"(and) did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?"

Exp: 28mm f/11 - 1/500 ... ish?

Film: Fuji Neopan 400 iso

File: 4-6

Print: Dodge burn 30sec +- 15 seconds (grade 4 matte)

The meta-information I usually provide is a bit different this time. I don't recall and didn't record my f/stop and exposure times, but judging by the depth of field and my memory of the lighting conditions, it looks to be f/11, which would have put this at around 1/500th, plus or minus a stop. It was a bright day and the "sunny 16" rule would have held. This rule of thumb says that at f/16 (which is only a couple of stops away from being a pinhole camera) on a sunny day, your shutter speed should be the reciprocal of the iso. I rarely use f/16 or higher because of a lack of sharpness at higher f stops (diffraction is to blame here, otherwise we'd use pinhole cameras), and an iso of 400 would mean 1/500th or 1/1000 would work for this exposure.

The negative had a very strong contrast between the top and bottom of this print, as the sunlight was very bright against the white surface. As a result I decided to use a gradient exposure on the print under the enlarger to darken the base and lighten the top. I did this by setting the timer for 45 seconds, covering the print, and slowly uncovering the print from the bottom up until there were only 20 seconds left to expose the top. Without doing this either the top is too dark, or the bottom is too light. I also played with some of the lighting in this print with iphoto, and had to uncrop the easeling my scanner tried to get rid of with Gimp - a free variant of Photoshop. Gimp can have a steep learning curve, so I tend to do some simple things in iPhoto for sanity.

The original negative is from a pre-baby trip we took to the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial in DC this summer. This memorial isn't as popular as it should be; I think most people don't really know it exists until a name they know is etched into the wall there. On the left of the print you can see some names of US law enforcement killed in the line of duty. It's a bit like the Vietnam memorial, except that the names are on a soft white surface instead of a glossy black one. One of the design ideas behind the Vietnam memorial was to reflect visitor's images in the names; I heard somewhere it was to get people to realize that someone just like them is in every name. Anyway I think it's a shame that visitors are more likely to visit statues of ghosts, rather than pay homage to heroes like these.

Another photo from the same roll of film appeared a while ago on this blog, "How they lived." I just looked back on that post, and I feel like I'm making progress. I hope I can say the same thing in another 6 months.

Also, here is a sample of some work I did as a pilot in commercial photography. I haven't figured out what I would charge for this kind of "everyday" work yet, but email me if you're interested. I'm likely more reasonable than most "professionals." If the lens flare in this picture isn't your style (I like it!) see the alternative picture further down, that might be more your speed.

The other bonus is that I license digital images under Creative Commons na 2.5, which means that unlike most cruel photographers who stamp your images with idiotic copyright watermarks and force your friends and family to pay for prints, you can share my digitals and print as many copies as you like. I mean, you already paid for the photographer to take the pictures, why do so many of these jerks try to squeeze a few extra dimes out of your friends and family? Again, all of my digitals for all time will be under this license, unless I explicitly state otherwise.

Anyway here's one more from the shoot. I made a special print of it for them in which I brought out more detail of the snow behind them. If you visit the Richart's, maybe you'll see it in their foyer!

This is the single frame I managed to capture of a baby smiling with it's parents. No easy feat, let me tell you.