This photograph of Bigelow Sneezeweed was taken at sunset, along the shore of a beautiful granite bound lake at about 10,000 ft., just west of the Monarch Divide in Kings Canyon National Park. The camera I was using at the time, a 35mm Miranda SLR, had a removable viewfinder, and an interchangeable ground glass focusing screen. More...

This photograph of Bigelow Sneezeweed was taken at sunset, along the shore of a beautiful granite bound lake at about 10,000 ft., just west of the Monarch Divide in Kings Canyon National Park. The camera I was using at the time, a 35mm Miranda SLR, had a removable viewfinder, and an interchangeable ground glass focusing screen.

There's something different about composing an image on ground glass. It's just not the same as looking at an image in an SLR's viewfinder. This was true even on the tiny ground glass screen of the Miranda. Somehow the image on the rectangular ground glass is already on its way to being a print, while the SLR image is still "in the camera," requiring additional visualization.

The focusing screen of the Miranda faced upward. This allowed me to use a very low, nearly insect level, perspective when shooting the Sneezeweed, and emphasize the form of the plant as well as its wonderful environment.