Trees 3

KenS

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Oldgrowth.jpg

September... At the edge of an old growth forest in Oregon.

Having almost used up my film for the day', this was my second-to-last of my 'rationed' exposures , and made as I was 'fighting my way' out and downhill towards my car. The 'oldlog.jpg' image I posted previously, was recorded on 'the other side' of the last loaded film holder about 20 minutes later on the 'way out'. I neglected to make a record of the exposure... but it was made on Plus-X with my 240mm Sironar on a Linhof monorail, and developed with Pyrocat HD in BTZS tubes.

Ken
 
RedRidings nightmare.jpg
The edge of a dark re-growth forest was made just before sunset... late in the evening, while hiking back to my vehicle on an old logging trail in southern British Columbia . While I tend to not afford a title to majority of my images.... I have decided to so do for this image that I have now entitled as 'Little Red Riding-Hood's Nightmare", since it was so quiet.... so dark... and more than somewhat foreboding.

Exposed on Plus-X with Linhof monorail with150 mm Rodenstock. Film was developed in Pyrocat HD in BTZS tubes.

Ken
 
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Brightspot.jpg

The sun had just 'set' as I was making my way home from a trip around the back roads of SE British Columbia about a week or so after the first of last year's 'hard' frost... when I caught this contrasting 'bright' patch of bush out the corner of my eye. About 20 (or so) seconds to decide that there might' be a photograph to be made... I then had to 'back-up' about 100 yards (since there was no room to turn around) find a position to pull over enough to allow any vehicles to safely pass-by.... get the tripod up and 'loaded' with the ever-faithful Linhof and 240mm Sironar to record these brightly coloured leaves against the dark and dense (and somewhat foreboding 'background') of the conifers.

Incident light level was 'measured' with my trusted Seconic rather than my usual Pentax Spot- meter. Film exposed on (into ??) Ilford FP4, exposure was recorded as 4 seconds @ f22, development in BTZS tubes with Pyrocat HD.

Ken
 
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OregonHilltop.jpg
Seeking a higher vantage point in order to 'find my way' back to my car before the sun got too much lower in the sky after stumbling around an Oregon forest for about four hours, I came across this group of wind-swept trees on a somewhat clear hill-top that seemed to be 'somewhat in great need' of being recorded to a sheet of Kodak Plus-X behind my 240mm Sironar, for later development using Pyrocat HD in my BTZS tubes. This was the second of two exposures... the first was with a light yellow filter to darken the clear sky a little.. and this one without the filter in order to keep the sky 'lighter' and provide for a greater contrast range and little more of a 'silhouette' of the trees .... resulting in (to my eye, anyway, after 'proofing') a somewhat 'nicer' image.

Ken
 
View attachment 421
The edge of a dark re-growth forest was made just before sunset... late in the evening, while hiking back to my vehicle on an old logging trail in southern British Columbia . While I tend to not afford a title to majority of my images.... I have decided to so do for this image that I have now entitled as 'Little Red Riding-Hood's Nightmare", since it was so quiet.... so dark... and more than somewhat foreboding.

Exposed on Plus-X with Linhof monorail with150 mm Rodenstock. Film was developed in Pyrocat HD in BTZS tubes.

Ken
Really, really like this...the eyes in the deep & dark...:eek:;)
 
Hilltop.jpg

I had walked around this hilltop seeking an improvement in the composition of this small group of hardy, windswept trees on a rocky Oregonian hilltop in the late evening sunlight. I considered to waiting for another ten to fifteen minutes (or so) but decided that discretion was the better part of valour... I did not need to go ‘a-hunting’ for my car in the dark. HP4 behind the 240mm Sironar. 1/30 second, 1/3 stop above f16. I thought about using a light yellow filter, but chose to have the clear blue sky recorded in a 'lighter' tone to provide more contrast to the silhouette of the trees 'against' the sky. Film developed as 'normal' in Pyrocat HD in BTZS tubes.

Ken
 
LastElm.jpg
On going through my 'older' files, I came across this ~40+year old negative of the second to last of the Elm trees on 'the edge' of the boundary of the city in Ontario where I was living at the time.

Dutch Elm Disease had caused havoc to the elm trees that had been abundant throughout the city. All elm trees that had proved 'positive' (or even suspected of so being) were cut and burned. Since our residence was about an half mile inside the city limits.. and a 'just off the drawing-board' new school's planned recreation area bordered the edge of our property on which this tree 'stood'. While it had not yet shown any 'physical' symptoms of infection, it was deemed necessary to follow the cut and burn order. One of the crew members stated that 'our' tree was one of the LAST standing elm trees within city limits. Three days later.... it was 'gone'.

For posterity, this tree 'deserved' being recorded to Kodak Plus-X film behind the 240mm Sironar mounted in my Linhof Master Technika. Since this was 'in the days before' Pyrocat and BTZS tubes, development would have been D76 1:1, in half gallon tanks.

Ken
 
It is a terribe disease Ken and many of my favourite trees around where I live have now gone. With your narrative it becomes a very poignant image indeed.
 
It is a terrible disease Ken and many of my favourite trees around where I live have now gone. With your narrative it becomes a very poignant image indeed.

I have 'used' Google Earth on-line to have a look at the avenue in Glasgow on which I grew up. That too had an elm in between almost every house path... with the exception of the occasional Rowan tree here and there. As of to-day, those trees are all gone.. and I cannot 'see' any Rowans. It looks like the 'space' they occupied have 'lost' due to a little widening of the roadway, while and the remaining space has been turned into parking pads for the family car. I can but guess that to-day's 'wee ones' have either to find 'climbable' trees elsewhere... find exercise without playing hide-and-seek... or cricket using the nearest lamp-post as the wicket...or 'headers' across the street until such times as the 'Bobby' arrived on his black bicycle... after an elderly 'someone' had complained about the noise... and had us sent indoors to watch 'Muffin the Mule' on television. Dammit... they were OUR 'good old days'. :cool:

Ken
 
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Trees2.jpg
On a cold and frosty Christmas morning....
Today... is the first winter day to 'enjoy' the appearance of this winter's frost. The local pond has 'finally' frozen over but not yet 'thick' enough for the kids to come to have their first ice hockey of the winter. On returning home after taking the dog for his morning 'walkies' my eyes were 'attracted' to the 'softness' of the tree branch's 'silhouettes' due to the 'misty air' due to the higher than 'normal' humidity and first 'hard' frost of this winter. Obvious visible evidence of the "wee ones' having the fun breaking the ice. I then rushed the 75 (or so) yards home to grab the required hardware and one loaded film holder. I tried but was unable to find the tripod holes from the last "Trees" exposure to make an exposure onto FP4 @ f16-1/3 for 1/125th with 150mm Rodenstock and developed as 'Normal' in Pyrocat HD in BTZS tubes

Ken
 
Man, I didn't know there was a tree thread on here... ;)

Here are a few of my favorites...

BristolPass.jpg BristolPass2.jpg CamelsHump.jpg
 
Love the ethereal feel of this image, Ken! Nice!!

Allan... it nearly was not 'made'. SWMBO (i.e. SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED) was about to put breakfast 'on the table' as I was returning home after an half hour 'doggie walk and she questioned my 'need' to go back out and 'do it', but I persuaded her to 'slow things down' by 'about 15 minutes.
I think I have been 'pardoned' (Christmas spirit... and all that) and, I feel better now that I got to 'do' what I felt 'needed doing' It is 'almost the same' as the one made earlier... but somewhat more 'interesting' (to my eye anyway) thanks to the 'softness' created by the frost and the high "atmospheric' humidity.

Ken
 
Ken, LOL!! My wife gave up on me loooong ago! She knows that I can "disappear" at a moment's notice and might be gone for hours. :D
 
It's very interesting how many of us feel we have to go out and make photographs.....a desire above other things that go to make up life.

Every morning i look out my window, and if i can see a break in the clouds i have to go out.....no idea what i'll photograph, no idea where i'll go, no idea how long i'll be......all i know is that i have to go.

If I can't, i feel hemmed in.......like cabin fever.

I suspect we'd be the source of many a psychology student degree :D

Mike
 
It's very interesting how many of us feel we have to go out and make photographs.....a desire above other things that go to make up life.

Every morning i look out my window, and if i can see a break in the clouds i have to go out.....no idea what i'll photograph, no idea where i'll go, no idea how long i'll be......all i know is that i have to go.

If I can't, i feel hemmed in.......like cabin fever.

I suspect we'd be the source of many a psychology student degree :D

Mike


Sir Mike,
If my memory recalls my 'Art history' lectures well enough... Hominids used 'pigments' to 'leave a message' to indicate
that 'I was here' in this cave at sometime in the past... and 'today' they are regarded as a form of 'decoration'.
It 'might' also be considered as a record of 'This is what I saw', such that it is now a memory 'booster. I can't really explain about my 'need' to make a record other than it "I do it because I can'... and it 'might' be considered as a
'something' to remind me of 'what I saw'.. and made me want to remember THAT moment in time.. sometime in the future because I have the means to so do... and that which I observed, and if 'stuck up' on the all to cover an unsightly mark on the living room wall its something 'easier to look at. :cool: (more so if its is 'well done'... )

Ken

Regarded by some who observe me 'doing it' as a 'nut-cake' hiding under a big black 'cape' and blocking their passage.
 
It's very interesting how many of us feel we have to go out and make photographs.....

Mike, for me, it's more my desire to simply be outside! I'm an avid hiker (still) and climbed many a mountain back in my younger days...I just love being outside in the desert, wilderness, mountains, wherever my trekking finds me. I first started taking photographs while out-and-about as a means to record what I saw; later I got more involved in photography as a means of personal creative expression. But, I do get the "itch" to go out and expose some film if too many days pass! ;)
 
Same here Alan.......it's desire to be outside and if there's something to photograph too, then that's a bonus.

Mike
 
Ken, LOL!! My wife gave up on me loooong ago! She knows that I can "disappear" at a moment's notice and might be gone for hours. :D

One more big 'OOPS'... when processing that last 'trees' image I found I had used the last of my developer and the had to 'put the other side of the film holder 'on hold until I had made up another 'batch' of Pyrocat HD... which I have just finished... so this evening I'll go hide in the darkroom and process that exposed sheet that was made on the wood
'fishing platform' and recorder the "large" hoar-frost' coated bushes off to the 'right' i.e. the west... so keep your 'crossed fingers at the ready.

Ken
 
Chrstmas2018.jpg


On a 'misty' Christmas morning 2018

Took me a bit longer than I had intended to get this negative processed, dried and scanned for 'sharing'
I moved around to the 'boardwalk and set up facing 'west' to record the hoar-frosted trees in the early morning mist. The kids have been pitching rocks to 'test' the thickness/strength of the ice for skating... but I'm not yet convinced that it has been cold for long enough to bear the weight of more than half the gross mass of a 'pick-up hockey team... Yet!
This morning we awoke to find about 4 to 5 inches of new snow... but "I" still had to take the dog for his morning walk before heading down to the darkroom and doing what should have been done a few days ago.
Exposure was onto FP4 @ f16-1/3 for 1/125th with 150mm Rodenstock and developed as 'Normal' in Pyrocat HD in BTZS tubes.

P.S.... This morning, we 'awoke' to 'enjoy' just over 4 inches of the 'white stuff' that the grey clouds could not hold any longer.. and it is still coming down.

Ken
 
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