I am a little behind in my blogging…
Last Friday (the 14th) I headed out with the camera obscura towards Hillsborough and Henniker. The intent was to add to my river project collection. Not all of the resulting photos are “river project” material, but such is life!
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Sunday morning, on my way to Brattleboro (to teach a workshop at the VCP), I stopped at the stone arch bridge which spans the North Branch River near the Antrim/Stoddard town line.
Monday morning, I headed south to Peterborough to photograph the Contoocook. My first stop was Depot Square downtown. From there I headed south making three stops and ending at Noone Falls.
I currently have about three dozen photos in my “possibilities” collection. I am thinking of dividing the project into two (or three) phases… it seems less daunting that way. Phase one (maybe a dozen or dozen and a half photos) would cover the southern section of the Contoocook (between its source in Rindge and Henniker). This is the section of the river that I know best. Phase two (maybe a dozen photos) would be the North Branch River. Phase three would be the northern section of the Contoocook.
I have also begun experimenting with how to print the photos. I have made a few small (4″x 4″ and 5″x 5″) prints on matte paper using my printer modified to use Jon Cone’s warm neutral ink set. I like the small prints but I have made no real decisions in this regard, as yet.
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Over the past several days I have headed out four times to explore (photographically) the North Branch and the Contoocook Rivers. One of these excursions was in the morning; the others were afternoon trips, after the clouds began to build as they tend to do in the summer. Clouds can make or break landscapes.
I have learned two things from these explorations. The first is that I think that I am going to stick with the camera obscura for this project. The softness of the camera obscura helps hide distracting details in the landscapes. I also simply like the unique nature of the photographs.
The second thing that has dawned on me it that this is going to be a long term project. In these four sessions, (totaling more than a dozen hours) I have covered the small fraction of the rivers that I know best. As I go further afield the process will slow down further as I will need to do significant scouting of locations. However, I am in no rush.
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