Large Format Landscapes

[Jim Cole]

Definitely worth the effort and bear threat!

[ALVANDI Camera]

I recently continued my quest to get all the major waterfalls in the Smoky Mountains on large format. This past weekend I made the hike to Ramsey Cascades. This beautiful waterfall is actually the highest falls in the park. You've got to earn it though as it's at the end of a fairly brutal hike. It starts easy but gets harder and harder as you go. It's a fairly interesting hike though as you pass through an old forest that contains trees supposedly more than 500 years old.

I really feel that I earned this image. I unexpectedly got rained on while I was focusing the camera. I quickly covered it with my dark cloth and waited out a 45 minute shower. I also had my first bear encounter; surprising only in that it hasn't happened sooner. It was about 50 feet away and fairly large as black bears go. It froze once I yelled at it, and I continued on my way (the photographer in me REALLY wanted to stick around and get at least a cell phone pic!). Finally, I bit it HARD hiking back. After the rain the rocks were of course slick and I was being careful...but not careful enough apparently. As I was going down, all I could think of was "Don't land on the camera gear!" Thankfully I was able to slightly spin and my left arm took the entire fall...gear stayed safe and appendages will heal!

This was shot on 4x5 Ilford Delta 100, 90mm Fujinon lens at f/16 and 1/4s. Developed using Ilfosol-3 in BTZS tubes. Epson V700 scanned.

Ramsey-Cascades002edit

by skiers4life, on Flickr

Nice, I like it.

[Professional]

Yes, it is very nice shot indeed.

I have this developer, but i use it mostly for non Delta slow film, such as Pan F+, FP4+, Acros 100, even Kodak TMAX 100, i don't like Delta much compared to other films non Delta either from Ilford or others.

[Heroique]

Something has gone wrong here. I was responding to two posted messages which seem to have vanished, so my post is now without context!

(Your quoted text is six years old – it had certainly vanished from my memory!)

Great Smoky Mountain waterfall up there...

I'm pretty sure those limestone rocks are fragments of an ancient sea floor, and while I'm not sure anyone will be able to convince me how they got way up there in the mountains, it's still one beautiful geology lesson.

[Dean]

Ohhhh!

This is beautiful, I like your composition and near-far gradation.

Very happy, you will like my photos,Thank you!

[Mark G]

Here are three photographs I took of a wall around a wood, I was using a home made Pinhole camera 5x4 f200 with a laser drilled pinhole in copper. I used Ilford FP4 rated at 100 and deved in HC110. the neg was then scanned on a flatbed . I Live in Cumbria, an area covered in dry stone walls. I have begun a project that I loosely call "Wood Wires & Wiggly Tin" but I will include some stone in that too. This is based on fences and walls around the rural areas of Cumbria. I used pinhole because it was what i was shooting at the time, but I do enjoy the uncertainty and the freedom of trying to frame an image that you can't actually see. Along with the vagueness of the exposure. (If in doubt expose longer.) it's a nice change from the precision of the studio camera.Anyway i hope you enjoy the pictures, Oh and yes I know they are a bit soft

[Barry Kirsten]

These are lovely, Mark. What pinhole size/focal length please.

[Peter Lewin]

Mark: I like all three, but particularly the middle one, since it is somehow less expected than the first and last, where it is clear what attracted your attention. There is something about the randomness of the middle one that appeals to me.

Your post here, and in the Introductions forum, made me grab a map. I lived as an ex-pat in London for 6 years, but wasn't sure where Cumbria was. If I have it correct, Cumbria and the Lake District are somewhat the same, or at least the Lake District is in Cumbria. My now-wife and I did quite a bit of hill walking in the Lakes, and enjoyed the stone walls so much that our wedding rings were made by a local jeweler, patterned after the walls and the various stiles used for climbing over them. So do include some stones in your project! (If they would stand still long enough, you could even include a sheep...)

[Mark G]

Hi Barry,
Thank you. The Pinhole was a 0.4mm and the focal length was 80mm.

[Mark G]

Hi Peter,
Thank you, I'm glad that you saw the randomness of the middle one. In fact they are out of order. To view them you should start at the third one, then click "first" then "next". It wasn't until I posted them that I realized the order was wrong. I was trying to show the breakdown of mans impact on the environment as nature fought back. In the picture that you like, what caught my eye was the way that nature seems to have broken down the man made wall and poured out of its constraints. the man made precision of the wall in the third one has been overtaken by the randomness of nature. Well that was the Idea anyway.
I'm glad you and your wife enjoyed the Lakes, It is a very beautiful place, I love to go walking there. these three pictures were taken in another part of Cumbria though, The Eden Valley, an area that runs between the Lakes and the Pennines. It tends to be very much quieter than the Lakeland Fells, I like the solitude sometimes.