Even in the desolation of the AZ desert there can be great beauty

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STM

Senior Member
I shot these on my way home from Phoenix today. I honestly think this part of the country has just as much grandeur and beauty as did WA state, it is just of a different kind of beauty. Some of these Saguaro cacti were at least 30 feet high and probably well over 100 years old. They don't even get "arms" until they are at least 50-75 years old.

I REALLY wished I had had a 4x5 and 150mm f/5.6 Nikkor W and T-Max 100 but you can't have everything I guess. Large format is the only thing to do this kind of scenery justice. A 16x20 print is only a 4x magnification on the baseboard! I would have had no way to process or print the film here anyway and I still have about 3½ weeks left to go before I go home. Crap!



 
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Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Nice shots. I'm sure that with good post processing you can get a great looking 16x20 with a D700 file. Why don't you just give it a try.
 
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STM

Senior Member
Marcel said:
Nice shots. I'm sure that with good post processing you can get a great looking 16x20 with a D700 file. Why don't you just give it a try.
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What else needs to be done? Black and white digital just does not have the charm nor the dynamic range or the really white whites or really black blacks of large format film, especially when it is printed on top end quality paper like Oriental Seagull, which is all I use.
 
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STM

Senior Member
fotojack said:
I've always been a big fan of succulents. Nice shots, STM. :)
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Some of those Saguaro cacti were a foot and a half or more in diameter. I had not seen them close up before and was not aware they could grow to 50 or more feet! I would love to grow one in my back yard, if they could survive the FL "wet season" from Jan-Dec, but they will only grow from seed, not cuttings if and if it takes at least 50 years for them to grow arms, I would be LONG GONE before it got around to it!
 
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STM

Senior Member
sonicbuffalo said:
I want to see it in living color! Waaah!
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Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Paul Simon and I loved Kodachrome 25 and 64 but everything looks BETTER in black and white! The image in color just does not have nearly the impact as it does in black and white. And in a perfect world I would be printing it in 4x5 on Oriental Seagull Grade 2 when I got home in 3½ weeks!
 
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Blacktop

Senior Member
STM said:
What else needs to be done? Black and white digital just does not have the charm nor the dynamic range or the really white whites or really black blacks of large format film, especially when it is printed on top end quality paper like Oriental Seagull, which is all I use.
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That may be true, but I'm willing to bet that there is some more whites and blacks in that image that could be brought out.
 
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STM

Senior Member
Blacktop said:
That may be true, but I'm willing to bet that there is some more whites and blacks in that image that could be brought out.
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The shortcomings of digital imaging aside, the printing medium itself, and I have a really excellent Canon Pixma 9000 Mk II and use high grade Kodak paper, is also a long ways off compared to a comparable high quality silver halide print. If you have ever seen a large print from a 4x5 negative printed on fiber based, double weight Oriental Seagull "Cool Tone" Grade 2 you would see what I mean. Night and day. I have a 20x30 inch print over my mantel I took of a snow covered lakeside scenic in the WA Cascades that I took with a borrowed Sinar P and 150mm f/5.6 Schneider Componon S and Kodak Plus-X that is truly something to behold, all pats on my back aside. It was one of those things when everything just came together. It cost me a pretty penny to have it professionally printed, because at the time I did not have the large size printing means to print it by myself, but it was worth every cent of it.

When Kenny Rogers retired from recording, he spent nearly a year with the most esteemed John Sexton, who was Ansel Adams' "star pupil" and learned the ropes of large format photography. His work is absolutely gorgeous, only a heartbeat behind John's in my opinion. It was one of Kenny's winter images, a 16x20 print of which is hanging in my dining room (my wife still upon occasion reminds me of just how much it cost us), that was the inspiration for the print I did.
 
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