just a bulb some glass and a piece of paper.

It has kind of gotten routine. Open image. Adjust in Camera Raw. This move. That move. Yaddee yaddee yada. Blah blah blah.

But today I was just scrolling through some photos and came across this one -

Eh.

A shot I took of Mount Conness across Tolumne Meadows in Yosemite when Julian and I were scrambling up above Lower Cathedral Lake on a backpacking trip last summer. Way back when I had posted it (it was actually the first shot I posted from our California vacation) a guy I know here at REI commented had I tried it in black and white?

Nope. I had not but thought maybe some day I'd get to that. Well, today I did.

And it made me realize wow how lame it has been the routine. Of open image. Adjust. Blah blah blah. On auto pilot. Here I found myself actually thinking. Sort of pouring over and through the shot kind of mesmerized with the different contrasts and light among the peaks and the trees and the sky. You know sort of like hunkering over a negative on a light table. Under an enlarger in a darkroom peeling back the layers looking where to dodge some exposure. Burn in a little more. Develop a test strip only to do five more trying to get the exposures just right before committing to a full size sheet of paper cos you didn't want to waste any.

There on the left of the frame. The peak in the far background not catching any light. The one in front of it in the sun and the one in front of it partially in shadow. Three different contrasts – shades of grey – all right there. And on Conness the south face partly shadowed and partly lit up by the sun it all going on at the same time. The other smaller peaks around it all caught in different levels of contrast. I went over it methodically sort of dodging and burning slowly like I would in the darkroom.

Then the sky. Then the trees in the foreground some lit up but the shadows heavy as the sun slipped lower on the horizon. It was cool. Opened up the shadows giving them less exposure. Burning in some midtones giving them more. Dodged some highlights. Here and there. Making sure they were bright but not too bright. Delicate. All a balance. Then adding the different tones to give the image some depth like it would have if it was a silver gelatin print bathed in stinky but all too nostalgic chemicals. Not too warm but just slightly.

All to end up with something like this ...

Mount Conness, Yosemite National Park, California © 2009

And I remembered for a little while I guess that spark of excitement over a photograph. What it was like to care a little bit more. Nothing really just a photograph afterall. But to be hunkered in the dark a red light over in the corner running back and forth the smell of chemistries in the air just a bulb some glass and a piece of paper.