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A Photographer’s Wedding…

Klea and Dave got married at the Westerbeke Ranch in Sonoma on July 23, 2011.

Klea and Dave’s wedding may have been one of the easiest and one of the hardest weddings that I have ever photographed.

It was one of the easiest weddings that I have photographed because Klea is also a photographer so she knew how to create a beautiful wedding… She picked a photogenic location with amazing light and carefully planned all of the details.

It was one of the hardest weddings because Klea is also a photographer so naturally she has high expectations of the photographs of her own wedding. With Klea’s high expectations weighing heavily on my mind, I may have been a bit more nervous than I normally am before I photograph a wedding. But I had to remind myself that she hired me for a reason and that my job was to stay calm and to do what I always do… except with more film. Because like every good photographer, Klea loves film and she wanted me to document each part of the day with my film camera as well as with my digital camera.

So to make sure I had every moment covered, I hired Annika Erickson, another talented photographer, to be the second photographer… and here is our story of Klea and Dave’s wedding...

See if you can tell which photographs are digital and which photographs are film…









Congratulations, Klea and Dave, and thank you for trusting me to document your very photogenic and love-filled day.

To see more photos of Klea and Dave’s wedding and to find out which photos are film click here.

It’s All About the Family…

Last week I received this email:

I am looking for someone to take photos of my extended family (13 people ages 3 mos-75 yrs) in Bolinas. We are renting a house there for the weekend for my mom’s birthday. I think we would want some photos of everyone and some of the four nuclear families that make up the 13 people. Your photos are beautiful. I didn’t look at all of them but they seemed to be mostly one person. Do you have any examples of larger groups?

Thanks,
Deborah

So, inspired, I decided to dig through the archives and share some of my favorite Rolleiflex “family”photos…

To see what digital group photos look like click here.

 

This is film (and my summer)…

I love film and I love summer.

And I couldn’t live without either one.

Well, maybe I could.

But life would be a lot less interesting and a lot less fun.

The only problem is that they are both so very time-consuming.

This summer was so busy that it seemed not to exist at all.

But I know it did because I have the film to prove it.

Even with the endlessly long summer days,

It seemed there still was never enough time…

To stop.

Or even pause and devote the time that film selfishly demanded.

So it sat neglected.

Piling up on my desk.

Waiting in the sidelines, as digital got all the glory.

Waiting for the grand finale.

And finally, here, the first day of October, it is.

A few of the summer film highlights, all at once.

Like cliffs notes.

Or the final minutes of a firework show.

But I still have high hopes of devoting a full post to each of these amazing occasions, faces, relationships.

I have even started the spinning the narratives in my head.

But time is running out.

As it is known to do.

And so this will have to do for now.

This showcase of why I love film and why I hope you will too.

Besides the obvious yet unpredictable beauty of film,

I also love its more discreet yet unfaltering faithfulness.

I feel comforted knowing that if disaster struck, and all my hard drives suddenly crashed tomorrow,

My film would still be there, sitting in a pile on my desk.

Waiting patiently in line to be filed away.

And talking excitedly about the summer that really did exist.

How to Photograph a Photographer…

This is Michael Garlington, a fellow Petaluman and photographer, who is known for his creatively dark and imaginative 4×5 portraits.

I needed to photograph him for the Artist and Farmer project that we are doing in Petaluma. But how do you photograph someone who has photographed and been photographed countless different ways?

First I did some research. I looked at all the photos I could find of Michael, and from what I found it seemed that he was always posing… hiding behind faces, fictional characters and props. So I wanted to try and photograph him without the props or the characters. Just Michael and a white background.

But how do you photograph someone who is so used to acting for the camera?

After some brainstorming, I decided photographing him nude would be the best way to go, because there is no way to hide when you are naked.

But that idea made me nervous. I love the human figure and I am excited every time someone asks me to photograph them nude, but I have never asked anyone to pose nude for me, because I would most likely never pose naked for anyone, so how could I ask that of someone else. But because Michael often photographs nude females, I thought it would only be fair if he posed nude for once. So, I asked him.

And his response, “I will. I have to say yes, because I ask other people to do it for me. So I will do it… but not today.”

Phew.

I was off the hook. And we got to work… talking, setting up cameras and backgrounds, getting to know each other, and taking photos… with our clothes on.

Trying to be Patient…

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Someone asked me how I managed all the roles of film that I take with my Rolleiflex, and the answer for this summer was… I didn’t.

I was so busy running around taking more photos that I didn’t have time to deal with the negatives. So I had towers of envelopes, with negatives inside, building a little city in our spare bedroom. It was so intimidating that my solution was to keep the spare bedroom door shut, so I wouldn’t have to see all the work waiting for me.

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Finally, this week was the week. Sunday night I got everything set up on our kitchen table, still no office, and Monday morning I got to work. And I worked and worked and worked… filing, scanning, filing, scanning. And now that everything is filed and scanned, the dust retouching begins.

Film is a lot of work.

But it is so worth it. I found so many treasures that I didn’t even know I had.

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Digital photography is incredibly useful and I am grateful to have it. It is a great learning tool and essential for photo shoots with quick turn around times. But film inspires and excites me in a way that digital just can’t.

I wish I could post all of my new loves tonight, to prove my point that film is amazing once and for all, and because I am still not good at saving, anything. Not presents, not money, definitely not chocolate, I eat all the chocolate in my Advent calenders during the first week, and not photos that I love.

But I am going to try and be patient and create my own Rollei Advent Calender… one Rollei photo post a day… until?

Well, at least until all of this batch has been introduced to the world, and then we’ll see.

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(Models: Arann Harris, my skateboarding muse of a husband, and Mia the wonder dog.)

Portrait Practice…

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I am trying to do a better job of slowing down and really looking when I take portraits: looking at lines, framing and as always… light.

It is really convenient that I have a built-in model who can really benefit from having fun photos. Arann is always eager to have more photos for his band, The Green String Farm Band. And so when he had a video shoot at the Green String Farm, for the Press Democrat’s Butter and Egg Day promotion, I decided to come along with my Rolleiflex, just in case.

And well, just-in-case, turned into a ‘just-can’t-stop’ obsession. As we were waiting for the film crew to arrive, I just started taking photos… and then I couldn’t stop. Everyone who was in the vicinity became my model, like it or not. Some people multiple times… and some people weren’t people at all.

I was out of color film, and it had been awhile since I concentrated on black and white. For some reason I have been in love with color lately. And so when the fog started to roll in and the diffused the sun combined with the polka-dot and stripe sister duo below, I was really bummed not to have color film.

But after seeing the negatives, I am happy I had to return to the simplicity of black and white film… no distractions, and no relying on color to make the photo… it has to be about the basics and then you can add color… so it’s a good thing I am practicing… lines, framing, light… repeat.

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Happy Birthday Chicken Man… I hope your next decade is full of lots of golden egg laying feathered friends and no bobcats.

Digging out the Rollei again…

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It took me awhile… but I am back and so is the Rollei.

I have been completely swamped for the past three months… my brain has been divided in so many directions and I haven’t had time for anything other than work and planning for the wedding celebration Arann and I had with some of our closest friends and family over the weekend. The official/legal marriage is yet to come, but we wanted to at least celebrate with some of our dearest loved ones. We are going to legally get married in a state where everyone is allowed to marry, and now we are excited to add two more states to the list of options… Vermont and Iowa…. yay for the little states.

And now back to the celebrating with the people we love….

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The weekend was so wonderful… and I did not take a single photo…. until Sunday. Then I dusted off the Rollei that has been neglected for months and started documenting the after party of the after party. And nothing says “party” like dental floss and tecate.

I was in love with the colors and the sunshine and my friends so I couldn’t help but take their photos…. again and again and again.

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These beautiful people are my Montana friends. The baby, Margot, and the mom, Nici, were here just over a year ago and their portrait on the beach was one of the first portraits I did with my Rollei. It was love at first sight (of the Rollei negatives) then, and after picking up the scans from the lab this time, one year later, it is clear that the Rollei has stolen my heart yet again.

I HATE THAT PHOTO…

That’s the voicemail my mom left on my phone after she saw my last blog post with her photo on it. Her message made me laugh because she can be really funny, even when she isn’t trying to be. But she really wanted me to take that photo down… but… I didn’t.

I didn’t take the photo down, partly because she is my mom, and not a client, but more importantly because I LOVE THAT PHOTO, because it is my real, uncensored mom, and because it was a great day with a great hike, and because that is a look that I know and love so well.

I was a little nervous though, because she said that I could never take another photo of her again, and I do have some family members who mean that. So I thought I should at least try and take a photo that she might not hate, because to take a photo of her that she would love would be impossible. So on our hike in Pt Reyes, during her Thanksgiving visit, we happened to stop in a spot where the light was just perfect and I talked her into trying one more time. Hopefully this time she won’t hate the photos… we’ll soon see.

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Most people do not like photos of themselves, even really good photos of them, and that is one of the hardest parts of being a photographer. Before the shutter is ever pressed, the protests come… “I am not photogenic,” or, “Your camera might break.” And sometimes the offensive body parts are listed, one-by-one.

But if I want to be a photographer then I have to ignore all protests, because if I didn’t then I would never take another photo of a person again. So I say,”You won’t break my camera. You probably are photogenic, but you may not have had a photographer who understands what makes a good photo.” I promise them that we will end up with photographs they will like… and I won’t put any photos that they don’t like on display to the public… (as long as THEY are not my MOM… sorry mom… I love you. Thank you for being a beautiful, trusting, understanding, supportive and a patient model/mother!!)

And… here are a couple more from the hike that I love too.

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The Album is Ready…

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Remember the album I was talking about a few weeks ago?ah_fllier3

The sound editing is finished, the cd’s have been printed, the cd covers have been screen-printed and cut out by hand, and after their first weekend of gigs with their new cd’s… they have sold 20 so far.

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The whole package is definitely an organic work of visual and audio art. No two cd’s are alike… sounds like a good Christmas present to me. You can get a sneak peek of what it sounds like here:

http://www.myspace.com/greenstringfarmband

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