I came home from the supermarket, stored the groceries and went back through my garden to close the garage door. As I walked out of the backdoor of the house I saw this. I did a 180 (sans skateboard), ran back into the house, down to the Cava of Creation, fetched my 8×10 camera that I leave set up on its tripod, ran upstairs, out the door, and set up right in front of this beauty.
The lens was too short. I took it off the camera, ran back down to the darkroom, got the longest lens I have, ran back upstairs, out the door, put the lens on the camera, got under the dark cloth, focused, framed, and then…
Where’s my meter? The light would soon be covered by a huge cloud. Now or never.
I guessed the exposure value of the light at 15 (highlights… leaves) and determined at 100 asa (Delta 100) that would put the exposure of the leaves at ƒ/45 and 1/2 as long as I process in Rodinal with a dilution of 1:100. Closed the lens, set the aperture and shutter, pulled the slide and made the exposure. I put the slide back into the holder and…
The cloud covered the sun.
I think I will entitle this photograph, “Exposed for the highlights and developed for the surprises.”
I leave you with, “Surprises.”
©2025 The Kenn Bisio Family Trust. All rights reserved worldwide.
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Sinar 8×10, 720mm Nikkor lens 1/2 at ƒ/45, Delta 100 at 100 (perhaps), Rodinal 1:100 for 17-minutes, running water as stop, Photographers’ Formulary Archival Fix for 10-minutes, running water as rinse, HypoClear for 3-minutes, 15-minutes wash in Zone VI 11×14 archival Print Washer, PhotoFlo for 1-minute, hang dry overnight, scanned on Epson V850 at 600 dpi and 48-bit color for CMYK separations for the book.
