Southwest Photography - Arizona Treks Blog

Entries in sedona (3)

Saturday

Feb202010

Red Rock Crossing

Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 6:18AM

Last week my youngest son and I went to the Sedona area for a day trip. Unfortunately I was practicing my air-head skills that day and had forgotten Mary had a medical procedure scheduled that I wanted to be there for. Consequently the day was a short one but I make it back in time for the procedure.

We only went to Red Rock Crossing on the National Forest side. That is about a 1.5 mile round trip hike. We took the 8X10. It is heavy but that was not the problem, the shoulders hurt a lot after carrying the camera for a ways. But we made it, the river was high after the rains. I made 3 photographs while there.

The top one was made with the 600mm lens. The print is a contact print and is beautiful. The bottom print is of a back-water. It was made using a 210mm lens, f/16 and TMax 400 film. It is not quite like I hoped, the print is okay but not exciting.

Rod and Randy have both recently encouraged me to shoot more 8X10. They both said "shooting 8X10 and making contact prints will make you a better photographer". Well, continual improvement is what I strive for so I began shooting more 8X10 not really understanding why it would help, just trusting those whom I have great respect for. One of the immediate things I realized was, if you'r doing contact prints, cropping is a compromise. So I began to be more careful with the framing. Another thing that helps is that you see the image on the ground glass at the same size it will be printed. That really helps to pre-visualize the print. When I went back to the 4X5 last Saturday, I noticed I was more diligent with the framing, not relying on crops as much. As time goes on I can see that shooting the 8X10 more will have an impact on everything I shoot.

Arizona Treks |

Paper Again

Friday, January 22, 2010 at 7:36AM

All week I have taken some time every day to do a little printing. All prints were 8X10 and I started with a partial box of Ilford Neutral Tone paper. I was having a little trouble getting what I wanted out of the paper and was a little frustrated because I thought the negative were good and I really liked the images. But as I worked through the last of the paper it became a little easier. Then, finally, the last sheet was printed and time to open a new box of the Ilford Warmtone paper. The very first print was WOW! Great tonality, contrast, I got what I was looking for out of the paper. Instead of compromise the prints were quite pleasing, rich beautiful prints you can be proud of showing rather than the much work for compromise.

Now, to hear this compared with even 6 months ago is rather surprising to me. I was barely able to discern the difference between the papers at that time. The difference in the tones (neutral vs. warm) was obvious but the subtle differences in the papers was only marginally visible. This time it was almost a slap in the face with a wet rag.

So vision continues to develop as you work. This one was obvious partly because it has been a while since I printed with the warmtone paper and partly because the negatives were better than usual. They were little more dense and had higher contrast than usual, This was deliberate as part of a suggestion made by Randy Efros almost a year ago. It is nice to see that coming together as well.

The photo above was scanned from a print. The scan of the negative was lower quality. My knowledge and skill in scanning is weak and may not improve. I scan the negatives as a way to provide something like a contact sheet for myself. From those scans I decide which negatives to print. This works well for me and I see no reason to change it or to work hard to improve the quality of the scans since they are never printed. On the rare occasion I shoot color, I scan and will sometimes print that file. But those are for my own use. When I wish to show or sell a color print I take it to a professional.

Arizona Treks |

Oak Creek

Monday, January 18, 2010 at 6:25AM

Last Friday a friend and I went to Oak Creek near Sedona. We planned to hike the West fork Trail but found it covered with ice and chose to avoid injury to self and camera gear. We worked the ruins near and the confluence of Oak Creek and the West Fork. Then we went to Red Rock Crossing. This was an unusual trip in that I was pleased with most of the photos made there.

Recently, few of the photos I make please me, at least the ones made on outings. Another friend mentioned the Ansel Adams quote a week or so ago.

"Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment."

- Ansel Adams

This has been so true of what I have shot recently that I find myself not venturing out quite as much as before. Waiting and hoping I would get past that for I believe it is a temporary condition, being hyper-critical of my own work. I like to think this is merely something many who do subjective, creative work find along the way and that it will help me to improve.

There have been few posts recently, partly because of the lack of satisfaction in my work, and partly because I have several critical software projects to be done and have been focusing on them.

The top photo is in the West Fork just above the waterfall at the confluence. The ice, still clinging to the logs but above the water created some interesting lines and reflections. The photo below is part of the ruins near there. The ivy-covered stone column caught my eye. The sun was filtered through the trees and made interesting patterns on the column.

That was one of those days that there were no clouds so we had to be creative with what we shot.