German Photographs (cont. 2)

This continues my comments on photographs I was recently archiving from our West German stay in 1971-73. Traveling in Germany during the stay, a passing rain shower was clearing and I stopped to make a photograph of the sky "drawing water". The landscape was rather flat with farm fields surrounding and a village in the distance. The resulting photograph is simple but serene:


I made another photograph of the landscape with the village in the background and then noticed a biker approaching with his dog by his side. This reminded me of a photograph I had seen, probably in Beaumont Newhall's "History of Photography." Perhaps something like a "photo echo" as Aperture Magazine has published in the past. I looked for the photograph in my copy of Beaumont's book, and sure enough these is a photograph by Bill Brandt that triggered my recollection.


I found that the photograph with the village in the background and the biker could be combined into a larger field of view image showing the wider extent of the landscape (as below).

The following Bill Brandt photograph is the one that triggered my "photo echo."

German Photographs (cont. 1)

An additional pair of photographs made during our stay in Göettingen of the Kaiserdom in Köningslutter were pieced together to display a fuller view of the ceiling leading down to the alter and the stained glass windows. Presently the Kaiserdom was just restored and you can compare with my photographs made in 1972-73 with the present restored version by going to the Kaiserdom site (http://www.koenigslutter-kaiserdom.de/default.asp?LNG=DE&NAV=66).

The restoration of the Dom is really remarkable and worth taking a look at. I made other photographs of the Dom using my 4x5 view camera, these were of the Kreuzgang and are included on my web page under the "Heritage" portfolio. Other photos were made of the outside decoration but are not on the web (photographs of the restored outside decoration are also shown in the Kaiserdom web site). A comparison of these would be of interest even though they are not of the same exact area.

German Photographs

Recently I was reviewing photographs made in (then West) Germany during our stay in Göttingen in 1971-73. The activity was for the purpose of scanning color transparencies so that they can be more available, easily printed with digital printers, and to evaluate the photographs to determine if anything of current interest might be hiding there.

In several instances I found I could use Photoshop to combine two images that had been made because my camera could not take the entire view. One instance, the facade of a church (Elisabethkirche in Marburg), one of the upper portion and the other of the lower portion were combined into a single image. The field of view of my Mamiya twin lens camera was not wide enough to encompass the entire facade(with 80mm lens). Using the digital techniques I was able to put the images together to show the entire view.

Wild River Maine Photographs

On our way back from The Forks, Maine we stayed over a couple of nights in the Gorham, NH area where I revisited the Wild River in Maine to make photographs. This is on the New Hampshire - Maine border. I have previously photographed this area and was looking forward to the revisit.

The weather only cooperated for a day as there was a lot of rain the other day we were there. We went to the Wild River area in the evening, around 5:30 and stayed until about 8:00 pm, taking advantage of "quiet light." I learned the term "quiet light" when taking a John Sexton workshop at Anderson Ranch in Colorado in 2000. The light is directional and can emanate from a large area such as the sky. Generally there is no direct sunlight present.

Two images made during this time are shown:

River Rocks, Sand, and Branches, Wild River Maine, 2010

Fern and River Rocks, Wild River Maine 2010

Moxie Falls and High Dynamic Range Imaging

Figure 1. Moxie Falls, Kennebec river valley.

Making photographs of Moxie Falls in Maine provided an opportunity to use "high dynamic range" imaging because of the extremes of the lighting. The top of the falls was in full sunlight and the cliff sides was in deep shade. So I made three exposures, one to insure detail in the shadow, the sunlit water was blocked. A second intermediate exposure was made and finally a third exposure insured that there was no blocking in the sunlit water but of course there was little shadow detail.

Figure 2. Exposed for the shadows (Zones 2-4), blocked highlights.

Figure 3. Exposed for the intermediate scale (Zone V).

Figure 4. Exposed for the highlights (Zone VII-X).

Figure 5. Combining the three exposures into a final image.

The same approach was used for the full view of the falls (Figure 1)

Color vs. B&W Rendering

The color image of the previous post is rendered in B&W. The forms in the image remain the same of course but there is a different sense conveyed by the green rendition vs. the B&W. I would say that the B&W has a more ominous, mysterious feel compared with the green rendering. The exploration and exploitation of this difference is certainly worth pursuing.

Recent trip to Kennebec river valley and Wild River Maine

We (Susan, Tucker and I) recently made a short (four day) trip to the Kennebec river valley in north central Maine with the view of making photographs of the north woods, waterfalls, ... The weather was a bit of a hindrance as it rained two of the days. I made color photographs of the hemlock trees and mist outside our cabin(see photograph) using my point and shoot camera, and B&W photographs with my 4x5 field camera(not yet developed). I turned the hemlocks into a long narrow panorama (top image).

On the return home we stopped in Gorham/Shelburn NH and I visited the Wild River in Maine to photograph. This is an area were I have photographed before (see http://www.jackahearnphotography.com/new_england.shtml) and comparing these new photographs with the previous ones should be insightful. These photographs are not yet developed.