This was an unusually tricky one to make. View camera work is quite complex, compared with that done with single-lens reflex cameras, and it gets much more so the closer one gets to the subject. The image required a frantic 25-minute camera setup for a window of light that only lasted about five minutes. The first light of day in the trees overhead was initially absent, so good fortune was required in the way it spread itself around the image. The lens was nearly wide open to diffuse the reflections, much more than did the naked eye, against the rest of the image. Because the camera was not looking straight down, the water surface was not perpendicular to the lens axis. Therefore it was necessary to use the view camera's ability to orient the plane of focus so as to not be perpendicular to the optical axis. This is accomplished by tilting the lens relative to the film. Tilt focus is necessary to achieve adequate focus in nearly all larger format photographs of landscape, because the depth of field inherent in longer focal length lenses is very limited. However, it has not often been necessary for me to balance the use of the front and back tilt adjustments so carefully, and most images don't require that the camera and I perch precariously over a creek though that is hardly unusual, either. And then there was my wife holding some article of clothing in just the right place to keep direct sun from beginning to filter through the trees onto the subject, to give me time to be certain I had what I wanted on film. And for me, the complexity of anything can be compounded significantly by being presented with it at seven o'clock in the morning.

Also see the cropped, horizontal version at:

https://www.josephholmes.com/gallery/sets/main-exhibit/183-autumn-leaves-acadia-national-park-maine-horizontal#