Shattered

I took this shot in August of 2020 when the girls and I visited Red Rock Coulee in southern Alberta.  I remember it was a smokin' hot day, and temperatures were up into the high 30's.  Mostly the girls and I just hung around the trailer during the hot part of the day.  The only shade on the open prairie was in the shadow of our trailer, and under the awning.  Early in the morning, and later in the evening, the heat was more bearable and that's when we ventured out.  Unfortunately the air was very hazy from the smoke of distant forest fires on the US west coast.

I've shot this concretion many times before.  I call it "The Nautilus" because it resembles the shell of the sea creature of the same name.  In fact fossils of prehistoric ammonites, a close relative, are sometimes found the this area.  This time I selected a high vantage point, and used a long lens to get in tight on the subject.  I shot this with my 4x5 view camera on Kodak Tri-X Pan film, using a 500mm telephoto lens.  Development was in PMK, a staining pyro developer, and it was given extra development to increase contrast.