I usually look at compositional landscape photography by starting with the grand, and then moving in close. Whether that close approach is accomplished with your feet, or with a longer lens is immaterial.  With waterfalls, I think the natural tendency is work the falls up close.  Those up close shots make for a powerful image by emphasizing the falling water.  I slowly make my way backwards.  Well either that or I widen my lens choice. The effect is really an entirely different shot. The first is a second or two in the life of water falling over rock, and the next is a landscape with a waterfall somewhere within the boundaries of your comp.

The images below were selected mainly because I have only showed one of them before. I do think they illustrate the point fairly well.  None of my favorites are a part of this post. They are all transparencies of the 6x7cm, 645cm (actually 4.5×6) and 35mm (34x36mm)formats.

I have long forgotten the location of the first image shown.  The second is Minnesota’s Gooseberry Falls. The third and fourth were made somewhere in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and the final four are never before shown photos from Wisconsin’s Morgan Falls.

It occurred to me that I use the term slide and transparency interchangeably and there may be people who know what a slide is but not a transparency.  They are the same thing, except not quite.  Usually when you say slide you mean the smaller but better known 35mm format. They are called slides because the film is mounted in a 2×2 inch cardboard or plastic mount so they can be viewed on a wall or screen through a mechanical slide projector. You usually don’t call the larger formats slides because there are very few projectors that can accept that format. When those larger formats came back from a lab, the whole roll would be placed uncut in a plastic sleeve.  I purchased cardboard mounts separately and cut and mounted each frame of film. That way they could be handled by editors, labs and myself. Slides/transparencies can also be called positives. They are of course the opposite of negatives. The image on a slide is as we see the world….or a print.  Everything is reversed in a negative, including colors. Blue is yellow etc.  In addition to 35mm, 6×7 centimeter (2 ¼ x 2 ¾ inches) and 645 (4.5×6 centimeters) I shot with cameras rendering a 6×6 cm result and a 4×5 inch result.  At times for economic reasons I would also have my 35mm slides just sleeved as well.  I bought my own mounts and mounted them myself.

Remembering all of those things we once used in photography brings back memories and sometimes nightmares. In my basement, the home for all things old, still resides a bulk film loader.  I would buy 100 foot rolls of b&w negative and color slide film.  Then I bought empty cartridges and loaded 36 exposure rolls myself. For many years I developed my own 35mm and medium format b&w film and made my own prints. Those developing tanks and print enlargers still live in my basement. You had to prepare and dispose of chemicals all of the time. For macro equipment in addition to macro lenses I have used extension tubes, bellows and other devices. Then there are slide copiers, cords and mounts so I could use up to three electronic flash units at a time. On an on and on and on. I am tired just talking about it. I guess the digital age and the digital darkroom are not so bad.

I know it seems sometimes like I am living in the past with all of this talk about “how it used to be”.  I do stay atop current technology but those thoughts about what used to be, come easiest when I am showing old film images.  The main reason I do it is that when I am interested in something or anything, I always like reviewing the history of my passion. I know that there are one or two of you who enjoy that.  I am after all, sort of part of that more recent history.  Least ways….I lived some of it and am therefore qualified to talk about it.  Also take note that I have written about current and future technology on several occasions. I also have written about great photographers from the past, and my favorite newer photographers as well.  As I have been known to say……we can do it all.

I thank you for stopping by.  Grab your camera and see the beauty in this and every day