f.64, Direct Sunlight, a 150mm lens.

So through the past week(s) I've continued to check out the area I like to call roads to nowhere. I shot a bunch of film out there, somewhat arbitrarily from my main project, or maybe it isn't. I've just been trying to give myself a lot more freedom with what I shot so the images don't become overly formulaic. (and although much of my work of late has been successful, I feel at times it has become just that)

I'm really happy with the top 3 images, the bottom two feel a little too pretty the more I look at them, to be honest they're all kindof pretty but again, the bottom two are just a little too much.

So here comes a bunch of new stuff that I may or may not edit into my book!






Further Note, I shot most of this work at f.64 and really really overexposed to increase my shadow detail. Shooting directly at the sun became a little wonky but I am tempted to really like how this stuff looks. Also special thanks to Abe for letting me borrow his 150, it's nice to have choices of lens length when I'm shooting this stuff.

Not much time left in the semester, The book is really close to being edited (and needs to be finalized by the end of this week to be honest). next post will prolly be in 2 weeks. Happy Thanksgiving.

Longer Exposures...

Tried to post this the other night but didn't have time...

So, the days are getting very very short...I've kindof adopted this habit of wanting to shoot all my landscapes at f.45 so exposure time is rapidly becoming an issue...sortof. Last week I did a bunch of longer exposures, did several hour longs that were too thin to print, but these ones range from 10 minutes to an hour and I'm pretty happy with them.

These first two are a revisit to the rapidly disappearing woods behind my house, I'm much happier with the light and color here, a lot less contrasty and a little more appropriate.



I also shot this long kindof amazing little spot where marsh, concrete, and river come together. (whether or not the picture does this spot justic i'll let you decide.) I haven't shot anything at night in several years but I am pretty happy with this.

Family

I've had it pointed out to me that I use to shoot a lot of portraits with my 4x5, The subject matter generally being my family. This was back when I was shooting black and white all the time, I've been so caught up in landscapes for a while that I haven't really pointed my camera at a person in a while. I shot my mother with my 4x5,

also here is an older picture I shot about two months ago of my dad, shot it with NPZ 800 (for some reason it took me like 2 months to use it since I was saving it for low light hand held situations) so it's super grainy, but I do like it. I'd like to shoot him with the 4x5 soon.

Roads to Nowhere...(The Roads)

I feel like the project has been getting too heavy into "trash spots" and industrial leftovers. I've been hiking the hidden roads southeast of my house and finding this stuff to be less overbearing as evidence of man vs environment...Here are two images I just finished working on. My volume may slow a bit as I'm going to start focusing a lot on editing for the book I'm self publishing.

So I got my negs back of the roads that I have been hiking, two of them had some huge problems, my own fault...I really like the wind movement I got out of these shots. I prefer the muddy marsh road but this leafy path is nice as well.

reshoot

I forgot to post this last week, this is a reshoot of the overgrown sign, I like this version a lot more, you can see the older one here.

So I decided to try to shoot the dump, Its kindof amazing how not so many years ago this was just a big pile of garbage. (now it's a big pile of garbage with grass growing out of it...and methane exhaust pipes) But I'm not sure if this compisition is too thrilling. However...




...I do like this lot, a lot. there's just the smallest amount of pavement remaining in this landscape, It's kindof got a lot going on but I like the amount of nature vs the amount of relic. Had shot some other 4x5 sheets this weekend but I will need to reshoot the other locations in a more interesting manner.


some medium format should be coming up soon have a few rolls to develop!

Newbury, Perspective

Two new 4x5 shots, I'm really happy with these and the top location has a few other gems to shoot but I need to catch the light early in the day... Who would throw away this perfectly good picket fence...?

So I've been rethinking my perspective a bit, maybe focusing down a bit more. Focusing more directly on the evidence of man and nature. I shot these in Newbury, both in empty lots near a bridge, but in these I've tried to obscure the location a bit and focus more on the land at hand.

I like them, hope you do too.

4-27-08

So I know I haven't gotten around to posting more old stuff but here's some new bits. I'm still wandering about the back roads and routes of essex county. I'm always looking for things that are just out of the reach of the average persons eye. around a lost corner, over a fence or just in the middle of no where.

Some of these images I found myself looking down from above, I really like how this opens up the perspective in some of these shots. A grander observation of the elements of the scene can be made.