Tension of the Truth

Music | Rround Midnight by Bill Evans

I sometimes feel time flies by and I miss so much. This shoot was the first time ever I shot large format colour neg. I've been around the block several times over shooting film, especially back in the day... I don't know why, but the intimidation factor for this medium affected me more than I would have thought. Black and white has always been about interpretation, but colour... Colour puts it all out there on the table.

My thoughts after scanning 3 of the 4 sheets I shot over the weekend is that I mostly feel inept. Looking at the colour neg, I had no idea how to read it - not even exposure... Putting the neg on the scanning bed and going thru the software, I was at a lost. It also didn't help that the 1st 2 negatives I tried scanning, I didn't like after getting a totally exaggerated off colour.


The 3rd piece of film was the charm. First, I went for skin tones and background colour, for at least those 2 I had in my mind a somewhat close point of a reference. As I started working the scan, I had a sudden jump to the past why I thought back then, digital is the way to go! I remember back in the late 90's struggling with my film in the scanner, and mostly the dust issues! But this experience, even though scanning is a digital form, scanning this piece of film felt good. I worked for this shot. I harbored lots of doubt and mixed emotions for this image. This to me is what separates digital and analogue. It isn't about quality, round edges and blah blah blah for those who love to argue which is superior... It is the process going in and the actual moments of creating the image that gives me emotional vivacity.

So the thing about shooting colour film that was somewhat intimidating to me is that I knew it held truth. Many things have been revealed to me after going thru this process. Some negative (notice the pun) and some positive. I will deal with both the next time I do this again, along with every other frame I take. The learning process is what matters most...

Putting Zen into the Work Flow

Music | Lean on Me by Bill Withers

The first shoot of the year had some parameters put upon it because I was getting lazy and cowardly. The last few times I have attempted to shoot on glass, I quickly made the decision to switch back to aluminum because I had issues with the glass. Instead of working it out, I went back to what was comfortable... Of course comfort is easy, comfort is nice, but what comfort is not is challenging.

I've had my battles with my photography in 2013. I think I was set back 2 months from producing any meaningful work. I'd still be in that abyss which was pretty easy to rationalize to stay, but time is ticking for my exhibition in June. Working thru fear, all self manifested, is challenging.

Though I don't put much seriousness of starting a new year a new way, I did decide to make the first shoot only glass and the worse thing was failure to get a decent image. I decided that was not such a bad thing as I know I was going to learn something from the shoot.

I prepared with focus and more tenacity for this shoot, particularly after watching the movie, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. All I can say is, if this movie doesn't make you look at yourself and how you create and move forward, nothing will. I prepped for the shoot days in advance, with both aged and fresh collodion and developer. I bought black trays to better judge the glass plates as the image appeared in the fixer. During the session, after every exposure, with alcohol, I wiped down the plate holder and made my darkroom working conditions a bit more simple.

My pours need more attending to, both for the collodion and developer. The 4x larger plate size I am not accustomed to will take time to get used to. The first plate of the year yielded a nice image however, a bit over exposed. I was happy with the direction I was headed. 4 plates for the session and I can say I was quite happy with what I got out of it - 2 especially wonderful plates...


Victorian Polly


Damoiselle hardly Distressed

Stella...

Music | Western Eyes by Portishead

It has been a busy end of the week photographing kids. It was a nice change of pace and most certainly has kept me on my toes. I shot a 2 1/2 year old and 8 and 9 year olds. 2 girls and a boy.

Stella was my last subject for this week. I loved how serious she appeared to take the shoot. She was the consummate professional at such a young age. It was nice that she lent her own twist to my direction, which I usually do, as I love collaboration.


Stella

Anatomy of a Shoot... w/ Irish Heather Collins

Music | Breathe by The Cinematic Orchestra

There are people in the world that you just know you can collaborate with. I knew this the first time I worked with Irish a few months ago. After that session, I came up with an idea of doing a shoot with her in silence. We wouldn't use words to communicate with, just maybe grunts and hand gestures. I think I have way more confidence in her than she does in me, but I still think we would make some amazing images.

Our last 2 sessions, quite similar to each other kind of went like...

I pick her up from her studio in the industrial part of town. She comes out with a huge blue rubbermaid box filled with stuff. She is also dressed in part of her first outfit for the first session. Most of her make up is all ready on as well... You can imagine it is quite a sight to see! On the way to the studio, we talk generally about the shoot, not too much as I think we both understand the process... Surprise is a good thing as well as happy accidents.

In the studio she greets the 2 cats and by this time, they are amazingly in love with her. About 10 miinutes from walking in the door, she is ready for the first plate... With not a lot of words, we go thru a progression of themes, poses... Usually, when I have trouble coming up with a decent looking image, I pull out the digital camera and quickly go thru a mini shoot, that may last 2 minutes at most. We get in a flurry of ideas, poses and go thru what we like. It is a great way of coming up with a starting point. However, with Irish, I shoot digital to have more images to work on later...

It is funny how when we nail our first image we are both pleased with, which so far happened to be the first plate, we go on cruise control. It seems to give both of us freedom to just go with the flow and make more amazing images. It was quite difficult to go thru my progression of which plate I loved most, but for this shoot with Irish, it ended up being the last. I realized we would be there for way too many more hours to be able to surpass what we got...



Irish Heather Collins