I love telling this particular story and it is especially appropriate to this month’s Story Behind Every Photograph.  During the scores of plane rides I’ve taken for landscape photography to the Southwest, I reread the book Art and Fear by Ted Orland and David Bayles. Both are working photographers/artists seeking to survive in the difficult world of “creatives.” In the book, the authors share many experiences, the one that stands out the most to me is, a college professor of Art who gives an assignment to the class. He divides the class in half, one half is to create as much art as possible in a given time frame, the other half of the class is to create one supreme work of art in that same time frame. When the exercise was evaluated it was clear the best art came from the group creating as much as possible! That is the central theme of this month’s Story.

   With my new #Chamonix 5×12″ camera arriving in early January and winter being a favorite time of year for my photography, I am eager for the opportunities. I would go out early several times each week and every time there was a winter weather event. I would have little to show for my efforts through January and early February. On Sunday, February 21st I took a ride to a yacht-club my Dad used to belong to on the Connecticut River and made the 2nd image with the 5×12″ camera. It was a warm and sunny day and the ice was breaking up on Chester Creek. I couldn’t help but wonder if the best of winter’s opportunities were behind me. 

   Early in the next week, I came across a FaceBook post by another Large Format photographer from Connecticut who I did not know at the time. He posted a photo of a broken down chicken coup with the same brand camera I had just acquired. As it happened the perspective of the chicken coup was nearly perfect dimensions of my new 5×12″ camera. It was about a half-hour from my home. With only passing interest in the chicken coup, I decided to take a ride down and check it out.

    It wasn’t difficult to find and as I was coming into the area I couldn’t help but notice several large bodies of water, possibly 4 or 5. Each with varying degrees of ice. Ice and its strange shapes and abstract potential is always my prime focus during the winter months. Less than a mile from the chicken coup I came upon Plattwood Industrial Park with an access road directly between two large bodies of water. The pond on the left side was not frozen at all, while the pond on the right would yield 3 distinct variations of ice abstractions over two separate trips to the park, see below: I came away thankful and inspired by the unexpected find.  That simple decision to check out the chicken coup turned my winter photography from OK to rewarding.

    With the beginning week of March, I knew that winter was waining, I checked out Google Earth looking for ponds in the northwest part of Connecticut. That part of Connecticut is higher in elevation than the valley where I live. On Sunday, March 7th, I suggested to the wife we take the hour or so ride up to the northwest corner of CT looking for ice abstracts.

    The GPS is telling me to take a particular exit and at the end of the exit turn left to continue to our planned route. At the bottom of the exit I glance to the right and across the highway overpass, I see a dark cliff with ice clinging to the wall. I ignore the GPS and decide to turn right and check out the ice and lighting conditions. In an almost perfect setting, the dark cliff is right at the edge of a lightly used road where I could park. I have an app on my phone that quickly illustrates the various focal length lenses I have for the 5×12″ format. I compose an image on the cell phone and quickly decide this is another variation on wintertime ice.

     The sun is high enough in the sky so the “angle of incidence = the angle of reflectance” (imagine the angle a cue ball hits the side pad, the angle to the side pad is the same approaching and leaving). So, in this case, the sun is not reflecting directly back into the camera lens. The sun does, however, provide some areas of specularity on the glistening ice. A polarizing filter will serve to control and also separate the specularity into smaller areas on the negative. While temperatures are still cool, the sun is out and the ice is melting. The building excitement draws me to make the photograph seen here:

So, the takeaway is, with only passing interest in the chicken coup, the decision to check it out yielded 3 exciting and different winter abstract images to a winter season that looked as though it was ending for me. The bonus in it all, the large format photographer who made the chicken coup image reached out to me, we have chatted and the result is an added LF acquaintance in a very small group of photographers who understand the challenges of large film photography.

Thank you Chip !!