Thanks SmugMug and EZ Prints!!!

jeffreaux2

I embarked on a photography project some time ago last year that was a huge success. SmugMug and EZ Prints played a role in that success.

My father in law suffers from alzheimers and is a few years into his slow but steady decline. In the midst of this, with the economy what it is, he and his wife were forced to sell their home. For years he has kept one super beautiful garden there, and as his health began to fade the garden became his entire world.

When it seemed imminent that the house would be going up for sale I made the decision to do a photography project involving him and his home/ garden to preserve the images/memories. I wanted to present the images in some form to my wife....to at least help with the pain of not only watching his health decline, but also in the loss of the only place she had ever called home.

I decided that I would shoot this on film rather than digital purely for sentimental reasons. I wanted negatives in boxes for my kids to rifle through one day. Maybe when I am old and grey. This turned out to be a good decision, especially taking the particular camera I chose into consideration.

I found a reasonably priced Yashica Mat 124G twin lens reflex camera on Ebay and bought it. It was in excellent shape, save for the light seals which were easy enough to replace. I shot a test roll of film through it (this is a medium format camera) to develop an exposure strategy and workflow. Relying on the built in meter is chancy since the correct voltage batteries are no longer available. The cameras viewfinder and film pane are square....and as with other waist level type viewfinder cameras the image in the viewfinder is horizontally flipped. The square and the flip were a pain at first, but later....when coupled with the manual focusing and exposure calculations....I was really forced to slow down and THINK about what I was composing...who....and why. I also only took one 12 exposure roll of film per trip. No "spray and pray" 16gig CF card to water down the mistakes. Each exposure needed to "count".

A soft shot from my test roll. This softness due to camera shake. I quickly became aware that I needed to brace the camera against something solid when shooting. I mostly hand held, but was very careful about how I went about it.

The workflow consisted of capturing on color film. Driving the exposed film to a local camera store that develops and scans on site. Waiting 2 weeks or so for him to get to my order, and then picking up my negatives and scans. From there, I would drop them on my pc and process as I normally would with my digital photos.

Another blurry test shot, this one due to inaccurate focusing.



But when its sharp....well...

...and so you can see that a great deal of thought and preparation went into this project...not only in trying to capture technically good images, but also in giving the images and the process of capturing them the utmost respect.

..and so I began...

...and brought the old camera with me for several Saturday visits....

Technically, the images fall a bit short of "best" for me, but...emotionally they represent the most important shots Ive taken in a very looong time.

...and I was VERY worried about the scans salvaging enough resolution for a proper print.:huh

Enter SmugMug....

The plan was to print most of the images I captured in both color and black and white so that I could decide later which version I prefered. Then I would choose 6 of the photos and have them matted and framed in a single piece. I only printed at 5x5 inches, but was blown away by the detail in the images. 10x10 inches would have been NO problem with the same files. I have always chosen "no corrections" when ordering prints...preferring to rely on my calibrated monitor and own tastes for processing. True to form the prints were unmolested from the original files. The muted colors and tinted black and whites came back to me exactly as I had envisioned. (whew!!!)

...and so lastly I brought the whole pile to tha gal I use for framing. She is very good at what she does....and just as importantly (to me) is a very spiritual woman. She knows far more about choosing the right matting and mouldings than I do and so together we came up with the end product.

...and I cant begin to tell you how proud I am of these images....but....they werent really for me....but rather for my wife.

I had given her an image from the set as a single in a 5x5 frame several weeks before christmas, but it didnt go over very well. She was visibly shaken and was unable to look at it. A few days later though...it had found it's way to her dresser top...to what I guess will be a permenent place. This reaction , however, prompted me to present her with the grouping a few days before christmas. All things considered, the holidays were pretty hard for her this year and I didnt want to add insult to injury on Christmas day.

In the end though...she love the grouping....and was suddenly VERY understanding of the purchase and restoration of the camera....the Saturdays at her dads....the "no peeking" at the computer...and all the rest that went into this gift.

For the role that SmigMug and EZPrints played.....

Thank You....:bow


...and a reminder....that regardless of the size of the order...or the subject matter.....you never really know what someone has invested in those images.....how much they are worth....how much they "mean"...how much they are needed....

Happy 2011 !!! :thumb

l.k.madison

jeffreaux2 wrote: »

I decided that I would shoot this on film rather than digital purely for sentimental reasons. I wanted negatives in boxes for my kids to rifle through one day. Maybe when I am old and grey. This turned out to be a good decision, especially taking the particular camera I chose into consideration.

When you're old and gray? How much longer is that for you?

I'm totally kidding, by the way.

Great work, as always.

My grandmother suffered from Alzheimer's for many many years before we figured it out, she'd found creative ways to hide it and cover it up. Sad, really to see that mind go the way it did.

Glad your wife enjoyed them. The holidays are often more stressful than they should be, especially when there's family issues going on (and who's family doesn't have issues?).

Hope your holidays went well, Merry Late Christmas and Happy Late New Year to you and yours!

P.S. Whatever came of the roll of film that was in the camera when you got it?

Art Scott

Such a great work .......bowbow

jeffreaux2

l.k.madison wrote: »

My grandmother suffered from Alzheimer's for many many years before we figured it out, she'd found creative ways to hide it and cover it up. Sad, really to see that mind go the way it did.

I hear ya....the gal who framed them said her Mom stayed with them for almost two years. She stayed in the daughter's bedroom.....a room that had been shared by 3 girls. During the time she stayed....the girls at first camped out in the living room long enough for the carport to be closed in and finished as an additional bedroom.

During all that time, she never asked where the girls slept or realized that they had given up their room for her. Yet all the time she denied that there was anything wrong with her mind.

Its a tough pill to swallow....watching someone you love deteriorate that way.

Glad your wife enjoyed them. The holidays are often more stressful than they should be, especially when there's family issues going on (and who's family doesn't have issues?).

She had an especially tough holiday season. Thank you.

Hope your holidays went well, Merry Late Christmas and Happy Late New Year to you and yours!

Same to you Lauren

P.S. Whatever came of the roll of film that was in the camera when you got it?

I mailed it to the guy I had bought the camera from. The film had been tucked away in there for quite awhile. One of the subjects on that roll had died in 1981....so it was at least that old. The seller was glad to have them back and surprised I had gone to the trouble.

I dont own a scanner that is capable of doing a good job on negatives yet....but this is one of those "found" captures on that roll.....

BradfordBenn

Great project and great sentiment. i really like the idea of the negatives for passing on.