I took this picture on my honeymoon in October 1988. The location is Metompkin Island Virginia, a remote place with isolated fishing shacks. In order to get there, we needed a canoe.
Over the years, it’s been a popular photograph, having gone through a series of incarnations. The original was shot on 120 negative film with a Fuji 645 W.
Initially, I sold a few C Prints straight from that negative, but soon became unhappy with the low contrast. A friend who owned a lab suggested we copy the original onto an 8 x 10 negative. We did this with the expectation that the copy would increase contrast. It worked. I preferred the amped-up version, although the earlier one had its merits too. Between 1990 and 2001 I made a number of C prints from that copy, which required an 8 x 10 enlarger in order to make the prints.
With the advent of digital imaging, this was one of the first film photographs that I archived. At that time, all my scans were drum scans.
With my hybrid-digital file, I began a new edition of prints. The first few were “digital C’s”, but I soon preferred the look of Epson fine art papers and that’s where the picture has remained ever since.
These days, the image is printed onto a roll of Epson UltraSmooth Fine Art Paper with the Epson Pro 3880. The photograph is approximately 11″ x 30″, matted in a 22″ x 40″ white rag mat. All my work is framed in white wood. The edition of 100 prints is about two-thirds complete.
