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MSA O/N - October 2023 - "Leaves"

Quite the right timing for this one.

Since acquiring a 250mm lens for my 4x5" cameras, I have wished to photograph the Monstera Deliciosa plant in our backyard. The reason for the 250mm lens was distance away from the subject afforded by the focal length, combined with early morning spring sunshine, as that is when the Monstera plant is in full sunlight. The window of opportunity for this picture is relatively small, the light is the right angle in spring, as in over the last few days. Then I need sunlight, lots of it if possible, and combine this with almost no wind as the leaves on this plant are around 900mm long by 700mm wide. The leaves sway if you walk past them, so a really still window of opportunity usually only happens for super short periods.

Last Wednesday morning at 07:30hrs I set things up and waited, and waited. The light was right by around 08:00, I clicked the shutter at 08:02 just when the rhythmic oscillations of the wind were at their lowest.

Interesting fun fact about this particular plant. We moved this plant about 35 years ago into it's present position; facing east. Previously it was in the front garden facing north, which was terrible as full northern sunlight just about knocked it off every summer.

The spring period is when this plant produces the most new leaves, this leaf started emerging the day before but it wasn't unfolding in a manner that was photogenic, the next morning it was about right. Only taken me around 5 years to get this.

"New Life"

Shen Hao HZX45-IIA
Fujinon 250mm f/6.3, Ilford FP4+
1/30 at f/16 includes ½ a stop for bellows extension.

 
Mick Fagan said:
Only taken me around 5 years to get this.
Click to expand...

That's excellent, Mick. I'm impressed by your patience. Once I get an idea, I firmly believe the wind should stop blowing and end up irritated that it won't.
 
Oh yeah, what a great image, and your patience.

We have been trying to do something similar with much, much smaller plant leaves, and oh yes the wind has conquered us every time.
But then you have given us inspiration to try try again.
Thanks ...
 
Acanthus Leaf - Cyanotype on Japanese Kozuke Paper 59 cms x 84 cms
 
That's using the Mike Ware cyanotype formula - they seem to come out darker/more contrasty than the traditional formula
 
RusslJames, that is an interesting plant, never heard of it before. Did some keyboard searching and discovered what its all about.

Your depiction of it is really good.
 


{Moderator's note: this very nice image is the result of digital capture, so not eligible for consideration as the "winner", but as the error was inadvertent, and as it is so nice, I'll leave it in anyways
 
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Mick Fagan said:
RusslJames, that is an interesting plant, never heard of it before. Did some keyboard searching and discovered what its all about.

Your depiction of it is really good.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the kind words. They are desert plants, usually keeping their foliage through the summer months. This one lives in my yard, not really near any desert. But we had such an exceptionally hot and dry summer this year that it went into leafless dormancy in mid-July. We finally had a break in our drought about two weeks ago with a few inches of rain. Within a few days thereafter, the bare branches became this.

Cheers!
 
New - today - very expired Kodalith in a Minolta SLR - developed in Mytol (homemade Xtol), which mysteriously made the emulsion get very very silvery shiny (didn't happen with paper dev). Anyway, this is a print. Thistle Shadow (but it's actually the thistle and the shadow). In person, the leaves look nasty....



also, it's not actually a thistle but something that is like a thistle and also like a dandelion - no idea what it is.

Just over a week left!
 
One more NEW image, taken and developed on October 22.
  • Leica M3, Summaron 35mm f2.8 (with finder attachment), Arista EDU 100, HC-110
 
Andreevsky Descent in Kyiv. This is a historical street that connected the Lower Town with the Upper Town. Now Kyiv has become a megapolis and the concepts of lower and upper cities have disappeared, but the history of the street has been preserved. Perhaps this is the most mysterious place in Kyiv. Camera Smena-8M film Lomography Metropolis
 
Deleted digital image.
 
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Don_ih said:
@4season - give us some info about ton photo.
Click to expand...

Photos in posts #37 and 44 were both taken with Sony A7R4.

For #37, I used SEL90M28G macro lens. Wanted to achieve the look of a flat pattern of leaves against a non-distracting background. Which is always a challenge when tree branches are 3-dimensional, and DoF needs to be relatively shallow. Might have had lightly overcast skies to soften contrast.

For #44, I used SEL24F14GM which would not be my first choice for such a photo, but it was what I was carrying. Cloudy midday light, but color temperature wasn't overly blue, as the clouds thinned a bit, and for a brief while, I had bright, diffuse light to work with. But otherwise, just a handheld shot, with front of lens very close to the subject.

Manual white balance via Colorchecker Passport.
 
This is a friendly reminder that submissions for the MSA are required to be analog-originated, as per the guidelines posted here: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...s-revised-2015-07-2019-07-and-2021-12.126124/

Please feel free to debate this rule/guideline; perhaps it's due for a revision. Here's a thread where such a debate could take place (i.e., please don't use the October picture thread for it): https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/re-invigorating-the-monthly-shooting-assignment-msa.182174/
 
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