In spite of a January 2nd miss-step, in the most literal sense of the phrase, its been a productive winter of ’22 making a number of images on both 5×7″ and 5×12″ formats. I’ll be in the White Mountains for a good friend’s gallery opening February 4th. Then onto western New York state on the 7th & 8th to finish out my winter opportunities before turning south for a month’s drive to Texas. Another 3000 mile trip and 2 full days of volunteering with my oldest son @ Garrison Brothers Bourbon distillery (checkout the volunteer’s video) in Texas. Expecting the trip will provide scores of future images and Story Behind Every Photograph. This month I’ll highlight one 5×7″ negative and one in the 5×12″ format from just this past week. The latter image being a “contact-print”, no enlargement, aka, lap print, small enough to hold in your lap and peruse the subtle nuances of tone and texture, check ’em out on a full screen desktop!

   Fortunately for me, January has been quite cold allowing for some snow and a lot of ever-changing ice, perfect relationships to create abstract imagery.  The 1st image seen above is in the 5×7″ format made January 27th on a 5 degree morning. I checked on this location the afternoon before to determine basic composition and lens choice. All gear would be setup as much as possible to reduce time in the cold the next morning. I arrive approximately 40 minutes prior to sunrise to ensure any overnight changes to the ice formations will not alter my decisions. The above composition uses a 450mm lens from a high point above the CT river. Once the image is composed under the dark-cloth the last step is to focus the composition. Unexpectedly, my breath froze on the ground glass which proved quite frustrating using an f12.5 lens under twilight conditions. Finally, the image is focused and the wait begins for a 7:10 sunrise which ultimately didn’t clear the tree line until 7:20 or more. The interesting part, while going through the composing and setup of the image I’m unaware of the bitter cold. Two layers of gloves and heat packs inside the glove liners my fingers begin to bark while just standing waiting for the sun to skip across the areas of blank white snow. During the setup of the camera I’m hearing strange noises, I’m imagining some wildlife is rustling around in the nearby wooded areas. Now, just waiting for the sun I realize the sound is the ice snapping under the pressure of the tide & water beneath the frozen river. I reflect for a moment, simply appreciating how beautiful this time of day is, quiet and serene beauty as the eastern sky directly across the CT river begins to glow like fire. By 7:25 I am exposing the negative for a very high contrast rendition of what was in a literal offering a very low contrast scene. Nevertheless, the wonderful shapes will come to life with specific negative design and darkroom printing that was imagined at the time of exposure. The low angle of the sun glancing over the snow crystals magnifies tone and texture to almost feel life-like in the final Black & White print.

   As an FYI, most times when there is glancing light illuminating the scene and reflecting into the lens it is wise to use a polarizing filter. Such is the case with these two photographs. A polarizing filter absorbs approximately 50% of the reflected light on axis with the brightest light source, this almost always is the sky or the sun itself. Light perpendicular to the light source is allowed to freely pass through the filter without loss of intensity. Preserving the subtle variations of tonality under the ice is a result of a polarizing filter, adding interest and dimension to the image.

   Seen above is the second image which came about the the previous day at Harbor Park in Middletown, CT. The opportunity to get the camera nearly 10 feet from the surface of the CT. River opens up countless possibilities to create an abstract form. In the end, when dealing with an essentially flat surface with very little contrast the challenge becomes arranging spatial relationships and generating interest solely through shapes, contrast and texture. Fortunately, that leads directly into an abstraction interpretation, which is my end goal. This panoramic image with all its motion and texture strikes me as the Milky Way seen from above, rather than below. In their final rendering, the images can be interpreted in any number of ways, with no right or wrong interpretation.