Oak Leaves, Aspens, and Tipi
Greetings from a blustery evening in San Cristobal, NM, followed by heavy rain, the loudest thunder and huge lightning on the ridge behind the house.
After my trip to Colorado last week, I spent this week making prints in my digital darkroom, my well-lit office!
Last year I collected many oak leaves from the surrounding mountains, which in itself was a gorgeous time spent in the outdoors. I pressed the leaves collected in a heavy book of Andrew Wyeth prints. When flattened just enough to take out a little of the curl, I set up outdoors on the patio with a dark background and backlight from the sun. I used a roach clip to pin the leaves at eye level and started shooting. I got the idea from viewing the leaves on the trees in the field that were backlit. The wind was a little too much to contend with shooting in the mountains. It was much easier to control on the patio. Here are the results.
This image was taken a couple of weeks ago and printed on cotton rag archival paper. I wanted to convey how sheltered and secluded it feels standing in the aspens. There’s always a way out.
The brand new tipi standing in El Prado (the meadows) begged for a different view rather than a full-on standard, here’s the tipi shot. This is the image I came up with for a different angle. I processed it in an app called “Formulas”.
If you are interested in any of the oak leaf prints, please message me here. They look great in groups. The aspen grove print is available here, and the tipi print is available here.
As always, thanks for looking. G
