February 26, 2013
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The Greens Are Bad
I am not as good at correcting color as I am at correcting exposure (and however relative this statement may be, it remains true.)
Those colors are wrong. Well: the red is a little tto red, the orange seems okay–it’s the greens that are screaming at me. I have tinkered and tinkered with this picture. The whole role was wonky, but luckily they were mostly shots of stuff I’ve either shot a hundred times before or since, they were out of focus or they were just…Cheryl amusing herself with the *click* of the lens. Nor is this a particularly monumental shot: other than the fact that the colors are wrong, there is really nothing all that spectacular about it. Well. When it was taken, which was in the late 80s, early 90s, the balloon festival in Jackson was held at Ella Sharp Park and on-lookers could mingle among the inflating and launching balloons. I will assume we were pests, because eventually the festival was moved to the airport and pedestrians were fenced out of the launch area.
Is this any better? (Contract reduced.) The colors are still wrong, but they glare a little less.
Anyway.
I took a LOT of really bad, ill-conceived, underlit, over-exposed, dark, light, faded, unfocused photographs in my time.
As I write this I am scanning eight–8–photographs of Derek in the pool. From my limited understanding of negatives, they all appear to be good shots, and I am a firm advocate of the philosophy, ‘if there is any doubt in your mind at all, take the shot again’, but still: eight? (I;m not sure I can see any difference between the two shots above, now. Oh, well: perhaps that IS the problem.)
Well, okay. He’s cute.
You should see him now. I should modify that somehow. My nephew is a very attractive man. He is a body builder, very careful about what he eats. I tend not to take many photographs of him because it makes me feel self-conscious. Who knows what that is about. Equally, his older brother is an attractive man and I take very few pictures of him as an adult because as soon as I pick up the camera he shoves something in front of his face. Perhaps I took too many pictures of them when they were kids.
Things I know for sure I photographed too often:
I have more photographs of this lighthouse than most people have photographs. Of everything they’ve ever taken a picture of. Altogether. It would appear I spent my summers in my dad’s fishing boat, floating past the South Haven lighthouse while clicking the shutter click click click click. You would think that somewhere along the line, if purely by accident, I would have an outstanding photograph of the South Haven lighthouse.
Well, it is time for my first game of Phase 10 for the day.
I am going to Alabama this weekend to spend a week or so with my Dad. Which right now means I won’t be be scanning for a while, which may, in fact, be a welcome break.
I wish I had taken a few more really good pictures.
