Very hard to shoot with a manual film camera. Need good timing and anticipation. ;-)

Oh - and some luck with metering as it has to be done zone style here due to the limited subject and a lot of sky...

I was wondering if this was you, Richard. My honest opinion is that as a picture it doesn't work. Not because it's film, but because as a composition it is lacking, and because it also lacks in technical quality (which you do need to have whether it's film or digital). I do like that there's two drops coming off the icicle.

Hey Ursula. The grain is thanks to Mr Silver Halide. And if memory serves me right, I had to open up to get my shutter up and it was already 7pm or so on a walk home. I did push the development and then also again in the computer as the grain is just so nice and the way it sort of floats around on the surface of the ice and makes the gradations in the sky like some aboriginal mosaic dot art - just looks beaut to me.

It isn't an overly thought out shot though. It was more of an attempt to see if I could get a shot like this with one press of the shutter and no instant review. I shot 3 frames. The first two had the drop attached still. The last one, I timed it just right. ;-)

It's good to experiment. I think it's really neat how you're sort of "branching out" here lately. Or, maybe you always did that, but didn't show us the results :)

As for composition - I agree. It feels a bit lost as was I. I am not sure what to do with the single, lone icicle. Square crop? Or a vertical portrait in 2x3... ?

@ Ursula

I have a lot of stuff that I passed over as I really got so focused on "1x style" and I have been going back through old stuff and re visiting things with a now clear head (as this one is) and also trying to do the pre visualise, plan and then go out and shoot stuff. I really stagnated in 2010. I want to break that cycle after a cracker 2009 and 2008 of shooting.

I'd say keep shooting, different icicles, different times, different POVs. "Fixing" (crop, etc.) one picture is too limiting.

I am not going to talk about 1X here. But it is always good to not shoot only for a particular site, 1X or WeeklyShot or any other.

Will have to wait a while for another icicle. It will be three summers in a row by the time I get back to Sydney next month with my various times off and time sharing of hemispheres. And I don't know where to see icicles in Aus. :-(

Issue is not 1X. It was myself as you said. I got too focused on trying to please others and not follow my own internal compass.

Should have listened to advice from Mark Kitaoka a good 2 years ago now. :-(

Yep. Me too actually :)

Clone out the top of the Hilton hotel! Paris won't be very happy if I did that now would she. Really Clyde.

I too thought about you Richard when I saw this. Fun to go back a look at the older stuff and cull out some good ones. I had one like that that I was gonna show this week but couldn't for the life of me find the original scan or PS file. The jpeg I had was not suitable for posting. It's one of those lost deep in some folder that is named for the primary subject. I tend to shoot the tails of film rolls in and around my house and sometimes they get lost in my pre-Lightroom filing system.

BTW, what's 1x??

@Beamer - I think it's a dance step. It's usually done to the Minute Waltz. 1-X-plop ... 1-X-plop ... 1-X-plop, and it's over. Yep.

@ Clyde

My pre scanning filling system is getting to be a real mess right now. What with packing and all.. :-s At least I know I have some cool shots for 2011 when they make it out the other end.