I was struck by the way this boat jutted out, like it had been thrust onto shore. Originally shot in colour with my D90, I used Silver Efex Pro 2 with a heavy red filter setting to darken the sky as much as possible. This plug-in really helped me go from what the camera recorded to what I saw.
Back to digital for this one: one of the more interesting sites on Virgin Gorda is an old copper mine from the 19th century; on the top of a hill by the ocean, there are amazing images in every direction! This image was captured in colour, then converted to black and white with Silver Efex Pro 2.
In Virgin Gorda we passed this stand of trees every day, and every day it caught my eye, as it seemed like a corridor in a cathedral. I took many pictures of it, and I think this is the one that best captures the impression it made on me. For this image I used my Mamiya medium format camera, 55 mm wide angle lens, and Ilford Delta 100 film.
There were a lot of fascinating trees in Virgin Gorda, including one that had basically taken root and grown on top of a boulder. I couldn’t get a satisfactory shot of the entire tree that I liked, so I went in closer to focus on the gloriously messy root structure. I used my Mamiya, and a combination of Ilford Delta 100 film and Xtol developer; this could become my goto combination for a lot of photography!
Here is the second image I am posting that I created using my 4×5 Cambo SC view camera; it is a portrait of my older daughter Julia. What I enjoyed about creating this portrait was the low tech approach I used. The lens used was an old brass lens, a Busch “Rapid Symmetrical” that is at least a hundred years old. The lens board (used to attach the lens to the camera), was homemade, using two pieces of mat board, glued together. As for the exposure, since the lens has no shutter, I made the exposure (about 1.5 seconds, using a paper negative) by simply covering/uncovering the front of the lens with my hand. About as far from modern technology as one can get!
This image was created on the only cloudy day we experienced on VIrgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. On a island known for sandy beaches and sun, I found this rocky beach fascinating. Much of the smaller rocks are actually old weathered pieces of coral that have washed onshore, along with small shells or broken bits of larger shells. Amazing textures, that demanded to be captured in black and white, so out came the medium format Mamiya, loaded with Tri-X.
This image was made with my Nikon D90, and processed using the just released Nik Software Silver Efex Pro 2. We were all on the ferry boat from St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands to Virgin Gorda in the British Islands when I noticed this building on an island, quite some distance away. Luckily, as we left port we got close enough for me to take some images. Even though the original capture was a colour digital image, from the beginning I knew I needed a vintage black and white treatment, so Silver Efex to the rescue:
I am continuing to work through the images I took in the British Virgin Islands, and while many of the photos are colour-centric (to be expected in a place where the ocean is a melange of breathtaking shades of blue), I do like the black and whites images I took. I’ve only had time to develop one roll so far, which contains images taken at “The Baths”, a famous beach on Virgin Gorda.
Virgin Gorda is not only a place of amazing colours, it is also a place of amazing textures and shapes, and I am looking forward to developing the other black and white rolls I shot during my week in paradise.
I’ll be off the grid for a week, but I did want to get one more post in. I recently purchased a used 4×5 view camera (a beat-up but functional Cambo SC), something I’ve wanted for a while. While I have had little to no time to use it due to family realities, I have so far had a chance to take the picture below. I used the paper negative technique; instead of conventional photographic film I use real photographic paper (darkroom, not inkjet). It is very slow speed (about E.I. 6) but since a view camera must be on a tripod, the fact that a 60 second exposure was required was no big deal. Once the negative is developed, I can either do a contact print to get a 4×5″ image, or just scan the negative and invert the image digitally. I am really looking forward to the challenge of learning to use my view camera, the ultimate in the totally manual photographic experience.
In film photography, so many accidents can be fatal: the accidental exposure of film, “developing” your film in fixer first, even loading a roll of film backwards so that no exposures result :-(. Occasionally though, a technical issue can result in a good image. The image below is from a roll that I developed yesterday morning, and there was an issue with the fixer chemical, leaving a fog in some frames. When I scanned the negative, however, the fog in this image resulted in a blue tinge/haze over much of the frame. Even though it was a black and white image, I scan my negatives in colour, hence the blue.
Since the subject matter is ice, the blue really fits in well. I am going to have a go at refixing the negative (since it will just get worse) over time, but in the meantime, I am enjoying this happy accident.
My Third Eye 