by the tide started to come in, and the wind picked up, and I did not
want to be stranded out there in knee-deep mud, so I started hiking back. I saw this pond again,
and I passed it by.

After a few more steps, I had this strong feeling that I should turn back and look at it again. And
at that time, the wind had created these beautiful ripples on the water. I set up my camera and made
the picture. I do not generally record technical details, but I believe that I used my 210mm lens,
a little bit of tilt, and gave the negative normal development.

As I think of it, the pond spoke to me, and I made a photograph of it. I think that this is the first time
that something like that had happened to me.

I find this happens to me from time to time now, when I am paying attention.



Joe, you captured the light and ripples very nicely. Well done.

BTW, for years I have spent much time photographing Tuckerton bay and the NJ pinelands. I will be in the Tom's River area the first weekend of October and if you are interested I would be happy to get together. I have several targeted locations nearby and in the pines, while Tuckerton would be an easy outing as well.

pm me.

Cheers,

PDM

[Joe O'Hara]

Sounds great PDM. I've never worked in the Toms River area. Send me a PM when it gets closer.

[Maris Rusis]

This site has recurring posts called The Photograph Explained http://largeformatphotography.com.au/. The articles range between quirky and didactic.

[Arne Croell]

Here is another one of mine, made 15 years ago in White Sands NM, New Mexico.The image was taken on July 31, 1999 at 7:30pm. The camera was a Technikardan 45 with Apo-Sironar S 150mm, no filter, f/32, 1/4s. The film was TMAX 100 developed in TMAX RS 1+9 to N contrast. f/32 was needed for the depth of field - tilt was not useable since the Yucca plant is directly in front of the mountain range. A the time I was driving from Huntsville, AL to Tucson, AZ for a conference and added a few vacation days on the way. I spent a whole (hot!) day of photography in the dunes of White Sands on that last day of July. It was a quite productive and successful day, 3 more images from that day can be seen at the beginning of this gallery on my web site: http://www.arnecroell.com/p922955438. White Sands is located between two mountain ranges, the San Andres mountains to the West, visible in this image, and the Sacramento mountains to the East. During the day, while I was wandering through the dunes, big thunderclouds appeared over both mountain ranges (one set can be seen in the 1st image of that gallery mentioned above), but did not reach over the basin, so the dunes were in sunshine most of the time. This changed in the evening, when the storms over both ranges combined rather rapidly, at least that was the way it looked. When that happened, it was a combination of seeing the picture potential, hunting for a nice Yucca plant for the foreground and at the same time estimating when the (sand) storm would hit me, 5 minutes at maximum. This was surely one of my fastest camera setups. There was no more sunshine on the dunes, resulting in rather flat light on the foreground, so I decided to not do a minus development for the overall contrast but stay with N (in retrospect, N+1 might have been even better). Some ripples in the sand are visible in the foreground, at least in the print. I was able to make two exposures, then I had to pack the camera in a hurry, and a few seconds after that the sandstorm hit (the rain part never reached me). At the time, I had my very first GPS with me, so I hit the return button to get me straight to the car (about 20min) instead of backtracking, which saved me quite some time. Printing is somewhat challenging, the basic exposure as well as the dodging and burning steps have to be just right. I usually need one or two trial runs each time I print it, although I have the print recipe written down in detail. Originally, I printed the image on Kodak Polymax FA ( I miss that paper!), recently I switched to Adox MCC 110 (the scan shown below was from the MCC 110 version) and Adox Variotone.