You may remember the photo by Martin Seelig posted in the fall of a couple of musicians at the the Ola Belle Reed festival. Here he takes a different film camera into the Grayson Highlands area of Virginia, just north of Elk Garden on the Appalachian Trail. “It was so cold I was surprised that the camera did not freeze up.”

The shot certainly captures the cold and stark nature of the landscape on that particular day. The winter clouds were enhanced by placing an orange filter onto the lens which accentuated and separated the whispy white cloud formations from the dark blue sky. One can feel the bite of the cold and hear the wind whistling. The scraggly, almost menacing tree adds to the the foreboding. The scene bares little resemblance to that viewed by most summer vistors to the Mt. Rogers area. Could the composition have been strengthened by taking a few steps to the right, placing the stone formation in the foreground more in the left third? Or does it serve as a strong anchor point as is? It’s a question worth considering.

Martin Seelig - Mt Rogers on a bitterly cold day

A Minolta XE-7 was the camera used, loaded with Legacy Pro 100 B&W film. The lens chosen was a Rokkor-X SI 28mm. F/16 was the aperture selected with a shutter speed of 1/60 sec. Martin processes the film himself and then scans the negative to produce a digital image. One can only admire the final result.