Sean Esopenko

River Light

August 2, 2011

My wife’s and my first anniversary was spent at Banff National Park in Canada.  She brought sketching supplies and I brought my Mamiya 6×7 and did some walking and sight seeing in and around the town of Banff.  We also checked out the galleries and the Whyte Museum.  The day developed into spotty showers with some moderate cloud cover and while eating dinner the lighting finally started to get good.  We took a scenic drive and I raced down a hill to catch this image before the sun disappeared over the mountains.

It’s amazing how much colour Ektar can show in a scene.  Thankfully negative film is biased towards the hilights so the sky wasn’t lost in the photograph.  I have a spot meter now so I was able to just barely expose the forest enough to ensure some detail and retain the sky.  The V700 has a hard time rendering the shadowy regions, however, compared to what I usually see in analog enlargements in the darkroom.  I’d like to see what this image looks like in the darkroom when I have some time.

Shot with a Mamiya RB67 Pro-S through a 50mm F4.3C on Ektar 100.  1/8th sec at F32 if I remember correctly.  Scanned via EpsonScan on a V700.

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