I flew across the country to shoot a wedding. It wasn't just the ceremony, though, it was nearly a week of dinners, events, parties. I saw a few old friends, but met so many more. These would be people who have seriously enriched my life and I dearly hope to see them again and again. And that's saying something. I'm a generally quiet person, not great at meeting new people, shy, etc. This was different, and it was hard to leave.
On to the wedding... Those that know me would tell you that I'm rather stoic. It's the big, scary Romanian in me. Though inside I'm a raging romantic, I'm not one who's easily moved to tears. Never at a wedding. Again, this was different. I actually cried during the rehearsal. It was like that all week. Love. Romance. Family and friends. It was kinda profound.
I was there to work, though, so work I did. Nearly 1500 photos and that's a lot. The pressure of that kind of one-in-a-lifetime event is nuts. You can't go back and reshoot the fucker. I have so much work left to do, like choosing, editing, and getting a book made.
The trip, itself, was a blast. I took along a dear friend to serve as my assistant and front man. We had free time here and there to wander the streets of Chicago, eat big messy sangwiches, and laugh and talk. Not as much time as I would have liked, though. The couple had what I called a rather "ambitious" schedule which meant that we had shooting planned that would fall through, so I was on call a lot of the time. I'm in no-way complaining, though. The down-time was much-needed.
While wandering, I stumbled across an old-school camera shop that was dusty and cramped. Major score = out of date film. I had taken along a Holga, a super sampler, and a super wide plastic camera, so film was definitely on my mind. Sadly, when I got back and dropped off some rolls for processing (at a pro lab, mind you), they processed my 120 Rollei Digibase CR200 (E6) as black and white instead of xpro. WTF? The truly amazing thing is that it worked and I have a b/w prints to show for it. So much for my xpro test, though.
Now, I'm home. Changed. Introspective. Took a few days to recover then buckled down. I've scanned a bit of the film stuff I've shot recently, and am really looking forward to shooting more. I've got another trip to the airport in a few days, then hopefully will be able to get properly back into a good work groove upon my return.
Beautiful work as always Christine: you are a master! :)
Claudio
Thanks, Fab. It was tricky, and lucky, since framing is a crapshoot with the Holga. =)
Love the Hotel room color balance and the trees! And the framing of course.
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