5×7 Deadorff Camera 210mm Computar lens FP 4 processed Pyrocat HD minimally agitated
The 2nd weekend in February of 2016 was forecast to have well below zero record-breaking cold temperatures. All week long I was planning to go to my favorite creek in search of Ice Patterns & Abstracts. The Mattabassett Creek is close to my home where the current moves swiftly and the shapes of the trees that reflect in the water or ice have a character all their own. I stopped by the creek on my way home from work Friday night to find the ice showing near-perfect conditions. The ice was nearly clear because of the flash freezing due to quickly declining temperatures, there was still some running water that contained the reflection of trees from across the creek, exactly what I’d hoped for. What happened the next morning at the creek couldn’t have been anticipated in a million years !!
The image you see below was made in the winter of 2015 and gave birth to what I hoped could happen again in 2016. I was at the creek with two good friends, who were also shooting Large Format film in the 2015 winter. The ice pattern here happened so quickly I had little time to set up the large 7″x17″ camera and adjust the camera angle but recognized the opportunity of the reflection to be completely surrounded by thin, almost clear ice, providing a perfect vignette to frame the reflecting dark trees. I was, however, never really excited about the static position of the reflecting trees. In a perfect world, the reflections would have a diagonal component to add to the composition. One of the simple rules of composition is diagonals create drama and I hoped that would present itself on February 13, 2016.
I would soon find out if the creek had completely frozen over during the night, which I did not want; however, it was out of my control. All the gear was ready to go the night before, including hand warmers. I was up long before dawn anticipating a sunrise of some time before 7 a.m. I had seven layers of tech shirts and fleece clothing on since I was determined to stay out for several hours to get some abstract ice images to add to my Reflections Series. I hiked downstream a bit because the current seemed to move more swiftly in that location as I recalled from last year and could likely lead to the small pockets of water surrounded by ice.
The next morning the creek had, in fact, frozen over; however, I was determined to make a photograph. That image is seen below. I looked to find a balance of diagonal tree reflections while also taking into account the angle of the rising sun and how it would impact the composition. It’s a nice image and because of the minimal agitation technique of developing the film that I use, you get a sense of how the ice actually would feel if one had the opportunity to see the final Silver print.
With the big camera still set up in place, I heard a loud snap and crash upstream and looked towards the sound to see that a large branch had fallen into the middle of the creek and had cracked the ice surface. As the water began creeping ever so slowly downstream towards me, I quickly realized that the potential for the black water running over the frozen ice could easily create the added contrast that a completely frozen surface in front of me lacked. I patiently waited for the water to run into my composition and ultimately made the exposure you see below. The image is interesting and certainly not possible for a Large Format photographer to capture if the camera was not already set up and in place. Realistically, what are the chances of a large enough branch falling in the center of the creek and allowing only a narrow band of water to flow almost directly into the center of my composition !! It’s a nice image and does provide interest to the story, but it is not the stand-alone, once-in-a-lifetime image I am always looking for.
After making this 7″ X 17″ image, I looked back upstream and could see the water spreading across the ice and quickly thought I needed to set up the smaller 5″ X 7″ camera that was not so panoramic in its perspective. One of the few times I quickly took the 7 X 17 camera off the tripod and just set it down on the snow and quickly set up the 5 X 7 Deardorff camera. Moving quickly, I composed and measured the tonalities and made the exposure you see here and the lead image to this month’s Story Behind Every Photograph. At the point in time I made this exposure, the ice was breaking apart quickly and different shapes and relationships were forming but I was only able to make this one image before all the interest in the ice and surface water vanished. There are so many things happening in this image that excite me – the angle of the reflecting trees on the very top provides interest, the line of snow at the top of the frame provides another layer of tonality that subliminally conveys depth. The open areas of water create reflections of the trees at different angles that were immediately above the frozen surface. The bottom of the image where there are differing tonalities on opposing sides adds more interest and does force the focus of the image towards the drama created by the random pockets of water intertwined with thin layers of ice, very interesting to me. Lastly, the final print is Split-Toned, where the highlights are bleached and redeveloped to a noticeable warmth interspersed with the cooler color of the mid-tones and shadows to create a third dimension all its own, which really has to be seen first-hand to appreciate what the technique does for the final Silver Gelatin print !!
Your comments are always appreciated in the box below.
It is a duotone? Can give me the colors you use?
I use a Pot. Ferricyanide and Pot. Bromide bleach, redevelop the print in Thiourea and a final toning in dilute
selenium.
Thanks for your interest in my Blog.
Steve,
looking to your prints is as aweful as everytime, and listening to your words means learning to me as a student of darkroom process.
Thanks for sharing joy, and informations around composition and process.
Best,
Ritchie
Thanks for your words, Ritchie !! Passion knows no boundaries, so if you have passion you will one day make prints like mine !
It’s going to be a wonderful series for sure reflecting great vision and hard work. Great work!
Thanks Stuart, I’m really enjoying my time with analog photography at this stage. Hope you are as well !
These images are the reason I like to walk in the woods after a snowfall. There’s something special about the early morning solitude, and the opportunity to think clearly about the idea to be expressed in the photograph. Thank you for this wonderful blog.
Thanks for you kind words Rick, coming from a seasoned Pro like yourself
Love the images and their creation stories! Thanks Steve.
Thank you Terry, I’ve always enjoyed looking at your B & W imagery as well
Hi Steve!
Thank again for sharing!! It’s interesting to see how a kind of intuition make us be able to feel when and where circumstances will be gathered to make images we have in our mind….
Best,
Jérôme
Thanks for those words Jérôme, I am not sure everyone always thinks that there is a lot of prep that goes into the photographs that I seek to make and I’m sure other passionate photographers make as well.
Hello Steve,
Luck favors the prepared. And were you prepared! Lots of planning, pre-dawn get up, layers of clothes, two big cameras, patience at the scene. And then the where-with-all to move the right camera at the right spot at the right time. All this resulted in a photograph that sings, even on my computer screen! Congratulations!
Ana asked the question I had in mind. You used your “normal” toning scheme with bleach, thiourea, and selenium, but this image (as it appears on my screen) shows a rich, brownish tone with no hint of a reddish complement which sometimes appears on your prints. Did you change your thiourea “formula” or use a more dilute bath of selenium?
Thanks for the story behind a wonderful photograph.
Bill Johnson
Thank you for your kind words Bill.
The images you see on the screen are Jpegs that have been colorized in PhotoShop to best simulate how the original looks. At my skill level and I have to believe most PS users the chemical “Split” that happens is very difficult if not impossible to produce on a computer. Because you own several of my original prints you can see the complete effects of my Split Toning technique. Recently, because of the Split Contrast printing technique it is becoming difficult to replicate some of my prints in PhotoShop, the final prints I make and tone are always bigger than the ordinary 8.5×11 Epson scanner that I use to digitize my images.
Thanks so much for your continued support and interest in my photography, hope all is well with you and yours.
Hi Steve, I am a subscriber. Do you use a tray of pot. ferri. combined with pot. bromide for a soaking, then transfer the print to the thiourea tray, and finally to the selenium tray? How does thiourea redevelop an image? I have never used any bleaching or toning with anything other than selenium, so I am quite confused. I would love to learn your methods if I can get the time for a workshop or two.
Thank you Stephen for your comments and interest in my Blog.
The Pot. Ferricyanide and Pot. Bromide are mixed in the same proportions and used as a pre bleach that impacts only the highlights because of it’s strength and length of time I allow the print to be “bleached” It is then washed and “redeveloped” in a Thiourea / Sodium Hydroxide ratio to achieve the color. The redevelopment stage can happen with any developer of your choice, it just happens that the Thiourea has the capability depending on the ratio of the Thiourea vs. Sodium Hydroxide to yield different final shades of warmth. As a precaution, Sodium Hydroxide is ordinary Lye and extremely caustic if not handled with caution, once mixed and diluted to working strength it is manageable. It has taken me several years to arrive at a scheme that works for my taste but when it works it adds a sense of depth unlike any technique I currently use.
Best regards!
I enjoyed your vision with the reflection.
Thanks James for your interest in my photography and the Blog postings
You have a gift from God. Your EYES
Thank you Camille for your generous compliment !!
Steve,
I envy you having the capacity and stamina to stomp through the snowy woods in search of the ultimate mysterious photograph. The pictures shown are a wonderful record of this process. I know the print itself is the final decider, but I found myself bowled over by the second 7 x 17 image. It is a palimpsest in which there are at least three message levels.partially surviving:. There are the tree reflections that seem to have multiple levels themselves, the diagonal bands of sunlight, and the strange diagonal fracture in the ice that wanders across the image from left to right. There are some resemblances to a Fred Picker, Woods in Winter, image I have on my wall.
Great work and thank you for sharing this process.
Ken .
Thank you Ken for your inspiring words !! From an accomplished visual artist such as yourself your words are humbling !!
Steve,
Your communication with Nature is visible on your images. The mystery, the beauty, the unknown and the invisible are in it, because when you made your fine art photograph, you understood and translated the hidden messages.
Thanks for sharing, and when you do that, you show more and more from you, warming all viewer’s hearts.
Laszlo
Thank you Laszlo !! words from another accomplished visual artist are always of great value and much appreciated !!
Those photos are by far captured in a way only you can so clearly explain. The fact that you came back to experience yet more great photos in that location is vision. Looks to me like SS one of a kind. I looked at all of them and actually was able to image the melting process of the pond as you so freely explain with that SS visual. If I had to pick just one I’m not sure I could. Love them all.. Well maybe the one where the sun reflects the most. I know do you!!
Thanks as always for checking out the Back Stories, the winter time is my favorite to make imagery and the inspiration is more easily tapped into. Having someone with your level of interest is inspiring on another level !!