Chris Luvara wrote:
The Sea "Fuzzy" out for an evening flight..




Hey Chris: Wish I was there to hear it!

Glenn

dangit! does quoting somebody elses picture count as a top of page pic?

in case not -





Glenn

You're pushin' it Glenn

I did a little project for Sheila last Tuesday. She has volunteered at a nursing home for over 25 years, and she asked me if I'd take portraits of the residents so their families could have current images of them. Kind of a tough assignment from the standpoint that I had no idea what each subject was capable of, as far as cooperation. Most of the 26 people were in walkers or wheel chairs, so that added to my constraints, but all in all it went fine. One of the gentleman asked me what else I shot, I went down the list. When I hit aviation his eyes lit up, "I was a flight engineer on a B24 Liberator in WWII" he proceeded to tell me. Well. we're going to take a little trip one day soon and see if we can't get him back in the cockpit of a 24. Another man I photographed fought with Patton in all his major campaigns. I was in the presence of hero's and didn't even know it.

A number of the people I photographed were suffering from Alzheimer's, varying forms of dementia, and or just plain growing old. The project got me thinking about going back and shooting available light, high iso images. These images were nicely lit and composed portraits for another purpose, but I felt a tug to go back and capture imagery that documents aging and it's components. We'll see.

This little lady didn't know who she was, much less who I was. She is well into the progression of Alzheimer's. She wanted her portrait taken though. She had difficulty making eye contact with me, it would happen for a split second, just a glance, and she'd look away. In spite of her condition, there was life in her eyes, and I wanted to capture it, before it faded.

There's something in this for me to do, I felt it more and more as I shot away. Once again, the principle proves true, if you give of yourself, you get back more than you give.

BTW, Elinchrom's, one key, one fill. 60" Octa key, 24" Chimera strip fill. In the case of this subject, the fill actually became the key and vice versa. I switched them up because I wanted to achieve more dramatic lighting to accentuate her skin tones and texture, and to capture her personality.

Shot on the 1D X, 70-200/2.8 II at 130mm/5.6, iso 200.................and that's the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say.

Great story Jim now you see what kind of people are all around you.
Would be Interesting to see a series about people with Alzheimer's, dementia etc I,m curious if you can see the difference in stage's by the photo's taken of somebody for example in between six or twelve months....

So many of these old folks who gave so much so we could have what we got...

My Mom grew up in war torn Holland under Nazi occupation they done it pretty tough..

My Grandad & father have both passed on now, loved some of thier old time stories...

I know a very famous racing driver who used to visit & loved nothing better than an old home style BBQ ,,....some of his racing stories from the 60's are really something,

Sadly all of this isnt being documented well enough.
My Youngest daughter has a school project a couple of years ago & she interviewed my Mom about growing up during the war & moving halfway around the world to Australia,...made interesting reading ....
Love your B24 thoughts Jim,...sure it'll bring a tear to his eye..
Al

Tim, I'm surprised no one's commented on your Tigercat shot yet. That puppy just leaps off the screen! Wish I could have been standing there with you, but this shot is a great substitute.

Jim,
That is a beautiful portrait and a wonderful story. More of this needs to happen before that generation slips through our fingers.

Gero

Great story, Jim. I have spent time in the dementia wing of nursing homes and it's not an easy thing to shoot sensitively in that environment. Here's a portrait of a friend of mine following her near-fatal stroke a few years ago; this was done with available window light. I like it because the deep shadows on half her face mirror her struggle out of darkness.

Rusty1 wrote:
Leo Hursh wrote:
Happy Thanksgiving to y'all!
Leo always enjoy your work.


Thanks Vance! The feeling is mutual. Hope to cross paths with you again before long.

Jim and Steve, thanks for sharing those images and the story behind them. My grandmother passed after battling Alzheimer's for years. It was tough watching her cognizance of the present fade away. I wish that my family had images like the above to go along with our memories of her.

A couple more from the Strategic Air and Space Museum

JWilsonphoto wrote:
Mark, thanks for the idea. Who makes the best unit for that application. Wonderful image BTW!!

Thanks Curtis! I would never have thought of that. I guess that's still better than the 20 or so times they normally come out of the camera, into the card reader, and back into the camera. Maybe I'm being paranoid and should just keep doing it the way I always have.

Welcome back Chris! Glad to see you haven't lost your touch!!

Biggest thing with Nikon is long before you damage a card going from camera to reader -- the camera circuitry gives you a CHAR in it's LCD window -- unless they've finally fixed the problem, the beginning digital SLR D70 and D50 were terrible for this electronic failure .. I think I've got a couple of D70 and a D50 cameras in the closet with those $500 + electronic error messages on them.

I'm shooting the D300s and D700 . GF still shoots her D50. So far so good on those 3.

Terrific images and stories !! I wanted to take part in HELP PORTRAITS .. it passed thru here in fact some time back - thinking a regulars son was involved ... but the shoot is quite a ways away for me and they seem to only do it once a year.

JWilsonphoto wrote:
Mark, thanks for the idea. Who makes the best unit for that application. Wonderful image BTW!!


Nobody yet. Your best bet would be a laptop, powered up in a backpack, with an Ethernet connection cable between the backpack and the camera. Would actually work ok for a2a shoots in the -25 I think.

Mark

Both of the Alzheimer's images have a haunted feel to them. Nothing to do with the technical aspects of the images, just the vacant ness that is being betrayed by the eyes.

Angry wrote:
So many of these old folks who gave so much so we could have what we got...
..
Al
.
NOW AINT THAT THE DAD GUM THRUTH !

Pylon 2.