 |
| Above and below: Contax 137 MA, 50mm f1.4 Planar, Adox Silvermax |
Unlike a previous post where I was struggling for a foreground to go with a stormy sky, these foregrounds just sort of suggested themselves. Having said that, I still had to drive around a bit to find them.
I spend far too much time in the car looking for subjects, a strategy that nowadays costs a small fortune with petrol the price it is. But what else is there to do? Unless you like taking flower shots in your back garden then you either have to drive to a particular location, park the car and get out and hike or just trawl the highways and byways until something catches the attention.
The problem with the hiking approach is that you can spend and hour or two crawling around the countryside and end up with nothing to show for it. I've done that often enough that I no longer favour that approach - especially with a hungry blog to feed!
So it's the car for me. I know the land within about a 30 mile radius of my home quite well and I can normally think of a few locations depending on the type of weather we're having and the time of day. Stormy skies go well with water so it's my usual practice to drop by a local beach or reservoir. Such was the case with these two photographs.
What I'd really like to do is take off for the day and drive further afield but our three demanding bichon frise dogs would probably not speak to me for a fortnight if I did that. That means I'm seldom away for more than a couple of hours and that limits me to excursions nearer home.
Today was a typical example. I dropped Cath off at work and headed for Newtyle Quarry but this time, as threatened, with the Speed Graphic in my bag for some ten minute indoor exposures. It was fun going out with just four sheets of 5x4 loaded in the DDSs and only exposing three.
There's no doubt that large format makes me far, far more selective. It's not just the cost of film but the time involved in setting up and tearing down the Speed Graphic so if I don't think there's a good chance it will be a keeper, forget it!
Especially like the first - interesting foreground and skies. The far shore is a bit blurry. Your Graphic with its drop-bed and tilt could have brought that in to. Anyway, beautiful image worthy of a hanging.
ReplyDeleteA hanging? Any chance of the sentence being commuted?
ReplyDeleteYou need a bike, Bruce.
ReplyDeleteMike.
Try living in California, almost a 1000 mile long and I don't know how wide but probably a couple 200. Sometimes I drive an hour and a half to take 2 images.
ReplyDelete"There's no doubt that large format ... setting up and tearing down the Speed Graphic .."
ReplyDeleteYep, no instant gratification, makes one slow down.. ;-)
peter k.
well guess this will not be seen by author as I have no identity... ;-)
I knew all these years of mediation would finally come to proof. ;-)take care.. visit often, first time tried to make comment.
Thanks for your comment, Peter. You don't need an identity as such: just bung any old name down at the Name/URL section. It can be Bumptious McTwit, Fartled Snotworthy or any name of your choosing. There's no "sign up". The problem was that I was getting so many anonymous spam comments that it was taking me ages looking through them all and then deleting them. Putting down any name at all (other than "anonymous" obviously!) means that your comment will be read and not deleted.
ReplyDelete