Almost Paris...

Music | La Vie en Rose by Edith Piaf
So I've had this fantasy that one day, when I'm just a little older, I would move to Paris and have my atelier in a 2 or 3 story walk up. From the street below, you can see the huge picture window that allows the Northern Light to stream upon the studio set where an old theatre backdrop hangs along with a few large format cameras in front of it. When you are lucky, you can see a woman from the street covered partially by my big black overcoat as she gazes out over the city. The locals by now know me as the eccentric Asian who comes out on occasion to have an espresso and croissant at the corner café or at the Jazz club just down the street sipping on a glass of single malt scotch...

Aimée
We had shot a version just before this one where I didn't get enough fill in the shadows. Aimée had slipped on my overcoat to stay warm as we viewed the plate as it was washing... As we walked back onto the set to try our 2nd shot, she dropped off the coat, got into her pose... Suddenly, seeing her, for a brief second, I was there, in my atelier, with the Northern light, the smell of partially burnt coffee with Edith Piaf singing in the back ground...

Too much? Maybe, but it is my fantasy...

:-)

G.G.

Music | In the Waiting Line by Zero 7

It has been a difficult 2 weeks to get sitters to come to the North Light Studio, aka the dining room, side yard and now the living room. I got blown off 3 times during that time, but did manage to get 4 portraits in. It is important that I keep working at getting better and figure out the things that will make me a better photographer/wet plate collodionist.

Today was a great afternoon. I got my long time muse, G.G. to come and sit for me. As usual, we had a great shoot, pushing some boundaries. Even though we've known each other and have worked together for close to 10 years, it is great that we haven't stayed stagnant and able to move forward.

Lately, I've limited my shooting to 2 to 4 plates per session. So long as I know I have one piece that I am happy with, I shut it down. Today, we started out with a great shot, but we kept going, working and building to an end result we both wanted to achieve. In order to get there, we knew it was a building process. I ended up shooting a total of 7 plates in 3 1/2 hours. By far, that has also been the longest session I've worked through and it was really satisfying. Of the 7 plates, I am happy with 5.

Sherry, by 4x5

Music | Agua by Jose Padilla

So I'm really happy with the image of Sherry here... I'm just figuring I need to be much more selective and have more of a keen sense as to when to press the shutter to release. Other issues I was having was in the scanning process and I'm finding there really isn't this 4x5 monster I thought I was having a battle with. Frankly, with 4x5, I'm shooting much less that I would with the digital slr and I need to slow not only my physical pace, but my mental one as well.

So it isn't because I haven't been shooting a lot of large format that I haven't been posting. It is just that what I have been shooting with the 4x5 is very disappointing. I can't figure out why