mikestacey

fantastic work Sean.

Love it Sean. The fine detail and tone gives it a silvery look.

thanks for your comment Jeff, the symmetry really captivated me when I found this scene - not for all I guess.

Long time no see Carsten - this is really superb, one of your best.

more likely my film development Jeff but easy to fix by just reducing magenta saturation.

thanks Mario glad you like it. The horizon dead centre is useful to create two distinct and symmetrical layers which emphasises the earth-sky pattern similarity. I've always liked that symmetry and have never stopped to think much about that particular photographic "rule" of "never put the horizon in the middle".

Peter, the transparency on the light table shows the same interruptions, maybe some clouds passing through and also I remember stopping the exposure half way through and changing the aperture as I was worried about there not being enough light.

thanks all.

Peter: only one shot here - 2hours, f8.

Jeff: I started the exposure after sunset when there was still light on the salt which has given enough illumination to the ground. It's a very tricky piece of guesswork as to when to beging the exposure to have just the right amount of light.

Nice. Looks like an aerial view of the desert near Lake Eyre. I like it.

thanks all.

Mike, that's the reason I use this gear, to print large and capture the scene as it truly is, every small detail of it.

Maybe occasionally but you'd have to be lucky to be there when it's like this in Oberon. Must try and get down to the Snowy before it's all over for another year. Is this spot easily accessible? The only place I really know is Charlotte's Pass...

I'm jealous of these conditions Jeff, have been wanting to get out in similar weather for quite a while. The light is the thing that strikes me with this weather, soft and high key, perfect.

looks cold but worth it. I love the fine detail Jeff and have been looking at some trees in my area which have a similar detailed complexity about them. In fact, the complexity alone is enough for a nice interesting image but the blue tones and layers top it off.

Thanks Stephen and Pnina. Yes a long time but I still check and enjoy your work when I'm in here...

I never tire of your Turimetta shots Jeff, maybe because most of my childhood beach trips were to Turimetta. The pastels and smooth tones always do it for me and the sharp horizon is one of the best parts of the image IMO.

You've got an eye for the squares Jeff and this one works well for my eye. I think it's the band of cloud right across the middle and the layers that strike me most.

Doesn't work for me Jeff. Maybe it's the very dark tones, mainly in the LHS that have no offset. It may work (for me) if there was some contrast against that darkness with some brighter highlights - I'm thinking the grass in the foreground. You could still retain the sombre feel of the image that way.

thanks all and glad you like.

Jeff it's Lake Eyre North. Looking at it I think a wider view would have brought that cloud in a bit better.

Sometimes I hate adhering to the "rules" - but the rule of thirds seemed to

be the only way with this subject.

Please view full size. PN's compression algorithm isn't that great.

Thanks Alberta, Volker, Deborah.

I can't imagine doing it any other way Alberta. I'm similarly fascinated with the way many photographers now shoot 100s of images so quickly in the hope of retrieving something of substance. Personally, I need to take the time; and I liken it to painting of some other form of manual art which is rarely produced in a hurry. All the steps in the process from scoping, metering shooting, film processing, scanning, post processing and printing are each as important as each other. All those steps have to be perfected and joined seamlessly to obtain something of substance at the end. The cost is not bad at all when you don't shoot many frames. End of rant!

No cross process here Volker, just hand processed C41. And yeah, the vision of PN raters is quite limited. Thanks.

Thanks Rob, Jeff.

Jeff, nothing fancy, just a desaturated scan with some cyan thrown in. The scan was almost monotone anyway due to the very long exposure and was easy to get to this result.

Thanks Peter and Carsten for your comments. The popularity of this one surprises me.

Peter,  it's always a guestimate for me, especially when the sun is rising (as in this shot) and over the period of  the exposure the brightness has changed. Generally I meter for the sky, add three stops for the filter and another two to put it in zone 5.

Carsten, no vignette just the bright centre I think. From what I've seen of MF dig backs, the results are impressive in terms of matching LF colour negative film's dynamic range (10 stops or so) but I think they still struggle with long exposures. Then there's the cost.