B. has always been a reticent subject for portraiture. She thinks the process should be quick, painless and infrequent. It may have been misguided for her to marry a photographer. Especially one who is much more interested in making portraits than taking landscape images.
We went to Sweetish Hill Bakery at least once a week for about 30 years. Coffee and pastries. Eventually the beloved owners and originators aged out of the business and sold it to a fashionable but mostly soulless restaurant group. They've turned what was once a neighborhood bakery into a frou-frou enterprise; Doubling the prices of the products and cutting the quality in half. Pre-pandemic it had become newly chic.
I can't recall ever going to the bakery without a camera over one shoulder or the other (usually the left...) and on this foray I'm sure it was a Leica CL. I used the 40mm lens and got a bit too close. I should have bought a 90mm for that camera but I always considered it to be a quintessential point-and-shoot camera. I also didn't think the finder was very accommodating for use with longer lenses.
At the time I probably overlooked this image because I didn't like the wide angle perspective and the way it worked to change the geometry of B's face. Now I find the image a wonderful artifact/treasure from an age where cameras were always full frame and nearly always just eccentric enough to enjoy.
Tri-X all the way. And, no, that's not a digital frame edge, that's the effect of filing out your own personal negative carriers. Unique.
6 comments:
I like it! A photographer is their own worst critic.
Eric
I think it's a beautiful photo. You are forever reminded of a history shared by you and the woman you love. Some of my personal favorites are of my wife during our travels, when I momentarily pull her attention as she's engaged in activity or just gazing. The act of photographing is entirely secondary, but I'm forever grateful I had a camera on-hand to capture the moment.
Funny how often a large corporation buys up a business that's doing well only to end up destroying the very thing that made it good. In the food world, this usually means ruining the taste and quality of the food. The knowledge to make good food didn't suddenly disappear, so they must be deliberately choosing to ruin it. You would think that because the large company had more resources, they would instead be able to make the food better. WTF is wrong with people.
LOVELY
Amen to Rich. Perfect portrait.
Kirk, I had to laugh, but first..
Agreed, that is a truly beautiful portrait and, like Ronman, some of my favorite shots are those unguarded ones that remind me of joyous times.
And, talking of my wife, I had to pass on your comment and told her she was lucky not to be married to a portrait photographer. She replied, "Tell him it's far worse being married to a landscape photographer - always having to wait around for people to get out of the way and the light to be just right!"
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