The light of early dawn on the Potomac River. While reviewing old work, as I do periodically, I came across this image. Captured on slide film with a Nikon N90 camera over thirty years ago, it's one of my favorites. It is just one example of the influence of great photographers on my photographic evolution, and of the potential for current image processing and printing technology to improve on old work.

I was hiking the bluffs in Potomac Falls National Park, searching for opportunities to put a still relatively new camera to use. But why did I make this particular image, probably the only one I still have from that morning?

Well, obviously the light and the scene simply called for it. But also, the late, great Galen Rowell’s 1973 image Sunrise Over the Skeena River, British Columbia, Canada, came to mind as I gazed down on the river on that chilly autumn morning.

I had seen his photograph in his seminal 1986 book Mountain Light.His description in the book was also my first real introduction to “the nineteenth-century landscapes of J. M. W. Turner” and his “atmospheric landscapes in misty morning light.” By the way, I later purchased a large signed and numbered edition of Rowell's image which now hangs on my wall.

Fortunately, I had the foresight to have a high-resolution drum scan made of my image only a couple years after I shot it, so today I have a good digital file with which to work.  It’s a very high-contrast image shot on Fuji Velvia, a high contrast film popular at the time, and what I had at the moment. I wish the reflected sunlight on the river surface was not so blown out and unrecoverable but as I recall, it was indeed very much like looking directly into the sun. A graduated neutral density filter might have helped but at the time I don’t think I quite had that in either my literal or figurative camera bag of tricks. The shadows at the bottom could use a little more detail but I like the moody effect. 

I know more now than I did then, so I recently reprocessed the image, then printed it on Baryta paper for the classic feel of a darkroom print. I'm pleased with the result, which is great...but suggests my files may contain more old gems awaiting modern treatment.

See a larger image and purchase options here.