Black and white photograph. Fallen Tree, Watson Lake. North Cascades National Park, Washington. Radeka Photography

After a moderate hike in Washington's North Cascades mountains, my assistant and I reached Watson Lake, a gorgeous mountain area of pristine wilderness. I used my Super Cambo 4x5 view camera, which was fitted in my backpack, to photograph this bleached fallen tree on the edge of the lake. I used an orange filter to help diminish slight haze in the distance. The 4x5 Kodak Tri-X negative is sharp and crisp. It is difficult to achieve the right tonality in the bright tree trunk and branches as it has a tendency to burn out to near-white on the print. Over the years I've used various means of bringing subtle tone and texture into the tree, including burning with soft contrast filters and even pre-flashing the lower portion of the image. Nowadays I use a type 1 Fog Mask which precisely adds gentle exposure to just the tree and branches while automatically protecting the adjacent values. A very slight SCIM mask exposure is used to bring additional life into the distant dark trees. A neutral-cool selenium print color works nicely on this photograph.