Christopher Walrath

Sat. Nov 28th, 2009.

Got moving about 11 am for Prime Hook NWR with the 4x5. (Man, I could get used to this) I took the Black Farm Trail, a nice walk between a couple of windrows and tax ditches through a field and back to the woods. I have walked this trail many times but never with the big camera. I got to the end of the windrows to a place where I had made an awesome photograph with my old M645j only to ruin it as it was on the first roll of film I ever processed.

I wrote out this procedure checklist (needs revising) and went through the steps to set it up. Took about ten minutes before I tripped the shutter. I love the long-slow with a 4x5. Anyway, the people started walking by. A pair of couples with their dogs and a brief greeting. Then a couple of ladies with their digi-whatever. I offered to let them look through the ground glass. The one with the P&S went first and I was met with a 'Oh, that's nice.' The the one with the D90 peered through and let out a resounding 'WOW!' I explained the movements and such and offered them a tip for fighting solar flare (stand with the front of the lens in the shadow of a tree). They were grateful and went along their way. I shortly followed.

I walked along a ways and decided to turn around. I met a lady walking by herself. Her name was Judy and she lives in Broadkill Beach. She is a volunteer at the Refuge. She was very inquisitive about the camera. She asked if I had ever entered into the competition that the refuge puts on every year. 'They take film pictures into the contest.' I reply 'They don't take black and white.' She said she would look into that. Well, we'll see.

Halfway back to the Jeep I see a nice composition along the ditch side of tree roots and the reflection. I spend about fifteen minutes and make two exposures.

Tomorrow we go to Barnes and Noble and movies and clothes shopping for the kiddies. But today was a beautiful walk. Edward Weston once said that there was nothing worth photographing that was more than 100 feet from the road. And I can see a lot of amazing photographs being made roadside. But what a life to be missed by never venturing out into solitude and beauty with film and a shutter to click.

From Milton, Delaware. Where the introverts look through their own viewfinder and the extroverts look through yours. I'm Chris Walrath.