Much of the time, it seems that one takes endless pictures without achieving anything that is more than mediocre.  Then one image, often taken without much previsualization or planning, is perfect.  This is one such image.  One night in 1992, I was bicycling at

midnight on the Burke-Gilman Trail along the Sammammish River north of Redmond, Washington.  Mist hung in the still air over the river, and the lights of nearby businesses across the river cast a lacework of light though the thin misty curtains.  I had loaded my 1965 Pentax Spotmatic  with Agfa Optima film, and brought along my 50mm Super-Takumar lens- a vintage lens of superb optical quality.

Fascinated with the play of light, mist and shadow over the river,  I had nothing but a miniature tripod which I strapped to the handlebars of my bicycle, and I guessed at a two minute exposure.  When I went to bracket exposures, I discovered that this was the last frame on the roll.

In this final print, the lights of Redmond create a beautiful dawnlike effect in the east.  The air was still, and the crisp images of the individual grasses attest to both the quality of the Takumar lens and the perfect stillness of the night.  In this case, all the elements came together to create a lovely image.

References:

Rochkind, Marc.  “Marc’s Classic Cameras:  Asahi Pentax Spotmatic- 1964.”  http://basepath.com/Photography/Spotmatic.php.

Wikipedia Article:  “Pentax Spotmatic.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentax_Spotmatic.

Gerbera Daisies

This image, which is digital, shows once again the value of accompanying vintage film photography with digital capability.  On a visit to a local nursery, I was occupied by shopping, but had time to snap this image with my Canon A610 point-and-shoot camera, which has some manual control in addition to the usual automatic modes.  The small CCD chip allows greater depth of field than is possible with film.  I would not have had time to compose the image with my vintage cameras, and would not have been able to achieve this depth of field in a hand-held shot.

The Cow and the Combine

This a “busy” picture which I initially thought was too cluttered. Yet I kept coming back to it, fascinated by the complexity of the farm equipment, the contrast between the gray sheets of the harvester sides and the rough textures of the earth, the bark and the coat of the cow (actually a steer). I also liked the richness and varied tones of the browns and rusty reds. The steer watching me stolidly provides a counterpoint to the lines and planes of the machinery. Taken near Duncan, B.C. at f/11 with the Ross Xpres lens on my Ensign 16-20 on Kodak VC-160. It’s amazing to me how all these colours combine, with the obvious setting sun in the foreground behind the camera. It’s a wonder how farm equipment has developed so much, and the creativity that has gone behind each piece. For example you can see all these rusty metal machines, and it makes you wonder what they were all built for. With a cow in the foreground you could guess this was an old cattle farm, for meat or dairy perhaps. With this potential volume of cows, you might imagine this farm owns machines to help feed and water them, perhaps milk them too. Then other farm equipment like what we now call articulating wagon gear to help move bulks across uneven terrain. Oh, I could go on and on. The things you can decipher from one photo, they really are fun to study.

The Farm on the Hill, Washtucna

Somewhere in the rolling Washington Palouse country east of Washtucna, I saw this farm peering over the crest of a hill.  Attracted by the interplay of the lines of the stubble with the panorama of this immense field, I let my eye be drawn to the distant farm.  Positioning it as the focal point of this image to give scale to the vastness of this wheat field, I exposed XP-2 with my 1928 No. 1 Kodak at f/22.  Note that the sense of space is achieved with only a “normal” lens- no wide angle was available in the era when this camera was made!

Misty Morning, Somenos Creek

On waking one early spring morning, I found mist hanging in the valley below my home in Duncan, and the sun just coming up.  I quickly grabbed my camera, drove into the lowlands, and found this view along Somenos Creek.  Perched on a bridge next to a busy road, I took this exposure on VC-160 at f/8 with my Ensign Selfix 16-20.  I should point out that mist is often an excellent vehicle for hiding imperfections in the landscape- an agricultural drain pipe that keeps the sogginess out of our fields by Somenos Lake enters this creek in the distance, but is beautifully hidden by the mist!