Snow Gum in Rain #2.

[Maris]

Snow Gum in Rain #2
Gelatin-silver photograph on Ultrafine Silver Eagle VC FB photographic paper, image size 21.5cm X 16.4cm, from a 4x5 Kodak Tmax 100 negative exposed in a Tachihara 45GF double extension field view camera fitted with a Nikkor-W 210mm f5.6 lens. Signed and titled recto, stamped and annotated verso.

After being stuck in a ski-lodge for three days of relentless rain and wishing it were two degrees colder so it would be snowing instead I had to photograph something. This little tree had developed a striking "wet bark" pattern and was visible from under the shelter of the back steps. In organising the shot I tried to have the main branches leaving the frame at vaguely regular intervals. The air behind the tree is white with rain and helps lift it out of an otherwise grey background. One tries...and hopes.

[Walter Glover]

A delightful product of your frustrations with climatic pressures, Maris. And yet more proof (as if more proof were required) of the compulsion that stirs us to encounter and interact with the world.

[Maris]

Compulsion indeed, Walter, and I'm making these photographs, for better or worse, AS IF they are art.
As Pablo Picasso famously and coarsely put It "If you are an artist you know you have to make pictures just like you know you have to piss!"

[Barry Kirsten]

Philosophy aside, a nice image. I've always admired the way water enhances the tones in gum bark, Snow Gums in particular.

[Maris]

Barry, you're right about the beauties of wet Snow Gum bark. A couple of years ago I accompanied a photographer doing colour close-ups of bark. She had me carrying a bucket of water and a bannister brush. When a nice pattern was seen I had to paint the area with water to make the colours "pop".

I guess that's legit and not actual photo-fakery?