I haven't done any work today except mail off cameras to repair for end of season maintenaince and work on ONE photograph. This photograph I shot a few weeks ago and had the RAW shot opened in adobe camera raw.

I was recording my tracking numbers and what not, and an old lady appeared in the window to look at some photographs.I didnt shave today and I had the lights off because I have no meetings and I was planning on just working on this end of season wedding overload. But I started talking to 'Mickey'. I don't know how old she was but her grandchildren are older than me. She was talking about making prints (not lithographs, those are all mechanical, she said).

After talking for a while about different things in St. Louis that have changed, she started to mention and ask questions about photographs such as this one, so I brought her into the office, turned the lights on [showed her an autofocus camera after she said 'whats autofocus?'] and brought her around the desk to see what she said about the photograph.

Immediately she started talking about dodging and burning in areas to strengthen and change the comp.

So I sat here at my desk for almost two hours listening and following her instructions, doging and burning...sometimes I snuck in some cloning to get the effect she was looking for....

And this is what she came up with.

p.s. im colorblind, so normally i take a lot more time to make sure the skin tones are better. this has not been done in this edit.....

Wonderful. The story, the picture...this is what life should be. Thanks for sharing this beautiful time.

Sharon

no prob. just don't tell my boss i haven't done much work today!!

8D

What a sweet story - and I really like the image you teamed up to produce! It looks like she might have a gift for making a good thing even better.

Marcy

Life is about the journey, the cool thing is that you probably made her day.

she made my day, too! 8)

I'd be interested to see what you had done before she showed up and see how it effected your style. I assume you WB using the zone system?

Ain't that somethin'? You sit down to work one day, like any other day, and before you know it, some REAL life happens. Thanks for sharing that. Life is easily forgotten when you're just living...

cool story.....

just curious - who choose the frame size/shape - square?

Neat story and image, just what you needed to brighten your day

Stephanie

ContagiousIdea wrote:
I'd be interested to see what you had done before she showed up and see how it effected your style. I assume you WB using the zone system?

i turn the lights off and eyeball it to whatever real life resembles. in this case i think they are looking a bit ashy...no?

really cool people and opportunities come when we open our doors. good on you for opening your door!

dude.....after the life i've had so far...i need to talk to any old person i can get my hands on...sometimes they are cynical like me...sometimes they are rad like mickey...

A while back my wife said, "Old people need so little, but they need that little so much."

Her mom is in a nursing home and we see examples of that everyday. If not at the home then in the older people we cross paths with in our everyday lives.

Give an older person a moment. Most times they will return the favor with a treasured memory.

I like the shot and the treatment.

-Mickey

Great story, I get old people around here come up to me wanting to chat all the time, seeing as I live out in the farms in rural Japan. I once made a trip down to shoot the coast of Wakayama prefecture but the weather turned stormy. I met this cool old dude with a 5D II and 3 MF cameras and he bought me breakfast and told me about 3 other places to shoot in the area, and even let me dry off in his van. Was a great trip, but the pictures weren't very good - just a bunch of grey skies and some rain-on-the-front-of-my-lens pictures

Sweet story! Man, I need an old person to come around some time soon!

self censorship

A new friend and a great pic, what could be better?

Hire her.

Thanks for sharing
One of those moments that neither of you will forget any time soon.

great story,, sounds like she has spent some time in a darkroom in her past years and still recalls a few of those old tricks we used to pull out a photo,,

Derry

You made my day. Mickey rocks.... and so do you.

Thanks,
Rolf

That's really awesome man. The photo looks great! I love when things like this happen. Had an older gentlemen ask me to sit for a portrait a few years ago and said I'd love to. He used my camera (dslr) and I sat there for about 30 minutes and he pressed the shutter twice. It was very strange to me at the time, but from time to time when I think about it, I really try to slow down and see the shot more clearly.

Thanks for sharing man

Nice story. When my mother was confined to a nursing home for the last year of her life, I got to make friends and have lunch and dinner with her and "the other guests'. It was very interesting to chat with them and to help them get their meals, salads and desserts.
Guess what? I learned that older people are real people just like you and me except that their bodies have broken down.