Utah Clouds

Just off of Highway 70. I went through here on my way to Green River (hope I’ve got that right . . . I’m not doing any fact-checking.)

Up to this point in time, this negative was completely unworkable: incredibly contrasty for starters, but the worst things were the innumerable dust specks and scratches marring the surface.

There were black specks caused by dust on the film before being exposed, and there were white specks caused by dust settling on the negative after being developed. In a wet darkroom, white specks can be somewhat ameliorated by "spotting," an incredibly tedious process done by hand. Black specks were even trickier, requiring a sharp knife and a keen eye. And black scratches? Forget about it.

Of course I've now removed all those defects using Photoshop . . . took about 15 minutes.

Photo: Clouds—Utah, 1996