The Story Behind The Image; Trees, Rocks & Pond

Circa late 1980s; Pentax 6X7, Pentax 90mm f/2.8 lens (45mm ~e); Kodak Vericolor III Professional film (negative); ISO 160
(click to enlarge)

I used to wander around the country hauling a very large and heavy Pentax 6X7 camera and four lenses.  If you are not familiar with a Pentax 6X7 camera, it looks like a giant 35mm SLR.  The camera used 120 or 220 sized film, which meant that one could get either 10 images or 20, on a roll, respectively.  The 6X 7 refers to the size of the negatives.  They were 60mm X 70mm or 2 1/4" X 2 3/4".  About four times the size of a 35mm negative.  I must say they were big, beautiful negatives.

Kodak Vericolor III Professional film was primarily a wedding and portrait negative film. Its ISO was 160.  I used it because it was a film with lower contrast and longer dynamic range, which in the field, would better allow me to capture shadow and highlight detail. Think black tuxedos and white wedding gowns and you'll understand its long toe and gently sloping shoulder (film terms for lots of gradation).  The color was very natural, which is what I preferred at the time, to more saturated consumer films.  You have to keep in mind that back then, with film, there was no way to adjust saturation, contrast, etc.  There was only one paper available to print color prints and it was a standard contrast, so the film had to make the difference, unlike now where we have almost infinite ability to change everything about our images.  

In the above image, I did punch up the color and contrast a bit for this post.  Preferences slightly change over the years, I guess.  After all, it was a very gray and heavily overcast day, which is what I prefer if photographing fall foliage and dark bark or rocks.

I still have mine and until recently was my all time favorite camera.  I finally gave up carrying the gargantuan Pentax as it became just too big, too heavy and very cumbersome to carry, let alone trying to keep with me while flying on domestic airliners.

Some say the Pentax could only be used on a tripod as, like a 35mm SLR, it had a mirror. The difference was the mirror was about 4 times larger than a typical 35mm SLR and had a sound and mirror slap that, I swear, you could hear 100 ft. away.  But, despite that mirror slap, I was always very successful in using it handheld.  I had developed a technique where I could stabilize the camera and achieve very sharp and very high resolution images.  To me, images from a medium format camera always looked so much smoother, had much better tonality, a high dynamic range and reproduced colors much more subtlely than 35mm ever could.

One autumn, on a trip back home to Pennsylvania to my hometown, and as usual always having the Pentax with me, I wandered around the area looking for images.  There is a park in my hometown that was a gift to the public that has a couple of lakes (we ice skated on the largest one in the winter), public swimming pool, many open areas for sports, several picnic areas, playgrounds, wooded areas, etc.  It is huge and it was one of those places that, as a kid, took for granted, but now realize what a marvelous gift, indeed, it was to the community.

As I wandered around those old stomping grounds looking for images, I spotted this scene. It looked pleasing enough, had a nice form to it, the colors nicely complimented each other and I decided to stop and make an image.  I like the way the leaves dip toward the rocks and allow leaves to fall upon them, the quietness of the moment as well as the stillness.

I made only one negative.  I would not do that today with digital, but back then, with a camera on a tripod, being contemplative and slow in the execution of my images, I thought that once I found the right composition, that was it. Luckily, the negative is still in fine shape and this image is from a scan of that old negative.  Glad I now have it digitized as this has become one of my favorite images.

I have one more from the same park on the same day that I will share later in the week.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

All content on this blog is © 2013-2015 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.