Boch Hollow

At the time of writing, photography has consumed my life. For five days of the week, I'm learning about the latest gear, talking photography, and teaching a variety of classes for Midwest Photo. On my two days off, I'm watching weather conditions like a hawk to see if shooting can happen on those days. Otherwise, I'm: shooting, planning trips to new state nature preserves, processing film, scanning film, making prints, and/or loading film so I can start it all again the next week. In the event I have any personal time left, there's always something good to be working on for Mike and the rest of the gang over at The Film Photography Project. 

All of the above said, my first trip to Boch Hollow was an incredibly short one. My work weekend leading up to this visit was filled with high winds, heavy rain, and otherwise poor large format shooting conditions. The day after, however, was looking to be cool, calm, and hazy. I decided to dash down to Hocking Hills, make some photographs, and be back to Columbus in time to work a full day at MPEX. The name I've given such an act of photographic stupidity is "two-a-days". Factoring for a lead-foot during the commute, I had about an hour of shooting time before I needed to be on my way to work. 

With very few defined trails and over 600 acres of land to explore, there was no way an hour would be enough. Still, I wanted to see if I could make a photograph that captured the the quiet, somber feeling of walking through the undisturbed woods of Boch Hollow. The subdued light and use of a blue filter made for some incredibly long shutter speeds (about 5 min. each if my notes are to be trusted). Thankfully the stillness of the morning air allowed me to expose a couple of sheets, and return with one that had "the feeling".

Photography is always at the forefront of my mind, and I wouldn't have it any other way.