I can’t pass by a pond without spending some time with it. I feel the same about wrought iron gates, high walls, stiles and field boundary stones. This particular image required a bit of work …
How to do justice to the many looks of water; fast flowing, rocky and clear, sluggish but with perceptible flow, pondweed-still, lotus flower stagnant? Pond photography is a world of itself. My home is one of countless ponds, called Meres here.
This particular pond is in Berlin, in Tiergarten near the diplomatic zone. A hot day, looking for shade, I happened on here. I took a few breaths and squeezed the shutter release of my camera. It felt right.
Thank you.
Technical details
The contrast was high, so I needed to reduce the contrast range. I carry two Nikon bodies, one for low and one for high contrast work. I had Ilford XP2 film in my camera, which I rated at EI 200. To tame the contrast range, I would normally curtail the development of the film by as much as 30%. Here I used Barry Thornton 2 Bath, which has good compensation. I decided on a Bromoil expression and inked in the normal away with #1796 ink, principally using hogshair brushes but with a fitch brush for the water.
