8 / 27 / 22 Raymond Gates Veterans Cemetery

    To follow up on last month’s final thought. To prejudge the potential or outcome of most anything in life many times is a lesson learned. Such is the case with this month’s image from the Raymond Gates Veterans Cemetery in Rocky Hill, CT. 

      To fully appreciate this unlikely photograph it’s important to expand this back story just a bit.  Shortly before the pandemic closed down 2020 I had reconnected with many local high school graduates from my 1970 graduating class. A 50th year reunion was in discussion and I offered to get involved with anything photography or website construction. After the 50th reunion had been postponed twice and numerous meetings with classmates I soon grew to cherish this reconnection, largely lost to raising a family in my early 20’s. Jump ahead to June of 2022. Finally a reunion was in place for this past June 4th. The night before on June 3rd there was a local bar gathering for those in town ahead of the reunion. A classmate traveled in from California to reconnect after many years out West. Darlene and I shared an unusual connection in high school, likely born from chance meetings in the principal’s office…often. Seems we both found it difficult to focus on the teacher’s daily lesson plans. Turns out Darlene wondered as I did, just what happened in 50 years to the “Most Mischievous Superlatives” of the class of 1970 as identified in the yearbook. Darlene would own and manage a busy automotive repair business on the coast of mid-state California. Here in the East I pursued a passion in the world of Black and White film photography. Darlene is a collector of various different genres of art, but not B&W photography…until she had a chance to see a selection of my work the day after the reunion. She was struck by the imagery I showed and before she returned home ordered a grouping of images. I didn’t learn until later that she would return home and do some research on the B&W process and even cleared a wall in her home where my images would hang. 

     The improbable circumstances around this month’s image began after Darlene unexpectedly returned to Rocky Hill in later August to aid in a friends health concerns. During her time back in the area she wondered if she could witness exactly what goes into the setup and making of a B&W  image with the large film cameras that I use. I cautioned her several times, do not expect to simply show-up somewhere and have a magical image present itself, it simply doesn’t happen that easily. So, factoring in all of the above, the story begins to really become unlikely with the events that would follow. After spending a week with her friend Darlene returned to her hotel in Rocky Hill on Thursday August 25th. There was a plan in place for a dozen or so classmates to travel to the Mohegan Sun Casino and their “Concert on the Patio” on Friday August 26th. The patio is outside in a large open space with food and alcohol vendors on site. A tribute band playing all Eagles music was scheduled to perform. It would be a late night with alcohol involved ruling out any early morning activities. As the day unfolded heavy rains all day long forced the casino to move the free concert inside. That removed all possibilities of freely moving around from one another so the class lost interest in the Friday indoor event. With the night canceled I stayed home but did text Darlene if there was Fog in the early morning I would go out @ 6am, if she had interest in seeing the setup of a Large format photograph. I would again caution, meaningful photographs simply don’t come along that often, certainly not on a whim !

    I discovered the Raymond Gates Cemetery quite by accident on a foggy morning May 20, 2022. The photograph seen here was taken a bit after 8 am, over 2.5 hours after sunrise. The foggy conditions had all but gone on that May date. Nevertheless the shapes and position of the line of trees would stick in my mind for future opportunities. This all plays into the improbability for this month’s image to happen at all. The gates of the cemetery open promptly @ 6am every morning, so the later sunrise of August 27th became yet another factor in gaining this month’s featured image from the morning after the rained out concert.

  The time of day and position of the sun on the August 27th morning become quite important, to say the least. Fog for me has always been very difficult to predict, nevertheless I set the alarm for 5:30 am turned in early on the chance the weather cooperated. Sure enough, the next morning was indeed foggy, I quickly made some coffee and loaded the car with the backpack. The hotel where Darlene was staying was 1/2 mile from my home and about the same distance to the Raymond Gates Cemetery. Sunrise was about 6:15 that morning, I met Darlene at the hotel and made the short drive to the cemetery where the gates had just opened minutes earlier. I began to setup the camera and the fog was not particularly thick (not the home run I was hoping for). Nevertheless, I went through the setup of the camera explaining things to consider as the process of making an image typically unfolds. I measured the light on the tree closest to the camera while remaining at the side of the camera, (mistake, that would become important later). I exposed a sheet of film while the sun was still below the horizon. I would have begun tearing down the camera setup but as it happened a black SUV with a security guard pulled up. I quickly assured the guard I was simply making a photograph of the trees and fog. As I chatted with the guard, Darlene wandered off for the next 15 minutes. Finally, the guard went on about his business and I began organizing the backpack to breakdown the camera. About that time Darlene showed backup at the camera and said, “Geez, look at the amount of fog now”!  Indeed, I had not paid as much attention as I should have, she said “you’re going to make another photograph right”? I did realize what was unfolding in front of me was worthy of another sheet of film and had the potential to be a very special image. With the sun now above the horizon the shadows being cast back towards the camera were creating these wonderful leading lines. Add in the tree limbs randomly breaking the sun’s path would split into terrific triangles on the wet dew drenched grass. I grabbed the light meter and standing at the camera position measured brightness of the dark tree bark. I thought, Wow, that is a lot brighter than only a short time before, it dawned on me that the thick fog was actually biasing the meter reading of the tree. I moved closer to the tree bark and sure enough the meter indicated I needed another 1.5 stops of exposure to record the tree bark with the detail and texture that is vitally important to what has become the hallmark of my images, rich detailed texture in the darker values of the photograph.

     Sure enough, when I processed the first sheet of film the density of the tree bark was not where I would have expected. I immediately knew the second film holder would yield the exact relationships I wanted, with considerably more fog! This correction becomes all the more important when you factor into the equation the heavy rains from a day earlier left some of the bark still darker with wetness, further adding contrast and dimension to the dominant tree in the immediate foreground.

     The fog had become so dense the rectangular shape at the end of the driveway was barely visible with the 2nd negative. With this image happening in late August the sun would rise directly looking down the roadway of the cemetery. This is crucial to the success of the photograph, had the sun rose at a more easterly direction and coming in from the side, as seen in the foggy morning photo from mid October seen below. I would not have used an image where there was not tonality on either side of the roadway to create a sense of the sun’s presence at the end of the roadway. To illustrate that presence in this month’s featured image, the final print is more heavily toned than usual to offer the impression of the sun seamlessly blending into the surrounding warmth of the split-toning process I use. That toning process creates a greater sense of depth in my imagery by adding warmth to the high values while the darker areas remain more neutral in tonality.

    Moral of the story, never prejudge something on the past, even if it’s just 15 minutes !!