Large Format Photography Australia

Snow Gum, number 031
Gelatin-silver photograph on Fomabrom Variant 111 VC FB, image area 27.4cm X 19.6cm, from a 8x10 Fomapan 200 negative exposed in a Tachihara 810HD field view camera fitted with a Schneider Super Angulon 121mm f8 lens.

Maybe a hundred years ago this huge and battered tree suffered bark damage and an epicormic bud sprang into activity. This bud is now the trunk size branch leaving the photograph in the upper left hand corner of the frame. The ancient tree itself lives on and, barring a catastrophic bushfire, will decorate many more summers and winters. I set myself a project of photographing the "top" one hundred trees at Charlotte Pass. Haven't got there yet but #31 was easy.

Geez this is luminous, so much clarity all over. Maybe it's just my monitor but some of these have an Infrared type quality to them with deep skies and glowing highlights.

Thanks RoganJosh. The luminosity in this picture is enhanced by making the exposure at noon. The usual landscape advice of shooting early or late in the day does not work in a forest where one tree shades another unless the light is coming straight down. The pale bark of Snow Gum trees also helps to lighten things up. And the general clarity and detail is a "brute-force" benefit of 8x10 film; no particular operator skill required.