2002 / march / 27
a portrait
Been taking lots of photographs again recently, developing films (and seriously
screwed one up - well, it's all in the game), doing some darkroom work.
Slow going, though. Tonight, while I should've done my taxes in the wee hour
between coming home from band rehearsal and needing to go to bed, I've been
looking at pictures, sorting, ordening, making mental lists of which ones need
more time, larger prints, or need to get binned.
I've been surfing photoblogs
recently and came across a few nice ones that combined the directness of
digital cameras with a sense of wonder. Especially the '1 photo a day'-type
of blogs: cause with all the freedom that a digital gives, setting yourself
a limitation (one a day, not less, not more) seriously helps.
I'm pretty happy with the oldfashioned way I'm doing imagery now, all the
time and effort required to see the result makes every roll of film, and
every shot precious.
So, I haven't got a digital camera. But damn, I haven't even got a scanner.
Frustrating, cause there are a few I'd love to put up right now.
So rather than one from the small pile that's waiting on my desk to be taken
to a scanner - here's a slighly older one, with a story attached to it.
For my grandma's birthday, I wanted to make a portrait of her, or of her with grandpa, that was up to her. She thinks she never looks good on a photograph, you see. So I took them outside in gorgeous sunny winter afternoon weather, and we had fun, and ... well. I'm amazed, this one really works. And she's very happy with it, too. So, I proudly present: my first real portrait that I'm not unhappy with!
Can you image the time it took to give the grey hair a little depth? I had to
expose that part three times as long as the main part... carefully avoiding the
shaded side of especially my grandma's face... anyway. It looks ok on screen,
but believe me it looks very nice on a large (24x30cm) print.
