“I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood.” ~ Bill Watterson
Nine hours and ten minutes of daylight today. But tomorrow there’ll be nine hours and eleven minutes.
I think I can make it until then.
Always, always, always take flashes on a photo shoot. Just because someone SAYS they want to do outdoor pictures doesn’t mean they won’t surprise you when you get there.
You’re cruising along at any speed over 35 mph. You whiz past a potential shot and go “click” in your head. For the next few miles, you debate with yourself. Is it worth risking your mother’s ire for being late for dinner to go back for the shot? Surely not if you haven’t stopped the car yet.
I’ve discovered that the not-knowing will haunt me. It may not be an award-winner, but if it caught my eye and made me think, I must to go back and capture it.
I was supposed to learn this lesson a few years ago in Florence. The dh and I spent a lovely afternoon roaming through the back alleyways and shops of this most delicious of Italian cities. In one quaint pottery shop, we fell in love with a hand-painted terra cotta roof tile. Instead of buying it on the spot, we decided to continue on and come back for it later. Sadly, we never found the shop again. It was as mysterious as Brigadoon. We retraced and retraced our steps, and we never found that shop again.
When you see a shot (or a treasure), take it. Well, if it’s a treasure, pay for it first.
It seems I’m the last person on earth to shoot with a Canon AE-1. Evidently, Canon’s effective advertising campaign in the late 70s helped them sell over 5 million units. I’ve probably talked about my darkroom adventure with two dozen people in the past month, all of whom owned an AE-1 at one time and none of whom still have the manual.
I’m grateful the manual for almost every camera ever sold is available online. In my excitement to load the AE-1 up with film and start shooting, I only glossed over the information about setting the ISO and metering the light. The consequence was a badly over-exposed roll, and the penance was a more thorough reading before shooting my second roll.
I love the softness and graininess of the images I got. Through trial and error, I’m beginning to understand how to vary the exposure and aperture during the printing to get the desired effect. Sure, it’s easier to just tweak the exposure slider in Lightroom, but it’s not nearly as satisfying.
The Kodak Brownie Six-20 was introduced in 1946. It originally retailed for about $6 and I bought mine in an antique shop 62 years later for $10.
After cleaning the viewfinder (1/4″ x 1/8″) of six decades of grunge, I marveled that the glass surfaces had a rippled appearance. There are only two focal setting on the camera: “5-10 FEET” and “Beyond 10 FEET”.
Some internet research presented a starting point for the fixed aperture and shutter speed, so I carried my Nikon along to help me determine if a shot was possible at f/11 and 1/100/sec.
There were only eight exposures on the roll of 620 film. You’d think I would have quickly filled the roll, but I found myself agonizing over each shot. Checking and rechecking the light, composing and recomposing the shot, learning to ignore color when evaluating a scene. It actually took three days to settle on those eight frames.
Sadly, the park district darkroom was not equipped to handle medium format film. I had to settle for printing the middle third of each frame, but I kind of like the blurred distortion at the upper edges.
Next, the Canon AE-1…
I fell in love with photography in the digital age. My first grown-up camera was a Nikon D40, acquired merely four years ago. My darkroom has been digital as well.
But in the past year, I’ve begun to realize that I have a gaping hole in my knowledge of the art and science of photography. ISO is a menu option. Dodging is toolbar icon. Noise is eliminated with a plugin. I didn’t understand the foundation upon which all this amazing technology has been built.
So I signed up for a darkroom class through the park district, and I got my hands on two film cameras: a Canon AE-1 and a Kodak Brownie 620. I found the manuals online and ordered film from B&H. I read, studied, studied and read… and cautiously loaded the film into the cameras.
To be continued…
Sometimes your destination needs to be obscured from view before you take notice of the beauty of the path you’re on.
The Art Institute curator who recognized that the beautifully diffused light at the top of the back staircase was perfect for Rodin’s Adam.Text from dh at 6:42 AM: You HAVE to catch the sunrise today
Reply: Can I just look at it? Or do I have to photograph it?
Text from dh: Just look… Cloud cover will quickly ensue
[Look. Gasp. Grab camera. Run. Click. Click. Click.]
Reply to dh: Amazing… Thank you!
