Pulled off my first full 2x push on TMAX the other day. I’m sure my perspective is a bit off due to lack of familiarity with the film, but my initial reaction is positive. I’m surprised at how much detail survived. Take a highly extreme snow image:
'Twas a snowy day
(image straight off the scanner)
Going with black and white film for the last few months has definitely changed how I look at the world. It’s something I’d recommend for pretty much everyone, if only for a short while. I’m definitely seeing tonal changes more, and the nature of having to guess on exposures has tightened up my eye for the opportunities around me.
For example:
Snowy scene
Before I would have seen the same thing, and appreciated it every bit as much. But now, I see the scene and have the tools to pull it off (and yes, this was with digital – was out taking pictures for a family project)…
Some people have noticed that we recently had a dump of snow in mid-April, and it appears that they think that this is late in the year for such antics. It isn’t late: it’s not all that unusual, in fact. The subject did cause me to think back, wondering what it was like last year at this time.
In retrospect, I suppose it’s not that different from now. We still have snow on the same trails, but only slightly more. The streets are about as bare as last year, perhaps slightly less. Click to continue »
Alternate title: embarrassing myself in front of the pros.
I read an opinion online (probably on Fark) that Texans are a unique breed. They’re overly proud of themselves – not for what they’ve done or what they can to, but because of where they live. As if they have an overly-inflated sense of value ’cause their state is big. And the only people worse than Texans, according to this opinion, are Alaskans: convinced that they’re something special because they can somehow survive in a giant, frozen state.
There’s some truth to this. For the better part of the last two decades, I could easily leave state (well, to anywhere other than Hawaii) and say “I’m from Alaska.” The response: instant fawning. Usually you become the life of the party, making up crap about how hard the winters are (they’re not usually hard in Anchorage, just long – it’s usually far worse in the midwest).
Don’t do this with a well-travelled person. Like I did, with Moose Petersen. Yes, I made an ass of myself to the moose, but I learned something in the process. Imagine this conversation:
Me: so, I’m from Alaska.
Moose: yeah, so?
Me: um, so we have a bunch of unique lighting up here and I was wondering…
Moose: No you don’t.
Me: Um, nevermind, I’ll go away now.
Moose: You had a question. Ask it.
Me: um, I was wondering… how to properly shoot… snow?
Moose: who cares? Snow is snow, it’s white. If you blow it out, who gives a rip? Everyone knows what it is?
Me: I’m going to slink away now…
Well, that’s pretty much what happened. Wording has been changed (feeble memory and all that), but there are some important lessons in there. I walked away with these thoughts:
Since this conversation, I’ve read at least two articles since our exchange where the mighty Moose has talked about properly exposing for snow.