Postby Walter Glover » 12 Jan 2022, 08:12
Well, for a start welcome back John,
You've been missing in action for quite a while, both here and on Flickr. War stories are always good, you're likely to find that in years to come every time you see that negative or print the story will come back to you.
Not trying to teach grandma to suck eggs but in a chilly place like the national capital, and despite the hot air of some of your fellow inhabitants, may I recommend to you going to a 'home brewers' supply shop and getting a couple of Brewers' Mats. About 10 inches square and plugged into the mains they'll maintain a fairly constant temperature safely — no immersion heaters, no Bain Maries. In Sydney, I based my chemistry at 24°C year round. The tap water never got above that in summer so for a large part of the year wasn't necessary and all year round the chemistry was functioning at the temperature that was at the temperature that it was formulated and balanced to work at. (for many years I used T-Max RS which recommends 24°C)
As it is, I find the tonality of this shot more to my liking. (not that it matters what I Like. HELL's bells! It's YOUR shot, not mine) Then, in a similar self-contradiction, I'd be keen to see what a looser framing from the 90mm might have revealed. It's just me and my old mantra about 'context' again, I guess. For years, commercially, I had to take pictures OF things - all sorts of things: houses, bottles, fredges, motorcycles, cars, tits and bums. Always things for people to sell to other people who, all to often, didn't need them. In my recreational photography I prefer to make pictures ABOUT things. Hence context's grip on me.
The stairway is very enticing, inviting even. Especially given the drawing of the 90 mm. Switching to the 135mm might make the stairs look more forbidding — confronting even. There are never-any answers, just ever more interesting questions to ponder before you grab for the cable release. YOUR answers, not mine
Walter Glover
"We see things not as they are. We see them as we are."
— Emanuel Kant