Horizon
I
Durham, North Carolina
29x36 inch plexi-mounted C-print
2006
I took this image on one of my first forays into shooting with an 8x10
bellows camera. The camera was magnitudes larger than the 4x5 cameras
I was accustomed to, and unfortunately, I wasn't completely adept at handling
it or the hulking tripod that went with it. Still, I managed to maneuver
it into position for the first shot, pointing it at the horizon. I focussed
it, loaded the film, and began the exposure. I then went roaming the area
looking for other promising compositions. When I came back mid-way through
the forty-minute exposure, the camera was staring up at the heavens. Apparently,
I hadn't locked down a key part of the tripod, and the camera had spent
the last twenty minutes incrementally tracking the scene from it's original
position to its present one.8x10
film is not cheap, and I was resolute to make something useful come out
of the situation. Since the composition was lost, the only thing left
to me was to make it an exposure test. In the same manner one would correct
an errant dog, I pointed the camera back at the horizon. "Stay!"
I said, and left it there for the remaining twenty minutes.Unfortunately,
I now understand how to work the tripod, and, my innocence lost, I have
never been to able to replicate this effect.
©MJ
Sharp / www.mjsharp.com