There is something so beautiful and intriguing about old photos. Is it the grain of the photo that hides details and leaves a few things to the imagination? Maybe it’s the tears of the paper showing the age of the photo, and age tends to bring on a sense of awe and respect? Maybe it’s just because images no longer look as they use to and that in itself is fascinating. I love the thought of sitting in an attack and going through shoe boxes full of old photos with little scribbles on the back, “Johnnie’s 2nd birthday” and “Heather’s wedding”. Also, I really miss polaroids. However, there is much to be said about digital. Though I love shooting with my Holga every now and then, what are the practicalities of film? Don’t they all eventually just pile up? Pile up into piles that you only go through every 20 years? And when you do go through the piles it isn’t easily sorted into folders and bins, or “faces” for those iphoto users out there,  for you to find what you are looking for. Isn’t that the reason digital is so great? Hmmmmmmm…..these were the questions floating around my mind during todays long editing session as I thought to myself, if you had told a photographer 20 years ago that they would spend 80% of their time editing images and 20% shooting, they would have been extremely confused. There is something sweet about looking at an image as it really looked in real life. Not after the lighting was set up and all of the shadows under the eyes or across the face were eliminated. Not after the random piece of hair was edited out or someone’s pimples were removed or the sky was made to be slightly bluer. I go back and forth between a love hate relationship with Photoshop. Most of the time though it is love. I think it’s an art form, a very fun and creative way of expressing something of great beauty by making it have just a little extra “pop”. But sometimes I think we can abuse it. The photo below originally didn’t make the cut for one of the wedding galleries I am editing. The lighting was bad, it was grainy because of the high ISO that had to be used due to the compromised low light and lack of flash. I’m so glad I went back to it, because now I love it for all of those reasons. I love the expression, I love that it was a snapshot, I love that the image was slightly yellow. So today I used Photoshop (ironically) to recreate a nostalgic-looking photograph to make myself feel even more connected with the image. There is something about this image in particular that makes me feel like I am there laughing with them, as if I am a part of the family. That’s really what taking a photograph is about, isn’t it? Capturing the moment and making it last. I guess no matter what process you use, as long as that is the outcome you have succeeded. Pardon my thoughts/rants, I think I just needed to talk to another human (HA! I must really be going crazy. I just realized how ironic (yet again) this is since I am writing on a computer to an endless abyss of other computers). Oh goodness I hope Dan gets home soon so I can get away from this machine for a while and have some real human interactions! Ta-ta for now.

Image taken by Kristy Inman, second-shooter/lighting assistant extrodinaire. Kristy thank you for helping me remember the beauty in the moments.