The photos are from many years ago, when I was a lot more creative,
and a lot less busy.
Photo one, 'Twisted Ancient', is an Ancient Bristlecone Pine -
anywhere from one to four thousand years old - located in the White
Mountains of California. The photo was taken with a Zeiss-Ikoflex
twin-lens reflex medium-format camera, using Konica 750nm infrared
film. I took the photo sometime in the mid 1980's.
Photo two, 'Distant Fire', was taken in Yosemite. It was just a
'controlled burn', but I really liked the flow of the perspective. It
was really just a snapshot that came out well. This was taken with a
Pentax 6x7 medium format SLR, on one or another kodak color film. Late 1980's.
Photo three, 'monocloud' was taken outside of Mono Lake,
California. The mountains are the eastern slope of the sierras. Also
taken with the Zeiss, on Konica 750nm infrared. Early 1980's.
An important technical note, all three of the images are scans of
proof prints, not from the original negatives, and as such required a
fair bit of digital retouching (probably noticeable, since i'm no pro
at that).
As to the artistic merit of the works, or lack thereof, I have mixed
feelings. I used to be very enamored of them, but as the years pass I've
become far less so. Photo one has a compelling play of shapes
and contrasts which tends to be attractive to the eye. Photo two is
'purdy', but that's really all there is to it. Perspective? Who
can't do perspective?? And the last one is simply too starkly
contrasty. It's a 'bold' image, but the cloud wears thin very quickly.
Maybe when I 'retire' I'll dust off the old Pentax and get back into
it again...