Simple and at the same time complex, also with a large span from white to black.
Although there’s a variety of ways to approach a BW picture, your description is the best road map I know of for most situations.
Excellent shot, John.
Much appreciated, Ken. Thanks for all the visits here.
There’s something very classic about this. It makes me think of the Hudson River School. The stones are heavy and old, the leaves timeless in their pinpoint detail, and the light, well, it simply has the quality of real light. I don’t know how you go from such deep, velvety blacks to the brightest whites so smoothly and without losing any subtle tones in between.
Printing that span through the shades of gray goes back to my earliest darkroom yearnings, and Anthony Nobile (my mentor) regarded this topic with a reverence that he communicated more by drawing a circle around it than by directing an objective discussion. This method came, I think, from his association with Caponigro and Minor White, and maybe you could say it reflected a bit of White’s interest in Zen. You would’ve felt at home in Nobile’s workshops.
I was sure your experience with film in the darkroom had a lot to do with your ability to get those tones. What an interesting idea, tracing a line from Minor White’s interest in Zen to the tones in this photograph. It’s always a long journey (at least when you get to be our age!) – and not without detours.
…by “method” I meant Nobile’s teaching method. Not sure if I made that clear. 🖐
got it, thanks.
This has a very dream like field to it, the kind of landscape straight out of a Grimm Brothers tale from our youth. The stone staircase in the center of the picture draws one’s attention. It would be a good place to sit and wait to see what emerges out of the brightness of the left side of the picture.
Thanks bro. What emerges on the left side (after a climb through a ravine jammed with boulders) is a visit with the tallest Hemlock in New England.
JOHN TODARO 
Amazing!
Thanks so much!
Simple and at the same time complex, also with a large span from white to black.
Although there’s a variety of ways to approach a BW picture, your description is the best road map I know of for most situations.
Excellent shot, John.
Much appreciated, Ken. Thanks for all the visits here.
There’s something very classic about this. It makes me think of the Hudson River School. The stones are heavy and old, the leaves timeless in their pinpoint detail, and the light, well, it simply has the quality of real light. I don’t know how you go from such deep, velvety blacks to the brightest whites so smoothly and without losing any subtle tones in between.
Printing that span through the shades of gray goes back to my earliest darkroom yearnings, and Anthony Nobile (my mentor) regarded this topic with a reverence that he communicated more by drawing a circle around it than by directing an objective discussion. This method came, I think, from his association with Caponigro and Minor White, and maybe you could say it reflected a bit of White’s interest in Zen. You would’ve felt at home in Nobile’s workshops.
I was sure your experience with film in the darkroom had a lot to do with your ability to get those tones. What an interesting idea, tracing a line from Minor White’s interest in Zen to the tones in this photograph. It’s always a long journey (at least when you get to be our age!) – and not without detours.
…by “method” I meant Nobile’s teaching method. Not sure if I made that clear. 🖐
got it, thanks.
This has a very dream like field to it, the kind of landscape straight out of a Grimm Brothers tale from our youth. The stone staircase in the center of the picture draws one’s attention. It would be a good place to sit and wait to see what emerges out of the brightness of the left side of the picture.
Thanks bro. What emerges on the left side (after a climb through a ravine jammed with boulders) is a visit with the tallest Hemlock in New England.