Saturday, July 23, 2011

How It All Starts

Hey everyone:

Since my skin started to sizzle after being outside today, I thought a blogging session in some nice, comfy air conditioning was in order. Blogging tunes today come courtesy of R.E.M. Been listening to some of their older stuff of late - we're getting reacquainted, and it feels like I never left! Even my kids were rockin' out to Reckoning in my car the other day.

Anyway, I thought for today's blogging session I'd show everyone where one of my plastic camera images typically starts:


Overall, this wasn't the lab's best scanning effort. But, to be fair, a couple of the images were kinda iffy anyway, so I can't blame them completely. I see the one above potentially being the case of a "happy accident" where this might actually work to my advantage. It actually came out a little creepier than I expected, and y'all know that I'm a big fan of the creepy. In fact, a lot of my work has this nostalgic feeling, with an unsettling undertone - so this one could fit in nicely.

As you can see, the original image is very flat looking, with these big blobs on the left and right side of the frame. Those white spots are two circles inside the camera touching the film. This camera was originally meant for a different kind of film (one that isn't made anymore), and I've rigged it to take 35 mm, which means light leaks and crazy things happen. Until I figure out a way to work around this issue, I've been retouching those areas, or cropping them out if the composition doesn't suffer.

Working on this image will take some time, and then from there, I'll probably put it through my printing process. I have some interesting ideas on how to work with this one, so I'll be sure to post the finished product when I'm done.

Stay cool out there everyone...break open a fire hydrant or something (not that I'm officially condoning that type of behavior)...

-Marc