Another venture into the creative and imaginary kingdom a few days back. It was another ride in the hands of fate, or luck (or lack thereof) on the coldest of nights so far. Despite the freezing cold, raw air and wet ground we set out to find the rabbit hole.
About three test shots into it my main light source fails. It does not sink into a 'I-have-no-power' sleep, but dies abruptly as things are starting to shape up.
For various reasons the other lights were not suitable under the circumstances. In a bleak hope of finding a similar one hiding in one of my boxes of magic, we returned home from location cold and bewildered. Alas no such light was found, but refusing to abandon the shoot without trying alternatives, we opened another bottle of red and slipped into the dark corners of the courtyard.
For a night determined to be a royal pain in the rear end region of my body, it won the initial battle, but lost the war. My creative group of nocturnal creatures now counts another amazing being. These people continue to astonish and inspire me with their enthusiasm and invaluable input. I have never photographed anyone before who had such an interest and understanding of what I am trying to accomplish as these people do. They are keys to locks in my house, to toys in my basement.
The images require a re-shoot mainly due to light, but the ideas and compositions were good, and will result in a more dynamic visual range once resolved. In other words, we accomplished what I was aiming to test in regards to that. All was indeed not lost. I like the images, but know that I can re-stage and re-light them so much better. I do not believe in settling for less. It is worth the wait to make them rise to their full potential. It constitutes what I, in regards to such things, like to call a luxury problem. :)
Another couple of characters emerged and future shoots are looking very promising. I am very happy with the journey so far and believe the final series will be everything I want it to be. I can't wait to continue once final assessment is over.
In preparation for that I am now focusing on the final post-production on a couple of images, and will start printing the next few days. I will now be printing on the Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Pearl. This is a new paper to me, but it's supposed to have similar warm tones to the Crane Silver Rag. I am anxious to see how my blacks and overall dark tones transfer as well as how much luminosity is retained on paper.
The test prints I did on Ilford Gold Fibre Silk looked promising, but I have decided to go up in size to approximately 30cm width + borders which is somewhat larger than the tests. I am also considering abandoning the 'fuzzy' edges around the frame of the image. Where there are higher contrasts on the edge it's hard to get a smooth transition between light and dark tones.
As well as printing I am considering potential backgrounds for the images. I don't want them displayed on a white wall and the alternatives so far seem to be black or some kind of dark, patterned wallpaper. I would also like them to be mounted and hung out from the wall, but as of now, this is way over budget.
(New images to come very soon... in post-production now.)
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