The colors of November
Right now the weather in Sweden is pretty awful…. It is just foggy drizzle and almost no light…
One profit of that though, is that the forest moss is almost glowing green right now.
I should have had these images for the last week photo challenge “green”, but I took them just a couple of days ago.
The composition isn’t a dream, but I’m slowly slowly beginning to be familiar with my Large Format Wista 45DX.
I think I love that camera….
I must admit I’m pretty proud of these two… And they are developed at home in my kitchen too, in C41, wich I must say is also becoming an habit.
It is so much easier than I expected, so, if you hesitate of doing your own C41 developing, I can just say, don’t hesitate, just do it! So easy, and so good results.
Enjoy my little light in November… 🙂
Wista 45DX Field Camera
Kodak Portra 160 4×5
Tetenal C41
Wista 45DX Field Camera
Kodak Portra 160 4×5
Tetenal C41
Shimmering Grains 
You just proved that I shouldn’t be using the appalling weather here as an excuse for not getting out and taking some pictures. These are lovely. In fact, I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to sort out the notices coming into ‘grumpytykepix’ and ‘grumpytyke’ as I was getting overwhelmed. I’ve turned off notices for most ‘comments’ and just left notices of new posts (I tend to go through the comments when I open a post anyway) and that has made things much more manageable. Thanks for the prompt on C41 – I’m working on it!
Well, I’ve done that too, but my dogs keep me walking, and one day in the forest I saw these amazing greens, totally irresistible, so the next day I brought my Wista with me, and I even saw November in a new light…
😉
Thank you for your kind words!
I hope you meant, as I did, that you turned off notification of comments on other posts, not on your own, because I just left another comment on your post of the long exposures by the sea, to which I have returned several times. Many of your pictures are therapeutic, a calming draught in a hectic time, and I include the moss, but I find the ‘calmed’ sea pictures especially so.
I’m sorry, my answer was unclear. I have also used the weather as excuse for not taken out my camera, but I have not turned off any notifications at all.. 🙂
Thank you very much for your kind words, it means so much to me!
Ummmm – wonderful to see the forest like that – all wintry looking (and under foot, so springy), before the snow flies. Will the moss die back under the snow and start from new spores in the spring, or will it manage to survive the dark of its winter’s incarceration?
Thank you very much. 🙂
It survives, but it’s getting a much more muted green color. It just seems to love the rainy and damp November weather… Glad someone does…..
See, gloomy wet November days have a purpose – a very important purpose – to give the moss one last chance to grow and store nutrients that it can pass on to animals when the snow’s killed all the grass. Fine for me to say, I know. I remember how I quailed and shrivelled up inside in Canada in November!
I know what you mean, but if we try to find something positive everywhere, life gets so much easier and becomes so much brighter.
Thank you very much for your positive and kind words, I appreciate it very much! 🙂
Speaking from the sunshine side of the world, seems it’s my ‘duty’ at this time of year 🙂 Take more moody pictures and think of how that beauty inspired people like Sibelius. 🙂
Ohh, that s a wonderful idea, I must say I have never really listened much to Sibelius, but I’m for sure gonna check it out, thank you! 🙂 My “choice” is more often Grieg, and that music is not always bringing a light and happy mood.
This is so very interesting, thousands of thanks for the inspiration! 🙂
I wouldn’t say Sibelius was foot tapping, but there’s a muscularity to his romanticism I always liked 🙂 Hope it sets an inspirational mood, at least 🙂
I love those green colors mixed a bit with some brown. I was born and live for soemtime in the north of Spain where the weather is also grey and rainy and sometimes I miss it!!!
Thank you Jesus! It is very easy to miss when the weather is this awful… But this time it was almost glowing… I think some of the greenest colors has disappeared in the process, and I wasn’t able to edit them back in a good way, but it is still very green… I’m glad I found them…
Wow, these are amazing! The texture in the moss seems so tangible. I can almost feel how cushioned and springy it is. It’s also very cool that you do your own C41. I’ve never tried that, but I’m definitely willing to learn : )
Thank you very much! It is a very special feeling with large format. I didn’t believe that before I started myself, but it is true… Can’t say what it is, but your description comes close…
C41, yes, try it, it is so much easier than I ever believed.
Perhaps I ought to do a tutorial about it?
I’ll think about that…..
I would love to read your tutorial on home developing C41! I’m sure I’d learn so much : )
I promise I will think about it. 🙂
Alright~!
Very nice Marie. You sure are getting a handle on that camera. Lovely colors on that moss. I know what you mean about the weather but it obviously can also give some stunning results as you’ve proven.
Thank you very much! My plan is to read my big fat book about handling the view camera this winter, so I know the technic when the light returns next spring. But it is so much more fun to just use the camera, and trust the experience of “trial and error” … 😉
Very green! Nice job capturing the textures on the moss…for someone whose favorite color is green (like me) these photos are heaven…
Thank you for your very kind words! Makes me happy 🙂
I agree with you, though green is not my favorite color, green is very soothing and so nice to rest your eyes on.
These are beautiful.
I don’t what it is about large format pictures, but as soon as I saw these I knew they were taken on something special – which to my logic is nonsensical, since you’re restricted to so few pixels for display here.
I think you are right. I don’t know what it is either, but it sure is something…
I wanted to crop the first one, because I don’t like the too big area in the bottom of the picture, under the rocks (it is due to that I have a hard time seeing the whole image on the ground-glass, it is so dark), but when I cropped, the “large format magic” was lost!! So there was no cropping…. 😉
Thank you for your kind words!
Thanks for the encouragement, for home made C41 processing. I will do some research.
Yes, do that! There is lots of tutorials on YouTube among others. It’s easy to do, not at all that complicated I always thought it was. Very rewarding to do it yourself! And much much cheaper….
Ok, I was going to ask you if you could point me to some online instructions. I’ll check YouTube. Thanks.
Check http:/theartofphotography.tv He has several podcast episodes about film developing and darkroom tips, and he is very pedagogic too.
Do you develop black and white film at home? If you know how to do that, you can’t go wrong with C41, I promise! In the box with chemicals from Tetenal, which I use, there is an excellent manual how to do it. I go for 30C instead of 38C. It’s a bit slower procedure, and much easier to control the temperature. Just fill your kitchen zink with 30C water, and put in your bottles with chems and your film tank. I bought a very simple aquarium heater to help maintain the temperature in the zink…
Easy as fruitcake! 🙂
Good luck, and thanks for asking!
(Maybe I should do a small tutorial of this some time… do you think? )
That’s a great website. Two more questions for you Marie. (1) Do you use a changing bag instead of a darkroom; (2) What brand of scanner do you use to digitize photos?
Yes I use a changing bag, buy the larger one, it is kinda tight anyway. Paterson, I think it was, not sure…
I have an Epson V750 pro. I bought that because of the possibilities of scanning different negative sizes, and the negative masks that comes along with it, (but they were kinda useless…)
You can do very well with a simpler and cheaper scanner, it is much more critical with the software. I use Silverfast, it has most options…
Do you use 35mm only? In that case you can definitely go for a smaller more dedicated filmscanner, instead of Epson flatbed.
My son has a Reflecta ProScan 7200 (not 100% sure it was that, but I tell you if I’m wrong…)
That is a dedicated film scanner for 35mm film. He is very pleased with it.
You just have to concider if you ever will do a swap or panoramic images or stuff like that with overlapping frames. In that case you’ll need a flatbed, because the Reflecta scan only frame by frame. But you’ll have no problems with keeping the negative flat, evil Newton rings or other flatbed scanner issues.
And it’s much cheaper! Better using your money on good software instead. Silverfast is a bit hard to learn, but much better in the long run….
This may sound pricy and lot of work, and it is a lot of work (fun work), but you will have much more control over your images, and if you are interested and have intentions to keep it going, it will sure be cheaper and more fun in the long run.
Please let me know how you decide, this is so very fun!!
Thank you so much for asking me 🙂
Hi Marie, the Reflecta is a very good suggestion but I’m thinking about getting the Plustek OpticFilm 8200i Ai because it’s half the price and seems to be very good. But I will get SilverstFast. I am hesitating between SilverFast SE 8 ($50) and SilverFast SE Plus 8 ($100). The main advantages of the Plus version is automatic frame detection and increased dynamic range. The increased dynamic range seems like a nice characteristic but I’m concerned that it could interfere with contrast when a high contrast is desired. If you know anything about the Plustek, positive or negative, please don’t hesitate to share. I will get the biggest changing bag I can find. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. Steve
I know nothing about it, but I asked my son, he did a comparison between Plustek and Reflecta when he was about to buy his scanner. He said that you should check the true/actual resolution, dpi, on Plustek. And if you want to do dustremoval in the scanner, Reflecta has IR for that, Plustek has not. You can’t do it in the scanner without IR. But instead, you can do it in Lightroom, I do mine there, works fantastic.
He chose Reflecta because it was just slightly more expensive here. But with half the price, he said he had chosen Plustek too.
Thank you very much for your help. I’ll keep you informed. For now, the printer is in back-order so I’ll only get it much later.
Gah, I hate back orders… When one finally have made a decision, it is back ordered…..
Well, just nothing to do about it, but you can always study Silverfast in the meantime, hehe…. 😉
Good luck, I hope you will get your scanner soon anyway.