Monthly Archives: September 2014

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“Something Extraordinary”

The subject of today’s post is the time my niece (aged 12 at the moment) was wanting to do some paid modeling work ( 😉 ) for me last month. She was getting excited, asking me how much I might possibly pay her to be my model. She wanted to know what the MAX amount I might pay her for this session. In sort of a teasing manner, I said “Oh, well, if you want over x amount of dollars, it’d have to be something extraordinary.” She wanted to know what constituted “extraordinary.” Just for grins and giggles, I suggested maybe if she’d wear the tiara from her graduation ceremony at church last year (a sparkly tiara being something she would NOT want to be caught dead in under normal circumstances,) I would consider that extraordinary and would give her a higher “modeling fee.”

She ran into her room and grabbed the box which had been housing the tiara since she had been required to wear it for the ceremony at church last year. I guarantee you she hadn’t given that thing a second thought until the day of our photo shoot. I told her to put it on, so I could see if I really did like the idea of photographing her in it. She popped it on her head and sat down next to me to start figuring out ideas for the photo shoot. I was laughing SO HARD (on the inside – didn’t want her to think I was making fun of her) because she would pitch an idea, look over her glasses at me with a twinkle in her eyes, and say “Would that be ‘extraordinary’??” This went on for quite awhile, between pitching ideas and fee negotiations. Eventually, AM said “What if I were holding my bo staff* and had the tiara on??” She thought that combo would be worth a high sum. A tough princess vibe for the shoot? What was really making me laugh was the fact that she was running around with the tiara on her head the whole time that we were trying to figure out the details of the photo shoot – much longer than would have been required to wear it in the photos. I was thinking, “Girl, don’t you realize you’re wearing that tiara for free while you’re running around trying to plan these photos??”

 

Yashica-Mat • Ilford HP5 Plus
(+ the Impossible Project gold frame shot with my Polaroid SX-70 Sonar)

And you know what? After all that planning, I just took 12 photos with my Yashica TLR (well, and the Polaroid one at the top of the post.) There were only a few I really liked enough to show off.  But I just think so fondly of this session because of the planning portion when my niece had that glimmer in her eyes, trying to think of something extraordinary for the photos. ♥♥♥
*Don’t worry, internet, my niece doesn’t really have a bo staff. It’s a broom handle that has tape on it in strategic places, that she and my dad made to go with a Halloween costume a couple of years ago.

{Forgotten Frames} Hidden Gems

Once in awhile, I bribe my niece (AM) into doing a photo shoot. This is usually when she’s saving to buy something, and I consider paying her to do a little photo shoot is no different than her getting chore money from her parents. But I like to make it a little fun for her.

For instance, last year we did a shoot where AM wore her Hunger Games t-shirt and posed with her bow and arrow. I actually never shared those online. They were taken on color film, but the scans I received from the photo lab were pretty terrible. The colors just weren’t right, and I didn’t want to post photos of my niece where her beautiful skin and amazing red hair didn’t look the way they should!

So I left the photos alone. I toyed with the idea of converting the photos to black and white on the computer. That idea never really went anywhere.

But then

I was doing another photo shoot with my niece and remembered about the bow and arrow photos from last year. I decided to go ahead and make those photos black and white to see if that made me happier. And did it ever! I am in love with these photos now. I think I appreciate them even more than if I’d done this with them when they were originally taken.

Bronica ETRSi •  Zenzanon MC 150mm/3.5 & Zenzanon 75mm/2.8 EII • Kodak Porta 160, converted to b&w
May 2013 (AM, age 11)

 

{Kit Car} Grainy Mercedes

Do you know what a kit car is?

A person can buy a kit of components and build themselves a replica vintage car. I know that, because my dad was hired to build a kit car for someone when I was a child.

The kit car referenced in today’s post is a Mercedes – apparently a replica of a 1929 Merecdes Gazelle.

Most of the photos of cars/motorcycles that I post on SWP are taken at the auto auction where my family’s catering business provides meals on auction days every week. This Mercedes kit car was parked in the auction sales floor one of the days I was there to do food prep work. We were the only people on the premises, so I was free to photograph the car to my heart’s delight!

Bronica ETRSi • Zenzanon 75mm/2.8 EII • Lomography Lady Grey 400 film

Unfortunately, this was probably the last roll I put through my Bronica before I “accidentally” sold it to Urban (the man from whom I won the Konica Big Mini that I’ve been enjoying this year.) I say “unfortunately,” because I had some of the worst film EVER loaded in it for (what would turn out to be) the last roll I’d shoot with the Bronica. That Chinese-made film repackaged by Lomography left all the polka dots and numbers you see on the pictures.  It’s a fault with the film’s backing paper (or the ink on it, according to some.) And BOY is this film grainy! Resulting in a grainy Mercedes…

{Redux} ’64 Ford

Yashica-Mat • Kodak Ektachrome 64T (tungsten-balanced), expired March 1997 • Cross-processed

The 1964 Ford truck again, taken during the same sunrise as the ones I shared in my recent Kiev 4AM blog post.

I got downright giddy when I saw this truck sitting out on the auction sales floor. Times like these are why I make sure to have a camera with me at all times.

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