Printing the Image - Madeira Black and White

Late last week Ann mentioned something along the lines of, “Hey, didn’t you say something about wanting to print this weekend.”  Given the way things have gone the past couple of weeks (don’t ask, one can only have so much smoke blowing out of one’s ears in a week) I honestly didn’t have a clue whether I had or hadn’t said something. Still, that got me thinking that it was time to start revisiting my Madeira images so that’s what I did.

I decided not to bite too much off at one time, so I figured a way to narrow my efforts was to think about images that I might want to work on and print.  Fortunately, during one of my skims, Ann mentioned she liked one of the images, so that was one down.  And since it was in black and white, that meant I’d probably be printing in black and white and in color (because of the one image I knew I wanted to work on).

Later that week I made one of my work-break trips upstairs and Ann had a lovely image on her monitor (B&W too), and that was that.  Plenty of black and white images to print and do a post about.  Saturday came about and I decided to print on Saturday instead of Sunday (as I’d planned).  It had been awhile and . . . it didn’t start out well, especially given the comment above.  The printer was having paper picking problems and the first print ran into the same issue we’d had the last couple of times we’d tried printing - it was skewing the last few ink-head swipes and misaligning the paper.  

After the smoke cleared from our basement (see the smoke-ears thing mentioned above), I thought maybe if I gave a longer border on one edge it might help.  In-between the extra long border (at least 1-1/4”) and figuring out how to hold the paper so that the printer would actually pull it into the machine, things finally started to go smoothly.  

The first image I printed was the one Ann had said she liked.  Of the four images I printed Saturday, it was the last one I worked on so that I would refreshen my skills working on the other images first.  I started from scratch even though I’d liked the version I’d posted while in Madeira, and I’m glad I did.  I knew more of what I wanted, and that dictated some very strong developing decisions.  I wound up using a couple of techniques I rarely use, even more so with black and white given they meant controlling the tonal values of particular colors (in this case, particular colors in particular areas) even though the image is rendered in black and white.  In the end, I’m very much pleased with the image and with the print.

The black and white image gives incredible detail and the main focus on the tree trunk simply glows.  I’m pleased because I returned to the image after I thought it was done and re-worked an area that I thought was a bit too harsh.  I think it’s easy to have too much contrast with black and white images based on what you’re looking at on a monitor.  This print has a rich range of tonal values and isn’t visually jarring tonal-wise anywhere in the print.  I’m finally starting to think that subtle black and white images can be printed successfully on ink-jet printers.

The second image I printed was very different than the first, and was one of the first images I made at the Fanal Forest.  Again, it was an image that had been posted before, but that was more of a straight-out-of camera type image.  As I looked at the image, and the ones before and after it taken that day, I recalled the feeling I had when I made it and realized that I needed to try and capture that feeling.  

See, it was our first trip to the Fanal Forest.  The day up to that point had been fairly bright.  Suddenly, the fog rolled in (or more appropriately, up the mountain side and over the ridge, and in a matter of minutes we were surrounded in fog.  Then it got denser and denser.  Eventually, around the time I made this image, it approached foreboding.  And that’s what I wanted to capture, which mean that the fog couldn’t be bright and airy, it had to be dark and gloomy. 

The print certainly captures that feeling, so I’m pleased with it.

Ann’s image was quite the opposite.  It comes from one of the non-fog photography sessions at the Fanal Forest, taken from the area she returned to again and again.  Earlier this week we watched a video talk by Joe Cornish discussing the various ways he thinks about images and the types of images he tries to make.  One comment was particularly on-point for this image.  He says that he no longer always tries to bring simplicity into his landscape photographs and that he’s become comfortable with struggling to find order in the chaos of nature.

And that’s what this image does so wonderfully.  Off the bat I knew this wasn’t a small image, so we printed this one larger than either of mine (though the first one may need to be redone larger).  You can see the wealth of detail and feel that sense of depth that is so wondrous in a nice print.  

Despite the frustrating start, Saturday turned into a good printing session.