Archive for the 'sloughs' Category

Sloughs

Published
by
Andy
on February 22, 2008
in photography and sloughs
. 2 Comments

I had to go help my boss haul some sheet rock to the dump this afternoon. He lives out in Menan on the Louisville Highway, so I figured I’d take advantage of the situation, and go photograph the sloughs. I found the one Darren had shown me. I wasn’t really able to make a decent photograph then, but today, conditions were much more favorable, and I made a photograph that I’m pretty excited about. Here’s a facsimile of the photograph I made with my 5×7:

UnnamedSlough

There was a russian olive real close by, and I had to photograph it:

RussianOlive

I swung by the Texas Slough and made this photograph again:

TexasSlough22022008

It’s pretty close to the same angle as my first photograph of these trees from four years ago (I can’t believe it’s already been that long). That first photograph was one of the first I ever made with my 5×7, and as that camera has had working bellows for a week now, this is one of the first I made with those new bellows.

I’ve decided to resume developing my negatives in WD2D+ Pyro developer. I really miss the high acutance and the tonal separation it gives. The D-23 I’ve been using comes fairly close, but it’s not enough for me.

Texas Slough…Again

Published
by
Andy
on January 1, 2008
in photography, rivers and sloughs
. 4 Comments

Ugh…I really need to quit posting so late at night.

Anyway, today, an old friend of mine, Tyler, and I got together for the first time since my return from Utah and went photographing today, and we decided to hit the sloughs west of Rexburg again. Well, again for me, I think it was his first time (correct me if I’m wrong when you read this Tyler). We went to Texas Slough, and I think it was successful for both of us.

Along the slough, there is a pretty sharp oxbow that I have always loved, but never could really figure how to photograph it. I came really close, if not all the way to nailing it today. Take a look:

TexasSloughPanoNotCropped

or this one that has been cropped (I can’t decide which I like more. They’re both just digital snaps, and don’t particularly consider either to qualify for a final piece):

TexasSloughPanoCropped

I also made Tyler pull his suburban around so I could get on top and make a photograph somewhat similar to the third panel. I don’t like the digital file at all, so you all will have to wait until I get my 4×5 negative developed and scanned to see it. Don’t worry, I think it will be worth the wait.

TexasSloughBend2008

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of photographing this scene, or the whole slough for that matter:

DSC01576 

I’m really beginning to think I should just do a project on Texas Slough. Every time I go there I fall even more in love with it, and it really has a lot of potential.

Country Road Take Me Home

Published
by
Andy
on December 29, 2007
in photography, rivers and sloughs
. 1 Comment

Today my friend and I Darren, who is also my former college teacher, went photographing around the sloughs west of Rexburg today. It was really good to get out there again after two years down in Utah, as well as good to talk and photograph with my old friend (you can read his blog post about the trip here).

While in college at BYU Idaho, I spent a lot of time photographing the sloughs and the landscape west of Rexburg, and I really grew to love it out there, and it became another “home away from home” to me. I loved all the little oases out in the middle of the dry sage brush, teaming with thick vines and shrubs, and beautiful cottonwoods lining the banks of the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, Teton River and the many sloughs surrounding the Menan Buttes.

So it was like returning home for me today.

Here are a few digital snaps of what we saw:

I photographed this same part of the Texas Slough in the winter of 2004, right after I got my 5×7 (which was one of the very first photographs I made with it). The 4×5 isn’t quite as wide, but that’s ok. I kind of like having the cottonwoods in the center be a little more dominant in the frame.

TexasSlough22007

While I was setting the camera up for the previous photograph, I swung the camera a little to the left, and like what I saw (I really am torn between the two):

TexasSlough2007

I’ve been looking at Lee Friedlander a lot lately, and saw these trees, and thought of some of his photographs of Central Park, so here is my Friedlander-esque photograph:

unknownslough

DSC01551

DSC01555

The last place we stopped at was a little warm water slough between Ashton and St. Anthony. The light at that point of the day was unlike any other I’ve ever seen. The clouds in the sky were blue on the northern and eastern horizon, and warm and yellow to the west, which was casting that color onto the snow. It was gorgeous, and the photos don’t really do it justice.

DSC01562

DSC01565