Contemplation in the Digital Age

There has been an on going and and I would say lively discussion over at Musings on Photography about the contemplative nature of using a view camera, or how to transfer those contemplative qualities to a digital camera, personally I don't think it really matters what kind of camera one uses to be more "contemplative" while making images I think its more of a state of mind. I know in this high tech present digital age that using film for some is ancient technology and a few might find reading this blog that there is not find much relevance in a photographer that is still shooting film and with a view camera no less. Although my photography is part digital I scan my negatives which are then enhanced in Photoshop and then printed via a ink jet printer. With that in mind,
here are a few simple ideas to try as an experiment to be more contemplative.

1. Set your camera to single frame exposure, many moons ago when film cameras had separate motor drives ( yes I am that old ) on my time off when I would photograph on my days off for my personal work, I would take the motor drives off my cameras, this helped me to not be so "trigger happy"

2. Try using just one or two prime fixed focus lenses, back in the film days when I supplied my own film camera gear as a daily newspaper photographer I carried everything from a 24mm wide angle to a 300mm telephoto, so again on my time off I would only take two lenses, a medium wide and medium telephoto . Very early in my photographic quest for inspiration I was introduced to the work of Henri Cartier Bresson who used mostly a 50mm lens for all of his work . Today for all of my view camera work, everything that is featured on this blog and my website I use pretty well two lenses , a medium wide and a medium telephoto lens.

3. Try using a tripod, of course this is more for shooting landscape photographs, I find that by having my camera on a tripod , I can be more thoughtful about my composition that is if the light is not changing too fast, one of the things I like to do is study my composition for a bit, and take a look at my surroundings, I have also found that when I take some time to look around, all sorts of other picture possibilities come into view that I was not even ware of. Sometimes I have found that the picture I thought was the "one" turned out to be secondary and I found a better image that I had not expected to take.

4. Try using manual exposure, this is a great way to "see" light and to learn how to use the light in a given circumstance to the best of your advantage, most digital cameras have this great little tool called a histogram, this can show where your high lights and shadows will lay, in my own case I use a one degree spot meter, I take a couple quick exposure readings of the shadows and high lights and calculate my exposure, being a B&W filmed shooter I expose for the shadows, if I'm shooting digital I expose more for the high lights.

These are just a few ideas to help one to be more contemplative, something to think about at least. The image posted was at Cavell lake in Jasper National Park, taken with a 120mm lens on a 4 x 5 view camera, in September of 1989.

Some Shameless Self Promotion

This Thursday is the official launch of the brand new Okanagan Arts magazine published by the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan and I am happy to say that my work will be featured in the inaugural edition that will see 15,000 copies printed. Many of the images featured in the magazine have been on this blog so I am re-publishing this image , one of my favourites from last year, "View from Pincushion Ridge" taken with my 4 x 5 view camera.

The Silence of the Land

I am always amazed how incredibly quiet it is while up on these upper elevations in the mountains, I find that I take for granted all the noises around me as I go about my daily life in the city,but while high in the mountains its so quiet, Its one of the things that I truly love about being in the mountains, I can hear my heart beat, my breathing and sometimes the sound of the wind or animals. I can understand why people who take spiritual quests often go to retreats high in the mountains.
This is an image from the Perley Rock trail in Glacier National Park ( Canada ), shot with my Tachihara 4 x 5 view camera and a 360mm lens.

Glacier Water

I am continuing to feature images I have made from my archives , I made this image of a stream that I crossed while on my hike to Perley Rock in September of 1990. The composition is pretty straight forward, taken with a medium wide angle lens on 4 x 5 view camera. When I was looking at the scene, I felt that the image really worked on the contrast levels, I had envisioned the image to be darkened down, the gully and the mountain in the background almost blck, and the stream highlighted almost white as if flowing out of the centre of the mountain. Originally when I printed this in the darkroom I held back the stream with a dodging tool, my fingers and it made for a very nice print, scanning it digitally and using Photoshop allows me a closer rendering of my original vision.

The Trek to Perley Rock

I made this view of the Illecillewaet Glacier after a challenging day hike up the Perley Rock trail in Canada's Glacier National Park in September of 1990, I never did make it up to the top of Perley Rock, but I was happy and rewarded with this scene near the end of the trail, which I made using a 4 x 5 view camera and a 300mm lens, it would be equivalent to a about 60 or 70mm lens on a digital SLR camera depending on the crop factor. I don't recall any of the shutter speed or f-stop data, but I recall how cold it was and the beautiful clouds which broke up as I got up to the base of Perley Rock. In the darkroom I would have printed this holding the mid section of the glacier back , burning down the sky and burning in the large rock on the bottom left to give it a nice black but not too dark appearance. In Photoshop, I kept much the same vision, burning down the sky and rock on the lower left, lightening up and adding contrast to the glacier. Compositionally I liked using the rock on the lower left as an anchor, the dark ridge, actually called Glacier Crest ( accessed by another trail ) between the glacier and sky I thought had a nice curvature and the sky really helped pull things together with the dramatic shapes and contrast.

Vermillion Lakes, Banff National Park

I made this image of Vermillion Lakes near Banff Alberta in Banff National Park in September of 1987. I was on my way back to Kelowna after spending a few days hiking and photographing in the park when this scene caught my eye. I set up my camera to feature the foreground and the reflective bit of water as the sun broke through clouds.

The Kettle Valley Railway

I made this image of the Kettle Valley Railway in the Myra Canyon above Kelowna, B.C. back in the summer of 1987, this trestle and about a dozen others like it were burned in a massive forest fire that tore through the area in the summer of 2003. I had orginally envisioned the image in my mind's eye on a previous scouting trip/hiking trip the year before, I returned with my 4 x 5 view camera, there was a spot off the edge of the trestle just big enough to set up my camera, I wanted to use the lines of the trestle as if pointing to the canyon beyond, the clouds were great, but my exposure was off. The digital scan presented here is greatly improved over the darkroom made print, as I could not bring out the clouds in the print.

Arbutus in the Sun

Warm winter sun,
Gentle ocean breeze,
Arbutus tree against a blue sky,
A day to contemplate and relax,
My camera in my back pack,
I carefully compose and wait,
The quiet click of the shutter,
The hopeful anticipation of the finished print.

( Image made at East Sooke Regional Park, December 1987, 4 x 5 view camera, 120mm lens )

The Tenacious Little Tree

I photographed this little tree no more than 3 ft high, hanging on the side of a rock face in East Sooke Regional Park, on Vancouver Island nearly 20 years ago. The last time I visited the park, the tree was still there, not much bigger, through stormy days and quiet days the tree continues to thrive. For some people life is like that little tree, hanging on and not letting go, where we have a tenacious toe hold on a this rocky ledge we call life, battered by storms but on occasionally enjoying the finer days too.