Mark Cassino Photography - Photo Galleries

I first stumbled into the Allegan Forest in March, 2004. Since then I have made countless trips to many locations within the forest. Initially m focus was on photographing insects, wildflowers and birds. But over time the emphasis shifted to photographing the landscape. In late 2019 I made a few photos that seemed to capture the forest in a different way.

Come summer of 2020, with pandemic lockdowns and social distancing, I placed a renewed emphasis on intimate landscapes of forest scenes. I decided to use those pandemic days as a time to focus on craft and quality, so set out to try to make at least one small improvement to each step of the photographic process – composing the image, developing and scanning film, editing and adjusting the scanned image, and ultimately in the printing of the final image.

I chose to photograph with black and white film, in large part because I just enjoy the film process. But films also requires the photographer to really think about composition and exposure. I started out using a Ricoh Diacord TLR camera, along with my trusty Pentax 6x7. In 2021 the Diacord broke and was replaced with a Minolta Autocord and later a Ricoh 225, and Pentax remains my steadfast friend.

The project continues... and it continues to be a lot of fun! As I post this in March, 2022, the first buds are appearing on the trees and scrubby brambles. I’ve started revisiting favorite locations and scouting out new places in anticipation of another summer in the forest.