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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.)

Searching for a Moon of Honey…

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I always pictured I would be swimming in warm water… with a snorkle mask if I ever went on a honeymoon. But when we compared the costs of flying somewhere warm with driving to a free cabin in Tahoe… I traded the snorkle for my very own snowboarding boots… and it was heaven.

No computers, no cell phones, no one we knew… only snow, a cabin, a fireplace, rummikube and the two of us. It was all we needed to recharge our batteries before jumping back into life as a married couple… oh and don’t forget the putt-putt…

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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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Making Men in Hairnets Look Good….

My most wonderful friend Claudia, who was a classmate of mine at the London College of Communication last year, was getting married in June… and she wanted me to come back to London for her wedding. So as a way to get me there, she asked me to photograph her wedding. At first I said, “No way.” Because with the American dollar being almost half the value of the British pound, there was no way I could afford to go… but then I got creative.

Before I went to London, I sent out a few eager emails to everyone I know saying that I was on my way and ready to work. Luckily for me, I have another wonderful friend in London, and she works for Gabrielle Shaw Communications, a PR company that I did work for while I was living there last year, and sure enough they had some gigs for me.

The first of the two gigs was for Bio Green Dairy, they produce a yogurt drink and they wanted to have images that show that they are a small family-like business and that they do all the work from start to finish. The owner saw my website of children and weddings and (somehow) thought I would be a good fit.

I was very excited to go to a yogurt factory, it would be my first factory photo shoot. But as soon as I walked into the factory, I realized I had a big challenge ahead of me. How do you make an all white room, men wearing all white jump suits, and a white product look good in florescent lighting. And to make it more challenging, I arrived without a flash (because I was living out of a bag and spread between three houses, in three different parts of London, I didn’t have my flash with me… opps.)

So, with no other options, I put my camera’s ISO on 3200, my aperture as low as it could go and I held the camera very very still. And then when I returned home, I searched the Internet to find Photoshop techniques that would turn my horrendously lit and very uninteresting photos into something, anything more. Relying on Photoshop is something new to me. Up until now, I have not manipulated my photos, besides the typical darkroom maneuvers, but this was an emergency, and I have to say, I think it worked out better than I was expecting. If you are interested in knowing the Photoshop trick click here.

And this time, I am sad to say, the Rolleiflex did not succeed. There was just not enough light, color or contrast to make even a black-and-white film photo look good…. oh well, the Rollei can’t win every time.

On a sad note, the only cow at this once dairy farm is now on Bio Green’s truck. The cows, where Bio Green used to get their milk, are now gone and instead the rancher is raising horses. As a result of the loss of local agriculture, Bio Green now has to order powdered milk for their yogurt.

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