As I’m typing this I’m relaxing on the couch, a pair of sandy and dusty hiking boots down on the floor, water running in the sink washing off a roll of film, and a record is playing on the turntable in the living room. Nick Cave’s album No More Shall We Part if you must know. I’m feeling rather content. I got up early this morning and did an outdoor photoshoot. It’s my first in quite some time. The weather has been bitter cold here in the Pacific Northwest and on top of that I’ve been feeling exhausted. Work and being an adult sometimes starts to get to me.
The roll of film I’m developing right now is another from the session I’m posting in this blog entry. It was incredibly early in the morning when this image was made. So early in fact that the entire landscape had a blanket of thick fog, making it impossible to see more than about ten feet from where you stood. I honestly wasn’t sure how the Ilford FP4 I had loaded in my Hasselblad was going to render this. Sometimes Ilford FP4 can be a little finicky and even more often I find the contrast can get a bit out of control. So maybe the subdued light in a dim fog was the perfect scenario for the film stock.
I have to say I really appreciate when I work with someone who doesn’t mind getting up at incredibly early hours. I’ve been working with Floofie for quite a number of years now and she has always been extremely reliable, talented, and just one of those people who can get up in the morning. That may sound like an odd thing to praise a person for, but believe me it’s rare. While being awake before dawn can be difficult, the end result is often worth it.