Happy New Year, may 2021 bring you Health and Prosperity with a safe return to normal !!

   Mattabassett Creek Snowstorm is an image that resulted from a failed early morning 7×17 shoot at another location back in the fall.  Lighting conditions for that original destination in the Autumn were not conducive and as a result, I just left and headed to get a coffee on this overcast morning.  As it happens, I have returned to this location and walked the creek many times during the winter months as seen in the cell phone pix.  Forgoing that morning coffee has yielded many very nice images over the ensuing years.  Sitting in line to order a coffee I could see across a parking lot through barren trees to the opposite side of a creek these wonderfully shaped trees.  Still early morning light so I decided to get out of line and take a closer look at the creek and these unusually shaped trees.  Never did get a coffee that morning but came away with a first image to build from. 

   The Autumn image is seen below with a much greater emphasis on the creek’s reflection of these interesting trees. With this Autumn image, I used a 240mm lens which highlights the reflections of the trees nicely.  It’s interesting to note some of the magical things that are near impossible to predict when an exposure runs into minutes, as is the case with the Autumn image.  The increasingly out of focus water in the bottom of the photo is not a function of any Photoshop manipulation as all of my imagery is born from film and wet processing printing.  Because of the depth of focus I regularly use almost never leaves a part of the composition out of focus I had to think about what was happening.  The creek is a tributary of the Connecticut River and is impacted by tidal swings.  My reasoning, the blurred water is a result of the water closer to me, and more in the center of the creek is moving much faster than the water close to the landmass.  The moving water, as it appears in the print is nearly symmetrical as an out-of-focus vignette.  I believe, if the out-of-focus area were not nearly symmetrical I would not show the image.  As I eluded to, sometimes the things that happen no matter how much experience or planning goes into an image can often be the most rewarding.   

   I have longed wanted a B&W winter image where the snowflakes are blurred or streaking in the final print.  For this month’s Mattabassett Creek Snowstorm I used a longer lens to draw the trees closer.  I love triangles and diagonals as they create intrigue and drama, particularly, when contrasted by the fresh clinging snow to the wonderfully shaped trees.  The snow was falling quite heavily with very large flakes during the time I exposed this negative and I had high hopes for those very streaking flakes to appear in the negative.  Unfortunately, I was still not able to use a fast enough shutter speed to at least blur the flakes as they passed through the image area. The limitations of film speed coupled with the reduced f-stops required don’t allow for a fast enough shutter speed to capture any evidence of snow falling.  The original concept of the image while unsuccessful offers some insight into the challenges large film photography presents.  That said, the image still gives me great satisfaction compositionally with wonderful tonal relationships.

Tech notes,   7×17 Phillips camera, 305 mm Kowa Graphic lens, FP 4 film developed using the Extreme Minimal Agitation technique in a single 3″ diameter tube in a vertical orientation.  Printed Ilford Classic paper, Split-toned in Pot. Bromide / Pot. Ferricyanide bleach & redeveloped in an elevated temperature Thiourea toner with a final wash in weak Selenium. 

   So many unusual events have transpired in 2020, beginning back in January with the departure of my cherished 7×17″ Phillips camera. The very camera that made this month’s snowstorm image, the size and weight were simply no longer manageable. Soon after Mr. Phillips left for a new home in China I was able to strike a deal with the Chamonix Camera Co. to build me a 5×12″ format, as it happens virtually the identical format perspective at less than half the weight !! 
Soon, the Pandemic took hold of our lives and normalcy would significantly change for all of 2020.  The new Chamonix camera arrived just a week or so ago, as irony would have it, from China almost 8000 miles away !!  Retirement, the new 5×12 Chamonix, and the vaccine hopefully will bring new opportunities for all !!