Seasonal 4x5 Practice

Last fall I made a concerted effort to get out ahead of the change in fall color to re-flex the old muscle memory of the 4x5 camera. Large format is much more meticulous than my other cameras and as such requires more attention to detail and a longer list of adjustments to make. It is thus more error prone. 

I have done the same again this year and took along our new puppy Molly. She is great fun to have on walks though at time she does get bored and so I have to stop and play with her. Its all fine now as nothing is critical. I am not sure how it will go if I find the light changing rapidly and she needs attention at the same time!

Molly at Holme Fen in August

I got out to Holme Feb twice recently since my holiday in the USA. The first day was mid-morning and not special in any way. I went to an area I frequent and found some trees that have figured in other photos. The first one I liked the white simpler silver birch against the twisted dark forms of the oaks behind and to the left. The photo somehow misses the mood for me. I have kept the color very close to the original transparency on Astia 100. Astia is my 'go to' color film after I bought about 100 sheets kept in excellent condition. It is a pretty neutral film with a tendency toward enhanced yellows I think which makes it nice for fall color.

The next image was the same subject but a slightly different composition to capture the tufted grass and more of the foreground. Again this was Astia and as with the prior photo I used a 2 stop GND to breakdown the sky highlights. I find the GND is useful in the forest especially with a bright sky. The light from the sky brightens the canopy quite a bit more than one senses while taking the photo and the GND helps balance against what can be a dark forest floor. Unfortunately I believe I only made one stop of correction in the exposure instead of 2 stops as the film looks underexposed. The scanner recovered the image but the colors I always find difficult to recover when underexposed. Both of these were taken with a 150mm lens at f22. 

I can back about a week later for an early morning session. I visited a different covert further west. Again not inspiring conditions while we walked around; Molly scampering ahead on the trail exploring side trails. We watched the big flock of geese come overhead around sunrise; a great cacophonous cloud with great birds circling and landing in the main pond. Their continued gossiping made for a loud background the rest of the morning. As we were heading back some light broke through the cloud cover and illuminated a small patch of  silver birch. I managed two images first on Astia and then on Kodak Ektar. I became concerned I might not be metering the brightest section of tree trunks as my spot meter covered a much larger area. I was concerned I would lose the shadows if I stopped down more so I chanced on the transparency film some blown highlights in the tree trunks. Turns out the film still carries detail there; though I did chose to let the highlights blow out a little in the version posted here. 

 In the Ektar version I opened up a stop knowing the film could handle more light and I could capture more shadow detail. In reality either one works but the Ektar version as a little more shadow detail. I like this image as it conveys the shot of bright light while still holding to the blue shadows in the unlit portions. These were f32 and f22 with a 210mm lens.

I have also been exploring Thetford Forest which is much larger than my local woodlands and also a longer drive. It is an interesting mix of mostly plantation pines but there are patches of more mixed woodland. There are beech trees there which are not present in any numbers in the places I frequent more locally. I managed one photo on a windy day that I don't expect to like but I should return to that location when the wind is gone and I can catch some slanting morning light.