Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge and Crown Point.
I recently got some transparencies back from processing and I think my next Fine Art Landscape print is amongst those bright beautiful chromes! Below is one of the images I took on the way back from a late summer trip I took to Mt. Rainier National Park. To see some of the photos I shot at Mt. Rainier, visit the following link to our Oregon Stock Photography site, Pacific Crest Stock. Mt. Rainier Stock Photos. The Photo seen below was actually a wonderful bonus from that trip.
Oregon's beautiful Columbia River Gorge with Crown Point and the famed Vista House.
I was returning from Mt. Rainier and nearing Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge and I saw some great clouds forming over the east end of the gorge. I high-tailed it up to the women’s forum and it’s stunning view of the amazing Columbia River Gorge below. The light played off of the clouds beautifully while warm sunset light bathed the cliffs below crown point and the vista house. I was fortunate enough to capture this dramatic scene with my large format camera which means it will allow me to make some stunning large format prints from this wonderful evening.
I’ve driven through the Columbia River Gorge dozens of times and I’ve always been floored by its beauty, but I’ve never gotten any great shots that include the Columbia River in them. One of the things that motivates me as a photographer is a desire to adequately represent a given location. I truly love the landscapes I get to experience as a landscape photographer, particularly those in my home state of Oregon. If I capture a stunning location( like the Columbia River Gorge) with my 4×5 camera and I’m able to share our Oregon landscapes as seen in wonderful natural light, then that is a great day at the office!
Part of the difficultyI’ve had with photos of the Columbia River Gorge is that there are few locations that accentuate the depth and textures of this national treasure. This view from the women’s forum is the best I’ve encountered. With the vertical volcanic wall below Crown Point, Oregon’s landmark Vista House,the sandy shores of the Columbia River, the layered points along the Washington side of the Columbia River, the distant Beacon Rock, Oregon’s ubiquitous evergreens, and finally and stunning light show presented against a phenomenal arrangement of sunset clouds, this photograph is exactly how I wanted to capture Oregon’s Iconic Columbia River Gorge.(Sorry about the run-on sentence, my past english professors are cringing!) If you’d like to view a framed print from this glorious evening, please contact me and I’ll let you know where one can be viewed.
Thanks for visiting,
Mike Putnam
My Large Format Photography Gear
Because I often field questions about what Kind of camera I use, my camera is a good place to start when discussing my camera gear. Most people want to know how I can create such large vibrant prints and what kind of digital camera I use. They are always surprised to learn that I use a large format 4×5 film camera to capture all of my fine art images. There are lots of reasons I explored and have subsequently stuck with a 4×5 camera despite its dated technology and painstaking workflow. Below is a picture of the 4×5 camera that I affectionately refer to as “The Big Rig” which I use to capture all of my fine art prints.
My 4x5 camera , "The Big Rig" which I use to capture all of the images in my fine art landscape portfolio.
THE CAMERA. WHY I STILL USE A LARGE FORMAT 4X5 CAMERA FOR ALL OF MY FINE ART PRINTS.
1. I like it! I like working with a semi-historic camera, I like the feel of it’s cherry wood body, I like the feel of the brass fittings and I like the fact that I feel like I am creating art with art when I am composing a scene with this beautiful camera. It is a very Artisan way of capturing and creating fine art images. In a time of ever advancing digital technology, Film simply film simply feels more real to me. I consider myself a documentary artist. My intention is to capture natural scenes at their very best with minimal post processing. My 4×5 camera helps keep me in touch with that intention.
2. The deliberate process of using this camera makes me fine tune my images before exposure. This camera is largely the opposite of modern digital cameras with which you can fire away without discretion. The film is expensive as is the processing. I estimate that it costs me about $10 per exposure with this camera. The inherent deliberation required with using this type of camera, combined with the cost forces me to pay attention to composition, exposure and focus. This extra attention to details actually saves me time in post processing and that I like.
3. Perspective Control. Large Format cameras like mine are made with bellows so that the film plane and the lens plane can move separate of one another. This separate movement allows me to change the plane of focus in a given shot so that I can get a larger percentage of a given scene in sharp focus than is possible with digital and 35 mm cameras.
4. Big Image format. Part of the reason that I refer to my camera as “The Big Rig” is that it is physically large. The other reason is that it has a very large film format(4 inches x 5 inches, thus the term 4×5 camera). The magic of this kind of camera lies in this large film format. I have to enlarge my transparencies very little compared to digital and other types of film cameras when I want to make a large print. Because of this large film format, I can also make an exceptionally detailed fine art print at very large print sizes. I’ve read that a slow speed 4×5 transparency can be drum scanned and is the equivalent of a 150 megabyte digital camera. That’s huge and that is a big part of why I love this camera.
THE TRIPOD( see the above image)
I use a Gitzo 1228 Carbon fiber tripod and I love it.(Come on Gitzo, how about a little sponsorship money!) It is light for a tripod that is so sturdy because of the carbon fiber material that it is made of. It has plenty of stability, adjustability and it does a good job of dampening vibration which allows me to create images that are crisp and wiggle-free. I also use a Gitzo ball head, for a full range of camera focusing options.
THE LENSES
I carry a small stable of lenses when ever I go out shooting. Because telephoto lenses tend to have lower image quality than fixed lenses, I have opted to use only fixed lenses in my lens collection. My lens collection is pictured below.
My Lens Collection. These lenses include 75mm,90mm,135mm,210mm, and 300mm and at the bottom of this image is my Pentax 1 degree Spotmeter
4×5 camera lenses tend to have a field of view that is 3x wider than the equivalent 35mm lenses. That is to say that the 75mm lens for my 4×5 camera is roughly equivalent to a 25mm lens on a 35 mm camera. My lenses include a 75mm,90mm,135mm,210mm, and 300mm. In terms of a 35mm camera, this collection does not allow for a very long/telephoto option. This is fine with me. In general, the further away a photographer is from his or her subject, the lower the image quality is. Not having a longer lens option, forces me to get closer closer to my subjects and therefore I have more sharpness in my images and greater image quality. It is simultaneously a self control and a quality control mechanism! These lenses are all very specialized and therefore very expensive but without a great lens you cannot have a sharp image, so I’m willing to pay the price.
The pentax spot meter at the bottom of the above picture is the tool I use to take light readings which I then use to calculate exposure times. The fact that it is a 1 degree spot meter means that it samples light from a circle only 1 degree in diameter. This gives me greater control over exposure which is especially valuable is some unusual lighting situations.
Me and "The Big Rig" at my preferred office, high in the Oregon Cascades. Photo Credit: "Old Mike" Croxford
These are the high points from my gear collection. I have a hand full of other goodies that accompany me on my photography outings, but they aren’t as critical as my camera, lenses, and tripod. If you are an aspiring photographer and would like some further information or advice about photography gear, please feel free to contact me through the “contact” tab at the upper right hand corner of the home page of this website.
Thanks For Visiting,
Mike Putnam
Mike Putnam Photo on Facebook
Bend, Oregon Cascade Mountain Gallery
Oregon High Desert Print Gallery
Oregon Trees and Wildflower Prints Gallery
Bend, Oregon Rivers, Lakes and Waterfalls Gallery
All content © 2012 by Mike Putnam Landscape Photography