Lessons from the Forest - My Upcoming Exhibition

I spent some time yesterday printing and preparing for my upcoming photography exhibit, as part of the "Coffee and Critique Exposed: The Exhibit," to be hosted at Glen Echo Park, Maryland, from November 21, 2014 - January 5, 2015.

 

I've been working on a set of photographs related to my meditation practice. I've put together five prints for the show, printed on matte paper. I'm using Epson matte paper at the moment, but may experiment with some other papers before the exhibit hangs on November 13.

 

One thing I learned from the Magnum Days workshop with David Alan Harvey is to make short slideshows of my work, as part of the editing process. Here's one that I made and posted on youtube for this exhibit:

 

 

Lessons from the Forest, by Reed A. George

 

All five images were shot on 4x5 film. The first and final shots were made with a Graflex Speed Graphic, the others with a pinhole camera. I have a lot more to do on this project, but the goal of this series was to share something of the state of mind that I achieve in meditation, and particularly in walking meditation.

 

I hope you find it interesting!

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Polaroid in the Forest - Black and White

I've written about my Polaroid 103 instant camera before. (Click Here) to read about it.

 

I recently took the Polaroid and a new pack of FP3000B film out into the forest on a hike. I planned on using it just to quickly check out some compositions, which I would later shoot with the Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 camera I carried with me. I never ended up using the Speed Graphic, but did get a few images with the Polaroid before I ruined a $15 pack of film (more on that in a minute).

 

Here are three images I captured that I think are worth sharing:

 

 

This film is pretty interesting. At iso 3000, you get extremely deep depth of field when shooting outdoors. the prints are a little larger than 3" x 4" in size, and look quite sharp at that size. I scanned the prints, and at any size larger, they don't look so sharp. I'm not sure if that's because the originals aren't so sharp, or if my scanner's focus isn't exactly right for this type of scanning (reflective, as opposed to scanning negatives in transmission mode).

 

(Click Here) to read about how this film is being discontinued by Fujifilm. I sure hate to see it go.

 

Back to ruining a pack of this stuff, I have had this happen twice now. After you expose the film, you pull a small tab of paper from the side of the camera, which feeds a larger, stronger paper tab between the rollers in the camera. The rollers distribute the developer chemicals over the image as you pull it out. Well, that first small piece of paper tore, leaving no tab to pull. I simply stopped, put the camera away and decided to work on it in the dark at home. Unfortunately, that failed and I ended up exposing the rest of the pack. I'm not exactly sure how to avoid this in the future, but with the film going away (and up in price), I sure don't want it to happen again.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Andy Bell's Forest Series, Chawton Park Woods

Chawton Park Woods #9, by Andy Bell

Image Source: http://www.deceptivemedia.co.uk/?s=Chawton%20Park%20Woods

 

UK photographer Andy Bell has posted an impressive series of forest photographs from Chawton Park Woods, in the South of England. It's a series of 9 images (so far?), but covers a lot of range in such a small number of pictures.

 

 

Having just received good yet critical feedback in a critique of my Muir Woods images, I really respect what it takes to get images like Andy's.

 

(Click Here) to take a look for yourself.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Leica in Nature - LHSA (International Leica Society) Muir Woods Photo Tour

I'm writing while I'm on the flight back from Northern California, where I attended the annual meeting of the LHSA (International Leica Society). One of our photo outings was north of San Francisco in Marin County, at Muir Woods, an amazing redwood forest in the coastal mountains. I've been here many times in the past, so I was hoping that I'd be able to bring a new perspective to the pictures I'd capture there. In addition to my familiarity of the place, which can be a blessing or a curse, we arrived at mid-day, when the lighting was strongest yet most harsh. However, the forest provides lots of opportunities to find good light.

 

By the way, I'm only sharing the digital images I made on my M9; the film is on its way to The Darkroom for processing now. And, my post-processing was all done on my iPad using Snapseed. Also, I don't have a way to view the EXIF information, so I'm only including what I can remember. You'll see that three of the five shots in this post are shot with October's Whole Lotta Leica Lens, the venerable 50mm Summicron f2 version 3.

 

Let's see how I did.

 

Sunshine Through The Canopy, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summicron 50mm f2 Lens

 

 

Now, I think this is a fairly predictable image. I was able to take advantage of the backlighting on the stump, and really like the burst of light at the branch at the top of it, along with the sun itself. I also enjoy the stripes of light in the forest behind. But, again, pretty pedestrian.

 

Redwood Detail, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summicron 50mm f2 Lens

 

Here's another from the same spot. Here I decided to open the aperture wide (f2.8, I believe) and isolate the redwood branch at left from the surrounding forest.

 

 

Dark To Light, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Carl Zeiss Biogon 25mm f2.8 Lens

 

I love the way this shot shows the transition from the deep darkness of the forest understory to the bright midday sky above. The backlighting on the branches at the bottom are also nice. I decided to crop this image significantly to focus the interest where I want it. The Zeiss Biogon is a wonderful lens, and I can even say that I like using the bright 25mm Voigtlander accessory viewfinder. It makes composition a different and enjoyable experience.

 

Then, I decided to focus my attention on one particular subject, a redwood stump that was bathed in wonderful, subtle light. I set up my tripod and got to work. Most people walked by looking for an invisible bird or other subject that I must be photographing. I mean, who would spend so much effort to photograph a stump? Well, me, that's who. One person actually came up behind me and grabbed a snapshot of my subject with his handheld DSLR. He probably got home and thought, "now what the heck is that a picture of?" Here are my favorite two shots so far:

 

Study of a Redwood Stump, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summicron 50mm f2 Lens

 

This is one of those examples that once again prove to me that we don't photograph subjects, we photograph light. I am also learning to try to photograph how a scene makes me feel, not how it looks. This shot achieves that at a certain level. I absolutely love the colors and tones. I also like the spotlight on the leaves in the stump.

 

Redwood Stump With Context, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Carl Zeiss Biogon 25mm f2.8 Lens

 

This final shot shows a little more of the context around the stump. This shot could use some more post-processing to emphasize some areas of the stump. I'll work on that. To be honest, I much prefer the more closely-composed shot above.

 

So, what do you think? Did I succeed at getting some different perspectives on this much-photographed location? I sure enjoyed my time in the forest, and hope that I'm developing some new skills in making unique images.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com