Piedras Grandes, Anza-Borrego Desert, California, a panorama stitched together from eight digital images.
Not far from where I photographed this “Yoni” petroglyph in Piedras Grandes Cultural Preserve is this sweeping, boulder-strewn landscape, ancestral home to the Kumeyaay tribe of Native Americans. Read More
Deer Skull, Citronelle, Alabama, 6in x 8in palladium print on Arches Platine watercolor paper. The tone of the palladium really brings out the texture of the deer skull and the weathered wood of the barn wall.
Late in the day you have to use whatever light is available, and in this case it was a greenish mercury vapor lamp attached to a power pole quite some distance away. Even with a custom white balance setting on the camera, it was difficult getting realistic color out of the scene, so I decided to try contact printing the image in palladium. Read More
Moon Halo Over Desert Cane, Anza-Borrego Desert, California
Ocotillo, California – An Ancient Native American female fertility symbol, or “yoni” petroglyph, at Piedras Grandes in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
Ice on Kingsland Bay, Lake Champlain, Vermont
I photographed Ice on Kingsland Bay, Lake Champlain, Vermont with a Graflex 4×5 Crown Graphic and Fujinon 125mm ƒ/5.6 lens on Kodak TMax 100 (TMX) rated at ISO 64. I developed the sheet film in HC-110 diluted 1:49. Read More
Stars and Smoke Tree, Canyon Sin Nombre, Anza-Borrego Desert, California
Canyon Sin Nombre is full of these beautiful Smoke Trees (Psorothamnus spinosus). Read More
An ISO setting of 1600 and a wide 2.8 aperture setting provided plenty of light-gathering ability to record a sky full of stars.
Mountain Palm Springs is one of my favorite locations in the Anza-Borrego Desert. On a clear night, the sounds of the palm fronds rustling in the breeze coupled with the unbelievable amount of stars visible makes for a unique experience. Read More
Orchard, Kingsland Bay, Vermont
Orchard, Kingsland Bay, Vermont was photographed with a Hasselblad 500CM fitted with a Carl Zeiss 50mm ƒ/4 Distagon on Kodak TMax 100 (TMX) E.I. 64. Developed in HC-110 1:49.
View this image in the archive, with the film border or without.
If you’ve ever used a large format camera, you know that focusing them is a challenge. The image on the ground glass is reversed and upside down, meaning you have to mentally flip and rotate the composition in your mind while you’re framing. And the image on that glass is dark. Real dark. That’s why you see large format shooters focusing their cameras underneath big black cloths — the image is nearly impossible to see in any sort of daylight.
So what do you do when you want to shoot at night? Use lasers!
I carry a small red laser pointer in my large format camera backpack. Looking through the ground glass, I point the laser all around the periphery of the scene so that I know what is and is not in the image. The pinpoint beam is also helps to achieve critical focus on the subject.
I’ve tried various flashlights, but nothing matches the brightness and portability of a small pocket laser pointer.
EDIT May 8,2013 : I’ve put away the laser pointer in favor of a new Tactical Flashlight. Read about it in my post Moon Halo Over Desert Cane.
I photographed Smoke Tree and Star Trails in Canyon Sin Nombre, Anza-Borrego Desert, California with a Tachihara 4×5 Field Camera and a Schneider 210mm ƒ/5.6 lens on Fuji Provia 100 Quickload (RDPIII). The canyon wall and the smoke tree were illuminated by the rising full moon, requiring an exposure of several minutes at ƒ/5.6.
You can buy a print of this image by visiting the archive. You can choose a print with the film border or without. Prices start at $200 for a signed 8″x10″ image matted with bright white museum board to fit a 16″x20″ frame.
Emma Kitchen in front of a projected MRI scan of her brain.
Earlier this year I was lucky enough to photograph Emma Kitchen for a feature in Middlebury College’s alumni magazine. Read More