Thanks for your interest in my “Taking a Picture” series. Just as a note, I have continued improving my digital workflow and some of these notes are now out-of-date. Feel free to drop a line in the comments or contact me directly if you would like more information on my photographic workflow.

Even though there are so many elements involved in the making of a satisfying photograph, this is the moment that counts. I’ve spent hours preparing equipment, traveling, searching for the scene, setting up the camera, and now it’s time to expose some photo-sensitive silver particles to light. My focus becomes very acute and everything around me seems to disappear. The rush of creative energy leading up to this moment gives me a kind of excitement I can’t replicate anywhere else.

* click *

And then I pack everything up and go home.

One of the things I like about shooting with film is the delayed gratification. There’s a certain thrill to be found in pulling a roll of film out of the developer and seeing that an image has been formed. The process still works! The anticipation of seeing the contact sheet for the first time becomes almost too great to bear. And then, the truth comes out: most of the photographs on the roll don’t live up to my expectations. I become conflicted. It’s not that they’re bad (well, sometimes they are), it’s just that enough time has passed between taking the pictures and actually seeing them that they’ve become almost heroic in my mind, and it’s just not possible for them all to be that good.

Then I spend a little more time with the contact sheet and interesting details emerge. I learn something new every time I go through this process. A photo I thought was a throwaway at the time appears to have more potential than I thought. A photo I thought was a sure win turns out to be static, lacking in vitality. I’ve learned to take nothing for granted, because the very fact that I make these assumptions while taking a picture in turn influences how it will come out. Some of my best photos come when I am able to empty my mind completely.

And now the work begins. It’s time to turn potential energy into kinetic; time to pick an image and make something happen.

This is my most recent contact sheet. I am not making any claims that it’s anything spectacular—in fact, as you can see, most of the images aren’t great. I think the effect of the yellow-orange filter in several photos is heavy-handed, and I’m still having some kind of weird technical problem, too. There are a couple in here that intrigue me, though, and certainly at least one or two that will work in the context of this series. I’ll let you know which one I’ve chosen when I get back to town early next week, and then we’ll take a look at scanning.

Some technical information for those so inclined: these photographs were taken with a Hasselblad 500 C/M on Ilford HP5+ film. I developed this batch in Xtol at 1:2 for 15 minutes at 68° F. The contact sheet is just a flatbed scan of a photo sleeve, with each frame individually adjusted for contrast.

This series of blog posts follow a single image from it’s very conception all the way through to the final print. When I’m done, I’m going to give the print to someone who has commented on one of the posts along the way.

Click here to read other posts in this series.