White Birch Hillside, Letchworth State Park

I am pleased to offer an intimate size silver gelatin print of my image, White Birch Hillside, Letchworth State Park, New York at a very affordable price.

The print is approximately 7 x 7" in size, personally printed by me (as are all my prints), signed, and processed to current archival standards. The print will be mounted on 14x17" 2-ply museum board with a discrete embossed stamp in the lower right corner of the board. Please note this special print is mounted, but NOT overmatted.

I made the photograph White Birch Hillside on a cold November afternoon while photographing with my long-time friend Bob Shanebrook. I was on one of my frequent trips to Eastman Kodak where I served as a photographic consultant. Bob was my main contact at Kodak over the years. That afternoon Bob suggested we go to beautiful Letchworth State Park, which is not far from Rochester, to photograph. We explored a number of areas in the park, and I was particularly drawn to this view across the gorge carved by the Genesee River. The steep hillside across the gorge was covered with almost feather like white birch trees, which seemed to "glow" with luminosity in the soft light. That day the color of the sky was an accurate example referenced in the often-told 'joke' that the Kodak 18% gray card is based upon a typical Rochester sky! Today's sky was a cold gray, and that suited me perfectly.

I used my longest lens – a 500mm Tele-Nikkor – on my Linhof 4x5 Technika camera. It is not uncommon when the subject is at a great distance to have difficulty obtaining accurate light meter reading of specific elements in the scene. This was not a problem as I had similar birch trees in close proximity. I did what I often do - metered the nearby trees to obtain "substitute" readings. The information my Pentax spotmeter gave me indicated the contrast between the darker foliage, as well as the hillside itself, and the white birch trunks was not as dramatic as it appeared to my eyes, and certainly not as great as I wanted it in the final print. I used a Wratten #25A red filter to enhance the contrast between the low saturation dark green foliage and the birch trees themselves. In addition when processing the Kodak T-Max 400 negative I gave N+2 development to further increase the contrast. The exposure was 5 seconds at f/32.

As my long-time friend, and mentor, Ruth Bernhard often said, If you want someone to look closely at your photographs, make small, intimate prints! I hope you enjoy this Black and White Friday print offer of White Birch Hillside in this small size.

The prints will be carefully prepared and packaged in rugged protective envelopes, and shipped fully insured.

Normally there is a long waiting period for John's original prints. This is a rare opportunity to obtain a print with quick delivery , and at a very reasonable price.