Large Format Landscapes

[Kirk Gittings]

Kirk, the first image is a bell ringer for sure. I recall when you posted it recently and the discussion about the tilting cloud. I get the distinct feeling that the left end of the cloud is nearer than the right end, resulting in a converging lines effect (e.g., railroad tracks converging to a point in the distance). Could that have been the case?

Thanks. No both edges are so far from me that perspective would not be a factor. After spending some time subsequent to making this print and talking to some people who know something about this, I found out that it is not uncommon as a cloud moves into an area with slight air and earth temperature changes from where the bottom was level.

[Kirk Gittings]

I like the rain photos best; perhaps because of symbolism that goes with it in a dry area.
The second photo which seems to be the same geography, looks like it does not belong with the others. To me (as someone who lives near the ocean), looks like a sea scene with the clouds opening up for the sun. It is exhibit-worthy as well!

Thanks, there is also rain in the background of the second too but it is less prominent. All of these were taken within about 100 ft of each other on different days at the edge of a high mesa-a lesson in how framing and timing can render very diverse images from a given vantage point I guess. My main interest in this spot is actually the history that resides in this landscape. In the first and third the rain is falling on old RT 66. To the left are Anasazi ruins and just this side of RT 66 are the first tracks that the Santa Fe RR laid through this part of the west. Somewhere along there the Pony Express also ran and the building walls still stand. Just in front of all that is the Puerco River along which Clovis hunters hunted mammoths 13k years ago just after the last Ice Age. At my feet is a chert and petrified wood lithics scatter, stone flakes from prehistoric tool making.

Thats the kind of back story that makes a landscape come alive for me. Its that history that draws me to such vistas and the light on a given day that makes me get a camera out. I have little interest in landscapes that have no knowable human history. "Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind" Nathaniel Hawthorne. I see it more as a patina, but shadow works too.

I had been photographing there for years as I traveled to and from commercial shoots in Vegas and Phoenix. The artist residency which I set up during the "monsoons" finally allowed me to get expressive images from that spot, Blue Mesa.

More than anyone probably wanted to know, but I find the motivation behind image making fascinating.

[StoneNYC]

Evening light, Lustrafjord (Sognefjord), Norway



Linhof Master Technika with Grandagon 90mm, TMAX 400 developed in XTOL 1:1

Greetings, Thomas

Wow!!!!! Gulp... I am humbled and feel unworthy...

[Harley Goldman]

These three images from my artist residency at The Petrified Forest are currently being exhibited at the Albuquerque Museum:Attachment 124067Attachment 124068Attachment 124069

Very well done, Kirk. The center one really does it for me. Beautiful.

[Meekyman]

Chamonix 045n-1, Ilford delta 100, orange filter. Three Shires Head in the Peak District National Park, UK. First home scanned negative, EPSON V700, colorperfect and capture nx2.

Sorry it's so small (500 x 400 pixesl, 72 dpi). What settings are normally used here?

Graham

[Thomas Greutmann]

Wow!!!!! Gulp... I am humbled and feel unworthy...

Thank you Stone

Greetings, Thomas

[Thomas Greutmann]

First snow, Lake Vangsmjosa, Norway.



Linhof Master Technika with Symmar-S 150mm, Kodak TMAX 400 developed in XTOL 1:1

Greetings, Thomas

[Jim Cole]

Grand Canyon near Yavapai Point. 4x5 Acros, 300mm Nikkor. Curves and toning in Photoshop.

[Jmarmck]

Very nice Jim. I like the way the depth is expressed.

[Jim Cole]

Thank you, Marty.

Here's one from this past August at the height of Monsoon here in Flagstaff. This is a huge field of Brittle Bush flowers about 1/4 mile from my house with the San Francisco Peaks in the background. On 4x5 Acros with a 300 Nikkor.