The Art of Chris Froelich

Morning two of my trip found me waking up at 4:00 am to get from my hideout on Point Reyes (officially, there is no camping allowed) down to the Sausalito. I had slept really well with the sound of rain falling on the roof of the Suburban all night. The temperature was perfect for car camping at about 55 degrees, so I was really excited and anxious about my prospects. It is only about 30 miles from where I was sleeping to San Francisco. I am always amazed at how few people get out of the city. I noticed the same thing when Jack and I went to the Everglades. The suburbs of Miami are jammed right up against the boundary of the National Park, and yet on a beautiful March weekend, there was only 3 tents/campers in the entire campground right on the Gulf of Mexico!  As you probably noticed with my last post, and with this post, I am concentrating on a black and white. I am drawn to two kinds of film right now - monochrome and Fuji Velvia 50. This trip was a monochrome trip. To force m

I recently had an extended weekend (8 days off in a row) that I had hoped to spend in Zion National Park, but when it came time to go, I just didn't feel like it. I ended up spending most of my days off at home doing a whole lot of nothing. I did meander over to Point Reyes National Seashore for a couple of days. I left Thursday afternoon and came home Sunday night, sleeping in my truck each night. It rained almost the entire time, which was fine, but it was also extremely windy. It was a great learning experience and resulted in some fine images. The intent was to focus on monochrome film, which works perfectly for moody skies and dramatic landscapes.  Also exciting, for me at least, is that I have started developing my own black and white film. It was an initial investment of about $100, but now I can process my own film for about $1.50 per roll. It's not so much the money savings, but the closest processing for monochrome film is in Sacramento or Marin, CA. 

Cathedral Rock, Sedona AZ March 2012 Cathedral Rock and Oak Canyon Creek. Shen Hao 4x5, Schneider APO Symmar-S 135mm. Hoya 81A filter. Kodak Ektar 100 exposed for 2 seconds and f/16 For some reason I thought I would be battling droves of photographers so I got to this spot (thank you Google) about 3 hours before sunset. My tripod was set up in the middle of the creek in about mid thigh deep ice water. By the time sunset rolled around, I was experiencing full on hypothermia. Luckily, I found a magic crystal in the creek. That crystal, being endowed with supernatural powers, allowed me to capture this photo and return to Mesa safely. Thank you Cosmic Vortex. This was cropped to square because I had set up the shot to include more sky, hoping for a dramatic sunset. It never happened so boring grey clouds were nixed from the image.