Second New Kallitype Print ~ Portfolio II

Yesterday was a good day for printing, coming away with two workable prints. This image was shot in one of the forest within the Willamette Valley, Oregon thirty years ago, using the same Century Graflex 6x9 as used for the children shots. Loved that camera. At the time, I was shooting a lot of scenic images of Oregon's forests and rivers. I came across this cabin with footbridge right in the middle of the forest. To be fair, hiking trails were nearby, as they usually are through those forest ranges. Hiking through an old growth Douglass Fur stand in a forest can be fairly impressive, especially when you are carrying camera equipment.

Because I was not what you might call a good note taker at the time I don't have a good way of knowing exactly where this scene was photographed, beyond it most likely being in said Willamette Valley. That period of time was a time of continuous experimentation with film developers and film settings. For whatever reason, back then, I highly valued lots of texture in the image, and to optimize that, I shifted the densities on the contrast index curve upwards, right up to the shoulder of the curve. That can be seen clearly in this image, being there are precious little shadow area in the image, when normally there would be lots and lots of shadowed areas. The intent was to hold as much of the textured area around zone 7 would reach that density range that looks like poured silver in the image. I didn't quite get that in this particular print, as it is slightly under printed. This print could use another three to four minutes print time, which would bring down what is now in the zone 8 region down to zone 7, and hence what is now zone 7 would be moved downward to zone 6. That would be the range I had intended in the final print. This was the test print for that final print. This image was also printed as a silver gelatin print at the time, 1983, and the image I use on the cover of the first photographic book on black and white film, and photo chemistry.

Gold toned Kallitype
"Footbridge in the Forest" ~ 8x10 ~ 1/5
Willamette Valley, Oregon