PINION PINES NEAR RIDGWAY, CO 2012

A while back, I was sitting in the shade beside our RV when I noticed this lovely forest scene. Fact is, I had viewed it several times before, but today it was becoming something special because of the rapidly changing lighting and shadows caused by the moving clouds. I noticed how nicely balanced the lighting was when the clouds were thin. The end result was what I used to refer to as a 360-degree umbrella. "Soft lighting" in other words.

Needless to say, the tripod and camera came out and this was the final result. In keeping with my silver images from the old days, I converted the color to a nice sepia. Usually, you don"t  have to look very far for nice images. It is often  a simple matter of spotting that elusive image and pulling it out of the total scene. This was such a case where years of practice paid off, and I didn't even have to get off my hind quarters.

Had this image been produced in the lab, it would likely have taken me the better part of several hours to make a finished silver print. Now, with high tech digital technology, the exposed image required but a few moments to produce. Setting up the tripod required more time than the actual making of the image.

Sometimes, I feel more like a computer geek than a photographer, but I still think back to all of those years when I would tote that film camera pack and tripod around for hours at a time and then have to wait for several more hours, or days, before being able to view the finished negative. Personally, I feel that a fine silver print is more in keeping with traditional art than this new technology. But for someone who has a worn out back and has had to deal with three hip replacements, it is a dang sight easier to tote around a digital than a forty pound field pack loaded with film equipment and a heavy tripod.

This way, I can still have fun and preview my finished images immediately after making the exposures. Oh, how times have changed. I do have to question whether this is equal to or better than my collection of silver sulfide exhibition prints. Next image please...