PLATE #107
Today I attempted something unique in color, lighting, and trying to use depth of field in a creative or interesting way.
I mentioned before that sometimes I look at a scene or an object I want to photograph for a long before I attempt to make a negative/print. I’d been looking at this Aspen sapling for a month, waiting for it to get bigger.
I knew lighting and color were going to be an issue. The green sapling leaves are recorded almost as the same “salmon” color of the granite behind it. They are both in the 500 - 600nm visible light spectrum. Collodion has a difficult time recording them. So I knew I had to add some light. I used one of my 48” white discs to bounce some reflected east light onto the leaves. If you look close, you can see my focus was on the dew drops (water) on the leaves. I made the negative at about 9:00 am this morning.
The image is focused on the sapling, but it has much more than that to offer. If you look closely and observe the image you can see what I saw. I used a very shallow depth of field to exaggerate this feature but I wanted it to be obvious. I hope you can see it. Another thing I wanted was the top of the frame to be dark. So I turned the front standard to show the foreground (“spinning earth”) and darken the top of the plate. I wanted it to feel heavy and dark with this new life springing from the granite and the “grandfather”.
PLATE #108
I’m exploring constructing images in this work. I have a lot of ideas for images. They are mostly based on the symbolism and beliefs of the Ute/Tabeguache that lived here. This image acts as a metaphor for two different ideas or beliefs. The creation story of the Ute/Tabeguache and the four directions of the circle of life. For now, I’m leaving the description at that. You can see what I’ve done (I hope) and what it might symbolize.
Plate #108 - “Four Sticks” - Whole Plate (toned) Kallitype (K2) from a wet collodion negative - printed on Revere Platinum paper. This will lose a little bit of the red color when it’s fully dried down (tomorrow). “In the Shadow of Sun Mountain”