Well here we are at the end of June! Holy Cow I was on a roll during quarentine doing blog posts, and now that we are resuming some kind of business time has kind of gotten away from me! Well better late than never to get a least another blog post up while it's still June!
It has been kind of a busy month, well I guess after being closed for 3 any kind of business would make for it being busy! I have had a few studio sessions, a location family portrait session, photographing a small bride and groom wedding ceremony, and continuing to develop a narrative on a photographic essay from my morning walks with my furry girl Lucy Mae!
Studio portrait studies are my most favorite pictures to make. We don't have to worry about wind, it being too hot or too cold (Imagine it being chilly and a freeze warning in June) and I have total control over how I want to light my subjects. I was able to have a couple of high school kids in for some pictures earlier in the month.
A young lady who graduated and wanted a cap and gown portrait to symbolize this crazy year, which we also made a portrait of her in prom dress that she didn't get to wear due to COVID and cancelling so many major events in the last few months of being a high school senior.
Then I had a young man who was a High School Junior baseball player, and well you guessed it his season was cut short due to COVID too. I've been photographing him the past few years at a fundraiser event that I work with Pitts Orthodontics every year, but yes that was cancelled due to COVID. So his mom brought him in so we could do a picture of his Junior year before having to turn in the uniform.
Both of these subjects gave me the opportunity to photograph them with the view camera on 4x5 sheet film, which is my favorite method of making studio portraits. If you have never had your picture made with a view camera ( where I have to throw a cloth over my head to focus the camera) then you should contact me for a view camera portrait session. It really is an experience, and in my opinion takes all the pressure off having a photo made, because it's not snap, snap, snap, flash, flash, flash, etc. Its a slow process where we get to chat and interact and the pictures are just sensational in my opinion and you'll love how you look!
I'm working on a photo narrative of things that Lucy Mae and I see on our daily walks. I started carrying my original 35mm Minolta X700 camera a few months ago on our daily walks and purchased a bit longer lens for it this past month too. I still can't believe I got a f2.8 135mm lens for $30, but that just goes to show how crazy affordable film camera equipment has gotten, in all actuality I probably could have picked up that lens 5 years ago for $10, but due to the renewed interest in film photography I had to pay a premium of $30 :-). I love this focal length as it allows me to get close to subjects without having to get to close. Example would be some horses and an Alpaca we see on our morning walks. Anyway carrying the camera with me daily has gotten me to re-see so many things that are right in front of us that we just take for granted. I'm hoping that I can put together a collection of photographs from our walks and publish a ZINE. I think it might be a great way to curate some of the work I've been producing this year since it's pretty much been all personal work due to COVID. I'm actually pretty excited about this and seeing how its all coming together in my head. I'll keep you all posted but if you have a title for such collection let me know.
I'd show some pictures of the family I photographed, but they haven't seen them yet so maybe my next post will be devoted entirely to that session!
Here's hoping everyone is finding what the new normal is and how to live with it. I hope you are all staying healthy and safe, and if you need any kind of photographic work done please keep me in mine or pass my name along to those who need something done. I'm grateful to all those who have invited me to be a part of some of the happiest days of their lives to preserve that visual history!
Cheers!
Pete
