Pond

Excellent separation of the gray tones. The shadows under the bridge and along the right edge serve to anchor the lower tones, while the white railing on the bride provides the somewhat higher values. It is interesting to observe that one need NOT have very high values in order to provide good contrast (however see immediately following ). Indeed, careful study of the prints of Edward Weston shows that his highlights are often not very much above zone 6 or 7-but the depth of the low tones make the higher values appear higher than they might in reality be. Other well known and excellent exemplars of "the Weston approach" are Michael A. Smith and his wife, Paula Chamlee.To my mind your negative and resultant print have additional possibilities. Hence, I wonder if it might be possible to darken the high values in the sky by burning such in so that the highlight there are just a wee bit above the value on the bridge. As the print currently presents to me, the eye is uncomfortably drawn to the very high sky values rather than to the center of the subject. Of course, one understands the subjective nature of my observations. Others might well disagree.I would certainly like to see if this negative could be scanned again. An 8x10 digital negative (rendered at the appropriate Dmax) when contact printed on Azo or Lodima paper using Amidol developer could produce wonderful results. I believe that you might be very surprised at the additional gray tone separation and brilliance that you would observe. Once again, my comments are subjective and based upon my own methods and preferences. Such remarks are meant to be entirely constructive. Keep up the nice work. Feel free to contact me privately.Elliot

Real smooth and clean! Love the background, I can almost feel the bright sun but deep shade in this paradise!