Thomas Teich Photographic Arts

02/02/2023

Ice Abstract 1 was made at this time of year on January 28, 2020. This weekend the Catskills are expecting a serious cold spell which is exactly what happened in 2020. This image is a closeup of an ice formation that appeared overnight in a small outlet stream from a nearby pond. Water freezes on the surface then recedes from below leaving a suspended paper thin sheet of ice with fantastic abstract figures. Most of these images were made with an 8x10 view camera and a special tripod mount that allows the front of the lens to be positioned vertically just a few inches above the ice. This entire ice formation was about the size of a playing card. The exposure was f/32 at 25 seconds, so thankfully there was no wind blowing. We are setting up the newest portfolio page for abstract images on my website as I write this. There will be many more images on display there. Hope you enjoy this unusual frozen image from the warmth and comfort of your home.
Additional abstract images on my website.
https://thomasteich.com/Abstract-Photographs

12/01/2022

The Adirondacks are amazing, especially in winter. I photograph there whenever I can. Late in 2012, I spent a few days in the north country. It was November 3rd, cold and rainy and about to freeze. I was not feeling well. Tracy and I checked into the Porcupine Lodge in Saranac Lake.
The next morning we went out into a freezing rain that became a light snow and explored the boardwalk of the VIC-The Paul Smiths College Visitor Interpretive Center, a gateway to 3,000 acres of original Adirondack wilderness. The VIC has an experienced staff of naturalists ready to help nature lovers discover the wonders of the Adirondack world. But by 2pm all the nature lovers except for us had left and we were alone and glad for the privacy that bad weather gave us to make some great images of this special place. We followed the boardwalk to several spots where I set up the 8×10 inch view camera and made two different images.Tracy made excellent photographs of the scene and of me working. As a documentary filmmaker, she is well versed in such things. I made Boreal Marsh that afternoon but quickly got much sicker with the flu. I spent the next week in bed. Small price to pay for the privilege of seeing and photographing such a beautiful place and that moment in time.

My Gallery will be closing for the season soon. During the winter months please stop by my website
for lots of new information and my online Print Store for new Images. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

11/24/2022

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope you saved room for some art. Announcing my first annual Black Friday Ebay print store sale

www.ebay.com/str/thomasteichphotographicarts

All store matted prints on sale till midnight Sunday November 27

11/15/2022

Creek, fallen tree, fog, Catskill Mountains.

Now that summer is over and autumn color is nearly gone, we begin to transition to the quiet bare tree days before winter comes. Although I love all of our seasons here in the northeast, I particularly like this short inter-seasonal period when nature slows down and starts to rest. Despite some unusual weather including hurricanes, I can feel a peaceful change coming over the landscape. I wrote about this in my last post Birch grove, Kaaterskill Clove. This is the time of brown earth, evergreens, and silver blue skies. A special gift nature also brings is fog. I made the accompanying photograph Creek, fallen tree, fog on December 18, 2012 in the forest behind my studio. It was late in the afternoon when fog rolled in so thick that I couldn’t resist being out in it. I loaded up my 8×10 camera and stepped into the woods. The fog also acts like a blanket helping deaden sound. There was no traffic noise, no wind. Not even a bird chirping. I made several pictures in a deep white pine forest before I came to the creek. The perfect spot to photograph revealed itself instantly. The winding creek flows past this beautiful remnant of a once huge pine now quietly returning to the earth. Just beyond, the forest opens out to a marsh and what feels like infinity. The entire time I was out there I never heard a sound. I look forward now to the rest of November and December for days like these. They are truly a gift. www.thomasteich.com

11/03/2022

REPOST. PREVIOUS POST HAD INFERIOR IMAGE
A cold and blustery day with a beautiful surprise in the Catskill Mountains.

This scene was photographed directly below a sheer cliff high on the northeastern wall of the Kaaterskill Clove. A major canyon (or clove in Dutch parlance), the clove has been a source of dramatic inspiration for artists since Thomas Cole. On this chilly winter day my plan was to hike to the cliff-top crowning the high clove wall, for a pre-winter panoramic view of the clove and Hudson River Valley below. I especially enjoy the dry, bare-tree days between autumn leaves and early snow. It is a somber and elemental time when the earth is laid bare before us. Skeletal tree structures, exposed cliffs and dark silver skies, the earth laying down to rest.
I chose to get to the top by the most difficult but most scenic route. Years before, climbing these same cliffs, I had discovered a faint path leading to this spot from the main trail below, a challenging short cut. The climb to this point is extremely steep and difficult, made worse by scrambling over the broken rock scree ejected from the cliffs above. I was quite warm due to the exertion necessary to ferry my 8x10 camera to this spot. I stopped to rest and drink water at the base of the cliff before attempting to climb further. Sitting on a small boulder, I looked out at the valley and beheld a wonderful, unexpected scene. The southern wall of the clove, the valley below and the distant silvery Hudson River, all framed through a magnificent weather-tortured grove of wild birch trees! A scene worthy of Cole or Durand or any of the 19th century Hudson River School artists. I quickly abandoned my plans for the cliff above and went to work on this image: a perfect window on the Catskills. Once my camera was in place, as usual, the wind spirit noticed me. Nature is always motionless until the moment of exposure. Then everything changes. Gusts of freezing wind now shook me and bent the trees at regular intervals.
Using large-format cameras generally requires long exposures, even in bright daylight. This cool, diffused silver light was no exception. I spent the afternoon never leaving this spot; exposing only two sheets of film over 3 hours. Finally, hoping for the best, but willing to accept defeat, I packed and left for home, driven down into the valley by cold and hunger. But the resulting image worked for me;
the cold dark recesses of the clove, the birch trees like lightning bolts emanating from the ground, and that somber winter sky all expressed perfectly what I felt on that beautiful cold day.

https://thomasteich.com/the-wild-quiet-1

10/07/2022

Autumn Maple, Kaaterskill Falls. 1992

In a slight departure from my usual posts about black and white photography, this one is about a very special color image. I made the photograph Autumn Maple, Kaaterskill Falls 30 years ago this week! It was made on October 4, 1992 at about 6:15 in the evening. I arrived a bit late at the falls after photographing nearby and hustled to my chosen spot to set up the Burke & James 8x10” view camera with Kodak 8x10 6105 Professional Ektachrome transparency film. I was alone and the weather and timing turned out to be perfect. I made only one exposure about 1 minute before the setting sun disappeared. The rich sunset and an 81A filter gave the image a wonderful warm glow and the foreground maple was in full color. And no wind was blowing! Double perfect! The exposure was 6 seconds at f/45, and if you look carefully at the upper left sky, you can see the rising moon. I sometimes wonder what the result would be if I had made this image with a 1992 digital camera. Chances are it would not exist today and certainly would not be as beautiful. The 8x10 film (a big color slide) was drum scanned several years ago and will live on (thanks to today’s digital tools) long after the original film is gone. In celebration of Kaaterskill Falls and beautiful autumn weather, I would like to invite you to visit my website and my new ebay on-line print store. This image can be seen there both as a fine art color poster and as a 24x30” matted color giclée along with many other items. We are adding new works to the store weekly. The choice to set up the new store on ebay was made out of simplicity. Easy for the buyer and the seller. Ebay does all the work! Hope you enjoy this post and the new store!

09/23/2022

Sycamore and Thunderstorm, Four Mile Point, Hudson River New York.

Sycamore and Thunderstorm was made on October 21, 2010 at 10 am just north of Four Mile Point on the Hudson River. Four Mile Point is a state preserve that lies on the western shore halfway between Athens and Coxsackie, New York. The preserve runs along a beautiful and wild stretch of the river and I go there often to photograph in different seasons. At this time of year autumn color has passed in the higher elevations but sometimes a few pockets of foliage remain near the warm river banks. This particular day was warmer and more humid than normal with a stiff intermittent breeze coming from the south signaling a change. I had no idea that this change was nearly upon me and would be so sudden. I got to my chosen spot and set up my new 8x10 view camera. My subject was a sycamore tree with an amazing root system growing right at the water’s edge in gravelly river bed and constantly being submerged by the tides. I made my first picture looking north upriver at the south side of the tree. This didn’t really move me, so I switched to the other side of the tree looking south. This was much better so I set to work again. The wind was now blowing upriver at a constant speed and I began to notice a darkening sky to the south and some distant thunder. This was an unusual time of year for thunderstorms, but not unheard of. I was caught in a major electrical storm while camping high in the Catskills on October 19th about fifteen years prior. That was a night I won’t ever forget. My camera was ready, loaded with Tmax 100 8x10 film and a 210mm lens as the storm picked up in intensity. My plan was to make one shot and run like Hell for the car. Instead, I made three just before the rain and lightning began. The scene was so fantastic that I wanted absolute insurance of at least one perfect negative. But I stayed too long. My car was about 1/4 mile away and you can’t run with an 8x10 view camera on a tripod and a heavy backpack. The storm was on me now and I had no choice but to wait it out in place. Rain, lashing wind, thunder and worst of all violent lightning were everywhere. I always carry a 30 gallon black trash bag in my pack to cover the camera if this happens. I covered it and held onto the tripod against the wind. Lightning struck all around me and I suddenly realized that I was standing in water and holding onto a grounded metal tripod! This was now way beyond dangerous and more than a little scary. At some point the lashing rain was so strong that I just shut my eyes and held on. My clothes and light jacket were saturated to the skin. I suddenly felt the temperature drop (probably into the upper 50’s) and wondered when this would end. And then in less than a minute it did! I stood there watching the storm rage past me following its path up the river and sounding like a freight train. And then silence. I felt a bit of awed-shock at what I had just seen alone at the edge of the river. Weeks later, the film was processed and the proof revealed exactly what I saw and felt just before the storm hit me. The exposure was made at f/64 for 4 seconds and shows the thrashing leaves and ominous sky. The long white streaks in the water were leaves floating by during the exposure which was too long to freeze them on film.

09/01/2022

The Catskill Mountains contain many different types of terrain nestled between the rocky, forested mountain tops. I have always had a strong attraction to marshes, swamps and wetlands of all kinds. And like most of us, I’m powerfully drawn to the moon. In many cases we have beavers to thank for these marshy woodland water sanctuaries. Although humans often find beavers a nuisance, they are one of nature’s best habitat providers. The flooding and pooling of stream water into ponds created by beaver dams kills off trees and brush, nourishes delicate plants, encourages amphibians, fish, insects, and especially birds. Some time ago I discovered and began frequenting a beautiful and unique marsh, formed by beaver activity, that supported a large number of wild heron families. Literally, a heron rookery. With each visit I looked about for ways to photographically express the strange and beautiful essence of this marsh. In the middle, surrounded by cattails, stood the odd twisted remains of dead trees holding large heron stick nests. During the summer months I stayed clear of these nests to avoid disturbing the occupants. Finally, in the fall of 2007, I visualized an image that would best represent this place: a full moon rising through the unearthly trees and nests. I waited a month for the sunset, weather conditions and ris ing moon to converge. Sensing the time was at hand, I embarked in the late afternoon. Cold temperatures had frozen water on the marsh’s surface while the water below slowly reced ed, leaving a thick suspended crust over a foot above the mud. In some places this crust could support my weight, and in others I went crashing through to the mud below, pain fully striking my shins against the ice in the twenty degree air. Finally, the camera was in place. Behind me the sun was setting. Before me the full moon rising. To add more drama, a nearby pack of coyotes howled, rejoicing with me in the moonrise. I made three negatives with the 8x10 camera as the moon rose through the increasing darkness. I moved the cam era twice to compensate for the drift of the moon, again each time painfully falling through the ice. Finally the moon moved out of position, and the cold and dark signaled it was time to begin the mile-long trek out. Months later, in the darkroom, I relived that experience as the primeval image developed in the tray before me.

08/12/2022

Dark Ocean, Boulder, Maine, was made in mid August 2006 at Reid State Park on the coast of Maine. My then wife and I made numerous trips to this part of Maine over the years on working vacations. Making photographs in a totally different environment can be creatively energizing and I have made many ocean images from this area as well as Acadia National Park to the north. This darker more dramatic image compared to the normal version of the same subject came about by chance. I had made half a dozen images that day before coming upon this beautiful rock formation that wandered into the sea. I made the first image to capture the wave crashing at about 4pm in bright sunlight. As I made that exposure I began to think about a different approach. I have been doing daylight time exposures (also called extended exposures) for years and successful subjects for this technique are often hard to find. I decided to make another 8x10 inch exposure this time using a yellow orange filter to darken the sky and water along with two heavy neutral density filters to lengthen the exposure. The first image was made at f/11 1/15 th second with no filters. The second at f/64 with filters at 2 minutes, a very long exposure in bright sunlight. There were a few other exposure and film processing changes but the result is a dramatic difference between the two images. They are both good expressive images of the subject ; one bright, clean and explosive. The other dark, moody and a bit sinister. Dark Ocean won the gold medal award in the seascape/water category of Black&White Magazines’ International Single Image Contest and is displayed in issue #80 February 2011 on page 129. It is relatively easy to print and looks best at 30x40 or 40x50 inch print size. Currently sold out, I will be printing new versions of this and many other images for sale in my new ebay print store opening in the next few weeks. New phone (518) 291-8685.

08/05/2022

"Birch Forest, Receding Snow"

This and other fine art silver gelatin black and white available at ThomasTeich.com

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(518) 291-8685

08/05/2022

Thomas Teich Photographic Arts updated their phone number.

Thomas Teich Photographic Arts updated their phone number.

07/28/2022

Here is a quick look behind the scenes at my gallery which I posted about several weeks ago. Last weekend was a two day open studio tour and I met and hosted a great number of new people who were quite interested in how and what I do here. I was so busy I forgot to take pictures! The gallery is particularly interesting because of its evolution. It was originally the ground floor of my barn where I kept lots of stuff (boat, tractors, lawnmowers, tools etc). The time finally came in 2014 to get better use of the space so my assistant Mike Dwyer and I embarked on a complete transformation of the 700 square foot room. Everything was torn out and replaced along with a new front entrance, lighting, HVAC and more. The result today is a beautiful, quiet air-conditioned space to wonder through the photographs and just relax a bit. There are almost 40 framed images on the walls plus many more sold as mounted and loose prints. Gallery is open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday 11-5pm. Open to the public so stop by for a look. This proves you can make a silk purse from a sows ear!

06/24/2022

Thomas Teich Photographic Arts updated their business hours.

Thomas Teich Photographic Arts updated their business hours.

06/10/2022

Thomas Teich Photographic Arts updated their address.

Thomas Teich Photographic Arts updated their address.

02/13/2017

Here is a short narrative about an image made a few winters ago. Weather a lot like this!

Maple tree, ice storm, 2011 was made after a big January snowfall - nearly 25 inches that ended late the night before as rain and ice. I took off in the morning with my new 8x10 view camera slogging through the crusty snow and working up a considerable sweat. The freezing rain and ice had coated everything in sight with a thick layer of silver that glistened like a million jewels and cracked in the morning breeze.

I came upon this maple and knew instantly how I wanted it to look as a photograph. Most people see this image and assume it was made in moonlight. However, it was made at 10 AM in brilliant sunlight!
My previsualization of this subject (seeing the final black and white image in your mind’s eye before taking the picture), helped me decide exactly what to do. A straight presentation of this scene in brilliant light set against a blue sky would have been nice but quite ordinary. I wanted something different and dramatic that also accentuated the amazing ice crystals that were now starting to drop off and melt.

My solution involved a filter and some simple alteration of the film’s development. I set up the camera with a 210mm wide angle lens and added my heaviest red filter, the same lens filter Ansel Adams used to make his famous dark sky image “Monolith, The Face of Halfdome” in 1927. In black and white, filters darken most heavily the color opposite their own. The opposite of red is cyan (the actual color of the sky…not blue). So the final effect combined with a bit of underexposure and overdevelopment is a strangely beautiful rendition of a crystalline world that existed only for a few hours. I made this image and left to make another four. When I passed this tree an hour and a half later on my return, all the crystals had vanished, the sun and clouds had moved and the magic was gone. Of all the pictures I made of that storm, this was the most satisfying.