Oak Tree & Valley Fog
Tule fog is filling the valley below as we look at these Oaks in the Tehachapi Mountains south of Bakersfield. From a 4x5 scanned negative....
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Tule fog is filling the valley below as we look at these Oaks in the Tehachapi Mountains south of Bakersfield. From a 4x5 scanned negative.
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Sep, 2016Views
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Contest Finalist in Dear Trees Photo Contest
Contender in the Photography Awards
Action Award
Zenith Award
Contest Finalist in One Tree Photo Contest
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Contest Finalist in Tree Silhouettes Photo Contest
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in the Tehachapi mountains just off Hart Flat Road near the town of Keene, CA. I did this about 20 years ago.Time
I'm having to guess at this, but it was probably mid-morning. The fog that you see in the distance is one of the San Joaquin Valley's infamous tule fogs. I wanted to avoid driving I-5 in this so I was exploring around looking for things to photograph while the fog burned off.Lighting
This was done using sunlight.Equipment
This image was made with a Calumet/Cambo 4x5 monorail view camera equipped with a bag bellows. I'm not sure which lens I used, likely my 150 mm Fujinon W, but it might have been my 210 Fujinon. Exposure was by the zone system using a Pentax 1 degree analog spot meter. Tripod was a Bogen 3031. The camera's monorail was leveled and the composition finalized by using the camera's rise and fall, in this case rise.Inspiration
I saw it almost fully formed, pre-visualized, from my car and it was just a matter of climbing a fence and finding the right place to stand.Editing
This was shot on my regular film Tri-x developed in FG7, either normal or N-1 development. Originally I printed it on Ilford Galerie, but as you see it here it's from a negative scan. The scan was processed in Photoshop where I have my own set of custom contrast curves designed to mimic the look of silver gelatin. It may not show here, but in printing I add a slight amount of warmth to the ink which produces a richness similar to Ilford Galerie.In my camera bag
At the time, I was mostly shooting 4x5. My kit, as you call it, was the equipment described above plus focusing cloth, camera case, camera bag for the lenses, pleated bellows, about 30 film holders, a level, focusing lupe and the following lenses; 90 and 115 mm Calumet/Rodenstock Grandagon, 150 and 210 mm Fujinon W, 300 and 450 mm NIkor M9. At that time I also had a couple of Speed Graphics with 135, 162 and 203 mm lenses.Feedback
Well number one is to be there. Have some ideas of what you want to photograph, but keep an open mind for new possibilities. Know your gear and materials, but don't "think" about what you're doing. Actual image making is an intuitive, non-verbal process. You have to train your eye to see both light and composition. This takes time and practice, lots of it. Okay, that said, this was not a snap shot, it is a carefully crafted image made on the ground glass of my camera. Leveling the monorail and then using the camera's rise and fall to crop the image produces a sense of space and volume. It's like you're seeing something outside a window, not on a piece of paper.
