Dark Forest #1 - new set with Mamiya 7

[thomas_m]

IIRC, 7 out of the nine photos in this set were taken with my Mamiya 7, 65 and 43mm lenses.

There's a link to the full set in the most recent entry on my website. Comments always appreciated:

http://www.crowmountain.net/

TIA,

Thomas

 

[sockdaddy]

nice and spooky - great tones in the shadows.

well done. what's your shooting / metering strategy in an environment like this?

 

[jan normandale]

Hi Thomas

2;4;9 all typify what I would call the typical West Coast forest. Lots of rain to make lots of lush growth. These shots have that and they show it by the light in these shots. It's a strong set. Suitable for framing maybe even as a set.

I really like the focus and use of depth of field and the Mamiya glass really shines here.

Jan

 

[mattg]

I think that's a fantastic set Thomas. I don't agree with what you've written on your site though, many of these definately have a degree of sinister undertone to them despite their prettiness. I especially like no.2 and would love to see a scan from conventional print of that one.

 

[thomas_m]

nice and spooky - great tones in the shadows.

well done. what's your shooting / metering strategy in an environment like this?

LOL Exactly the opposite of what you're supposed to do...

I used a simplified zone system - identify my areas of minimum detail, do the normal zone system calcs then I underexposed about a stop from what you would think would be correct. In development, I overexposed about a stop to blow out the brightest highlights.

Oh yeah, I use the ubiquitous zone system tool, a Pentax digital spotmeter. The M7's meter works fine for me on the street where I usually just go AP and fire away but in the forest, the in camera meter is next to no use at all.

T.

 

[thomas_m]

I think that's a fantastic set Thomas. I don't agree with what you've written on your site though, many of these definately have a degree of sinister undertone to them despite their prettiness. I especially like no.2 and would love to see a scan from conventional print of that one.

My bias is probably because I saw the scene in color and was having fun with my kids while I took most of them. I some of those spots, it was only about 3:00PM and I was still having to use 30sec exposures, those woods are pretty dark...

Funny you pick #2. I think that's the most difficult (whatever that means in this contect) for the viewer due to my intentional and somewhat non-conventional choice of focus point. I wanted to viewer to feel a bit frustrated that they were stuck with teh big tree and can't quite get to the pretty maple.

Thanks!

T.