Re: WW&F – the Fine Art series (photos)

Kevin: someone likened these photos to a recent similar project I did at the East Broad Top, except it looks like they walked away yesterday instead of 50 years ago. The conditions were miserable; I left the hotel room at 5am that morning, the roads iced over, my 35 minute drive took over an hour. At one point the shutter adjustment knob froze solid – wished there was a coffee shop just a little closer when I finished shooting 2 hours later.

Mallory: everything is digital, shot with the first generation Canon 1DS, 11 megapixel, manufactured in 2003. The lens is a Canon 50mm/F1.2 prime. All are tripod mounted. ISO 100, the shallow depth-of-field images are at F1.2 (love the bokeh from that lens), everything else is F11 – the sweet spot of that lens for insane sharpness. Shutter speeds were +1EV to compensate for the brighter overcast sky, generally around 1/15 second. The conversion to B/W and final exposure/contrast adjustments done in Camera Raw, less than 2 minutes per image spent in Photoshop afterwards.

On another forum someone commented about the last frame with the lit lantern. To me it represents the day that’s about to begin, and the introduction of train movements and human interaction. That and the memory of Julius Stuck.

Matthew