Pleasant day yesterday

I went shooting yesterday with a Whole Plate (6.5 x 8.5 in.) camera and had a nice experience. I was shooting at a park which was located at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers to try out some new lenses. There were quite a few people who came and went from the viewing platform there and a lot of them were interested in the camera. I let a family look through the ground glass and answered their questions about it.

Another lady told me that her son was majoring in photography at school and wanted to take a picture of the camera. So after regretting that she didn't have a camera, she took a few pics with her cell phone to show her son this strange looking camera. Various other people talked to me about the camera and I took a few shots here and there. I only have two holders for this camera. But it was a fun day and I will have to go back there sometime.

That does sound like a good day. Were you shooting film or using dryplates?

Thunderstorms rolled in just as I finished setting up an outdoor stilllife that I had waited all day to do. So, my new(used) 4 day old camera is still untested.


Mike

It's funny how good days come in fits and starts. And how all good things due from several bad days can come bundled up into one.

Yesterday I was tooling through the city when I saw a striking woman sitting on her porch. She was wearing a cloth wrapped around her head and her whole face (a detail I only noticed as I approached) was subtely mishapen, though very beautiful. She agreed to sit for me and it turns out she'd just come out of the hospital for brain surgery for an aneurysm (s?). She told me a story as I photographed and seemed grateful for the opportunity to "unload" while I was grateful for a willing and beautiful subject. I'll go back next week with prints and hopefully have a chance to photograph more of the family.

Next stop was deeper in the tourist section of town where I wanted to shoot the helipad from which tourist flights take off. While I was set up, at a distance and from the sidewalk, a guy came up who ended up being the owner and said I should come back during the week "to see what we could do." So I spent last night researching the possibility of hand held LF work from helicopters.

Last stop was house-of-horrors type tourist museum not far from the helipad. It has a skeletan in the window along with a sign off to the side to "ask about our family plan." I thought it was a funny combination and was setting up for the shot when the owner, a real nice old guy, came out and we started to chat. On Thursday I'll go back with 400 film to shoot some environmental portaits of the guy possing with some of his more goulish displays.

So a few interesting shots, a few interesting leads ...one hell of a day!

Wow, that kind of stuff is cool. Neat people. I had a similar experience shooting in an alley and the door to the building openend and the guy said I would probably like to shoot what's inside...not knowing, there was an old abandoned very small prison...very cool. He handed me his card and said call next time in town to shoot inside the prison. A neat opportunity..

jmdavis said:

That does sound like a good day. Were you shooting film or using dryplates?

Thunderstorms rolled in just as I finished setting up an outdoor stilllife that I had waited all day to do. So, my new(used) 4 day old camera is still untested.


Mike

Click to expand...

I was shooting film, HP5+.

makes me want to go out and shoot...thanks