Returning to the Cradle

Years ago, in the mid 70’s, I began my journey in photography.  It all started with a Petri 35mm SLR that I purchased from a friend while serving in the Air Force.  One of the on-base hobby shops was a fully equipped darkroom for developing and printing black and white film.  I knew truly little about the technical aspects of photography at the time.  However, the first time I saw the magic of the image slowly emerging in the developer I realized that I was hooked.  I would later go on to work with medium format and 4×5 large format mediums, spending hours on weekends in my basement darkroom.  It may seem strange, but I always loved the unique smell of the darkroom, of the developer and fixer chemicals associated with the time spent during hours of pursuit of a beautiful black and white print.      

The Return

As years passed, I drifted away from my black and white roots.  Color became more popular with many and even more so after the advent of the digital format era.  Most recently I have made the decision to return to working principally in black and white, returning to the cradle I like to say.  I realized that I get the most personal satisfaction in seeing and feeling an actual physical black and white print.  This medium has a timeless aspect that color lacks, at least for me.  This drives my desire to move forward with renewed passion to create new works.

As begin this reset, my future blogs will often be musings on how or why I took a particular image. It may also include technical information I considered at the time. Other posts at times may center on some tools or tips, mostly related to black and white field and post processing techniques.

Advancing Tide

I took the featured image of this post along the beautiful pacific shores of Bandon, Oregon. Exposure was 1/5 sec at f/16, 24mm, ISO 100. It was necessary that I take several exposures to get the most favorable wave action in the foreground, providing an adequate sense of motion to the image. The dark mood and advancing tide almost seem to mimic the feeling of an advancing storm suggested by the sky.

I hope you will sign up and visit often and be sure to visit my website and view my current portfolio. I will continually be adding new material. If at any time you have a related question, please contact me. I will be more than happy to respond.

And of course…your comments are always of interest to me.