Spring Flowers Digital 4x5

It has been a great spring for wildflowers here in Texas.  After a wet winter and spring with some nice drought breaking rains we have had a great wildflower display.  Bluebonnets have already come and gone.  It was a good show.  Now we have a variety of red, yellow, purple, white, etc.  A visual feast.


I took the 4x5 out today to see if I could capture some of that spring color.  I had some Velvia 100 I wanted to shoot but I also decided to take the 50D along and hook it up for some digital work with the Arca-Swiss.


I carefully waded out into the wildflowers and found a good spot with some bare ground for the pack.  Then I set up the Arca-Swiss.  I went with the 210mm to compress the flowers.  I shot a couple of sheets, then switched over to the DSLR to see what it could do.


When working with the DSLR I can only use the longer lenses to get anywhere close to infinity.  Now the 210mm on a crop sensor DSLR is like using a 300mm on a full frame camera as I am only using a small piece of the image circle.


Open up the lens like I normally would.  Use Live View to compose and focus.  Use Aperture Priority mode for the image.  Viola-image.


I get the 4x5 experience with instant digital feedback and I did not have to spend $30,000 for a high end digital back.  I just get a smaller file and cannot use wide angles.  However for what I was doing I thought the longer lenses would be a better choice.


I saw a few Indian blankets and thought they might be a good subject.  Used the 10x on Live View to really check focus.  Then it was just wait for the wind to lull for just a second.


Then when I caught that lull, I got this one.  Canon 50D, on Arca-Swiss 4x5 with a 210mm Nikon lens.

Red Rock Country

Arches National Park.  Blue sky.  Some feathery clouds.  Bright red sandstone.

Let's go black and white.  Yes, black and white.  In the mid day light I was not sure how the colors would work out on Velvia, but thought the black and white could work and work well.

I had my trusty Efke 25loaded and ready to go.  I saw this scene and thought it had potential.

I framed up the red cliffs with the Fujinon 125mm so I could fill most of the frame with the rocks.  Used rise to keep the perspective right.

It looked good on the ground glass and I used one sheet.  This was it.  I got the exposure pretty good and it looked great on the light table.  I did not know it when I took it but it was a good shot.

Forge Rock

Arches has a great many famous locations that people visit.  I visit those same locations too as views like Delicate Arch are truly awesome.


I also like to get off the beaten path and try to find images others have not.   I posted some views of the red rock country a couple of weeks ago that showed some of the Park Avenue area in hopefully a different way.


This post is hopefully something different too.


I found this rock several years ago on a visit to Arches and kept thinking there was an image here.  I made several attempts at it but never could get the right light.


This last trip I decided to give it another go.  I had somewhat struck out with trying to get magic light here,so I decided to try seeing what I could get in monochrome during the day.


I set up the camera and made a couple of exposures on Efke 25.  I also set about trying to get a color image and did one on Velvia.

I figured the Efke would handle the scene better but I think I liked what the Velvia did that day.


I have to say I really like this location but this was still not the potential for what the area has.  I have worked on getting a night image here on a couple of occasions but even that has been more miss than hit.  I have never been able to get a film image here.  I did however make a night image with my digital camera that I like.

I would love to be able to do an image like this with the large format camera but just do not think it will be possible.  I have no lens that goes close enough to this wide and the exposure would run into the hours.  So for now I think this is about the best I can get it.

I call it The Forge of Odin.

West Side of Canyonlands

I spent a day driving along the western side of the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park.  There are several neat views that are not the famous ones that most people go to.  I took the Arca-Swiss and set about making a few images of the various views.  


This one canyon jumped out at me as it was rather narrow with some fairly close buttes and edges to give the canyon some depth.  I found many of the other views to be so vast that without something in the sky it becomes hard to get a great image.

There was a few clouds in the sky but not enough to make it worthy of being a big sky image.  I decided that this would work without it.  I set it up to be a black and white and went with the Efke 25 knowing I would get DR-5 processing.


Black and White works well in the daytime and I thought there might be some nice textures through the canyon depths.


After making that one I decided that there was even some potential for color too, so I took a shot with Velvia 100F.  I was not sure if the shadows would go solid black but I wanted to get that great red of the sandstone.