Sometimes…
maybe quite a bit more often than just sometimes…
it is hard to get back into the swing of working…even if work involves something you love.
Sometimes the task just seems too daunting.
The process I'm in the middle of right now, of developing and scanning in all of the film I shot on our trip to Hawai'i is especially huge! (even though the great techs over at National Camera are developing my color film for me…the water in my darkroom sink doesn't quite go high enough for color chemicals…) It doesn't help that I set unreasonable deadlines for myself as to when it should all be done, or try and make everyone who asks me about them happy by having some posted immediately (I know no one means to stress me out! You just want to see them as badly as I do!!)
So why do I do this? Why do I shoot film that adds about 85 zillion steps to this process?
For the great surprises I get. For the images that I don't really see until I'm hunched over my computer, loading my scanner tray, almost going cross eyed trying to make sure there is no dust on any of the negatives. The images that make me stop, that I know instantly will go in my project somewhere, that don't ever really leave my mind until I've worked them to completion.
This is one of those images. I saw it on my preview scan and stopped and stared. It was taken from my what became one of my favorite places. I was sitting on a pier looking out at the ocean, seeing the hotel and city lights, listening to the waves. Our friends took us here on our first night on the island. I took this photo on one of our last nights.
These are the surprises that keep me shooting film.
Yesterday, I sat down and started playing with images, finding images that work together, making compilations that might work in my show in September.
I was drawn to the image above, and knew that had to be part of a compilation.
I started playing…
This image I took at Hanama Bay, where we went snorkeling. It was probably one of my favorite activities of the trip, and the first place I ever snorkeled (with the exception of my grandparent's pool!)
I worked on layering these two images together, lining them up in the right way, blending colors. It seemed so simple…
This is what I ended up with:
Kind of fitting I think to make a compilation out of my two favorite places from our trip.
The bottom part is a bit dark and heavy I think, and I'm not quite sure I'm done with this image, though I like it a lot.
I wrote a bit on the plane, and something I wrote keeps kind-of haunting me (in a good way) and I think I will print that in the black area at the bottom. I think it will fit.
I can't wait to see what else I find in the rest of my film.
Until next time,
~Peace~