I pride myself on being fastidious about getting film developed in a very timely manner, as well as making sure I know what the content of each roll is when I get it developed. Well, I thought I was fastidious about that, until this past year or so. First there was the half 2006, half 2010 roll of film, then there was the mystery Holga roll, next it was this test roll from 2006 I sorta forgot to get developed, and now the subject of today’s post! I think I am going to have to add a new category to my blog called “forgotten frames” since this keeps happening…

Backstory: When I moved this summer, I noticed some rolls of film in my things. I assumed they were blank (that perhaps they had been misloaded in a camera and rewound before actually being exposed, that they’d accidentally been exposed to light, etc.) I thought it would be good to take the film into the photo lab just in case my normally fastidious film record keeping skills had failed me. When I picked up the developed film, I’d found that I was right: some of the film was unexposed, some of it had been fogged by exposure to light, and my record keeping had failed me when it came to one of the rolls. And this failing in my film record keeping is one of the biggest treats I’ve had in some time. I am smiling from ear to ear!

That’s because the forgotten frames of film held some gems of my favorite person, when she was half as old as she is now. Once I looked at the pictures, I knew EXACTLY what was going on here. I remembered this day well.  And fondly.

It was summer of 2007. My aunt was staying in a motel while damage to her house was being repaired. My niece, who was five at the time, and I went swimming at the motel’s pool. I took my Yashica Electro 35 GT into the water with me, which probably wasn’t advisable since I could have completely ruined the camera if I got it wet. I came out with some of my favorite photos of my niece ever (see here).  I also had another camera with me that day. It was an underwater/waterproof camera I’d purchased a couple of years before but hadn’t gotten much use from since, you know, it’s not like I spend my weekends kayaking or snorkeling. But swimming in a motel pool was a good chance to use it!

I don’t know why I didn’t get this film developed at the time it was used. I think it may have been because I wasn’t that keen on this camera. I hadn’t much liked results I’d gotten from it previously. But, as I said, I am so glad that I got the treat of seeing these for the first time four years after they were taken! They’re so precious!

BEST. PICTURE. EVER.

I am pretty delighted right now.

Prologue:

Now, maybe you noticed the colors are kind of weird in these photos. There are also dark curves at the top and bottom of each photo. The weird colors are from years of heat damage to the film – that can make the colors get all whacked out. The dark curves, well, I was surprised at the source of those. I thought that perhaps the film had curled up in the negative scanner at the photo lab because heat damage can also cause film to curl. But, no, the blackened areas are actually ON the negative. I dug out the (now broken and unusable) waterproof camera and found that the the plastic frame inside it was bent. Basically, the weirdness of this roll of film is all due to the sort of happy accidents that happen from time to time when shooting film. I couldn’t reproduce if I wanted to.

Holga 135 • Fuji Superia 400

Vignettes from a playground

And I’ve had a camera stuck in her face ever since.

(Whether she’s liked it or not!)

My niece really likes it when we spray her hair with wash-out hair coloring. She’s not allowed to do so when school is in session though. I don’t know what the actual dress code at her school says, but I’m going to take a guess that it’s something like:  “Brightly colored streaks in your hair are frowned upon in this establishment!”

Because of her school’s dress code, we try to make sure we color her hair as much as possible when she’s got a break from school.  I gave AM some cans of hair color this Spring and promised we’d start using them as soon school dismissed for summer.  I went to Mississippi so she and I could spend her first day of Summer Break together, and it happened to coincide with a little picnic her art teacher was having for AM and the other people in her private art class. AM was extra keen to have some bright color in her hair for this picnic. You know, like an artistic touch to her hairstyle in honor of her art class picnic. I just took her “little braid” and sprayed it neon green. We were pretty happy with the results.  At the class picnic, the art teacher grinned nervously and said “That’s really unusual…“

And we don’t mind that reaction at all, because AM not expressing her own sense of style is frowned upon in this establishment…

]]> http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/2011/02/01/snow-day-lomo/feed/ 0 http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/2010/07/15/old-and-new/ http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/2010/07/15/old-and-new/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:22:37 +0000 araney http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/?p=795 The 1954 Pontiac that was our family car during our childhood.

Our little girl.

AM was having a very ornery afternoon, not wanting to have her photo made.

But each of these photos is the last frame from their respective rolls. And they embody what I meant to accomplish with photos that afternoon.

(Canon Rebel 2000. Lomo LC-A)

When my niece was a little younger, we did portraits of her twice a year, to send to her out of town family members. We’d do these at her birthday in October and around Easter in the spring. Because I’d been living “in the city” and working at churches the past couple of years, it had been difficult for me to get together with my niece on Easter itself to do her spring portraits. I really wanted to revive our spring photo tradition this year, and was so thankful for the beautiful weather this Easter Sunday.

I like to think of AM (my niece) as being a seasoned model. The first picture I took of her in the hospital, she was making eye contact with the camera. There are times when I can tell that AM knows the “look” she wants to portray to the camera. Quite savvy of her, I think.

But, mostly, as with any other portrait subject, I don’t want AM to worry too much about posing. I just want her to be herself. And what a wonderful “self” she is. Even if the kid DID pull her out tooth out a few minutes before we were set to go out and do these photos, she’s still alright by me.

It’s also a happy day because I went to my favorite camera shop and picked up a CD containing scans of several rolls of film. You should understand: seeing scans of photos I’ve taken is like Christmas for me. Every time. Popping the disc into the computer and looking at those images for the first time, well, is just like unwrapping a Christmas pressie. Every time.

What did I receive on this particular Mini Christmas Day?

Among other things, I received photos from when I was with my brother Jonathan last week. He moved to Montana 4 years ago, and I have only seen him twice since. Because I enjoy documenting my friends and family, it was really important to me to get some photos of my brother. I wanted to make sure we’d have something to remember our day by.

I met with Jonathan at Otherlands. He was on the patio, having a smoke.

My bruvva at Otherland’s

Jonathan has two goals when he comes home: 1) Enjoy as much time as he can, with as many friends and loved ones as he can. 2) Eat his way across the Mid-South at all the restaurants that can’t be equaled in Montana. That means my normally health-conscious brother gladly guzzles gallons of sweet tea,  eats his weight in the white cheese dip at Mexican restaurants (who knew THAT’S something he’d have to do without in Montana???), and makes frequent visits to the BBQ restaurants that seem to dot every corner in this city (hey, he’s only home every couple of years. Why not live it up while he is here? And hopefully he’ll never see this blog and find out that I’ve shared with the world his Memphis eating habits.)

Can you tell I had to forced Jonathan to stand here while I took his picture at Tom’s?

I was pretty glad that the BBQ restaurant Jonathan chose that day was photogenic.

I wish I had more photos to show you. Unfortunately, the rest of the day wasn’t quite as photogenic as what you see here. But I don’t think I’ll need photos to remember going on a quest with Jonathan to find something zombie-related, something red, and something green for him to send to a girl back in Montana. Traipsing around Summer Avenue’s fine selection of thrift and antique stores with my brother will remain in my memory forever, even without photos to remind me.

(For those of you who like to know the technical information on my photos, the shots in this blog post were made with my Holga 120N and expired, cross-processed Fuji Velvia.)

]]> http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/2009/10/23/oh-happy-day/feed/ 0 http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/2009/09/15/my-best-friend-meredith-and-my-brilliant-plan/ http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/2009/09/15/my-best-friend-meredith-and-my-brilliant-plan/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:48:14 +0000 araney http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/?p=209

I have a best friend named Meredith. She is a free-spirited gal. She climbs trees. She usually has a blonde streak in her hair, that can be shaded blue from time to time if the mood strikes. She laughs a lot. She doesn’t sleep much. These are things to know about Meredith.

Meredith doesn’t live in Memphis anymore, but she graced us with her presence this past weekend. I met her on a playground in Nutbush. She climbed things and made a make-shift see-saw with her friend Jake from the Northwest. I was glad I was on hand to photograph Meredith being Meredith, and now I am sharing that with you.

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