Giving birth after a cold and windy day. Student Blog – Day 6.
By Youssef Negm
As I sit down by the fire with the whole photo and video crew to wind down at the end of the day, I can confidently say that there aren’t many things that compare to the emotional exhaustion of shooting 8×10 on a windy and cloudy day. Now, don’t get me wrong. This trip has been nothing but a blast so far and I am so incredibly happy that we managed to make it happen amidst all the confusion and uncertainty, with the added plus of all of the people here being very cool to hang out with. That said, no good story exists without a struggle.
We were pushed to our limits today. That’s the best way to put it.
The way that large format photography works is that as soon as the light in your shot stops working for you, a domino effect of edits and adjustments to your camera and tripod just goes off, and oftentimes it is very hard to keep track of. Because of the lack of light, you need to adjust your shutter speed, but that means you need to adjust our aperture, which affects your focusing. But now that you’ve focused the lens, the framing of your photo is off, so move the tripod and hope for a better result.
But wait, there’s more!
You’re shooting portraits, so your subject is cold and getting impatient holding their pose while you wait for the wind to die down so that you can take the shot. But you were so anxious and apologetic that you lost track of your negatives and accidentally shot a double exposure.
I may be projecting a little here…
Needless to say, it was exhausting. Each shot took about 2 hours to set up and verify with Francesco, (bless his soul for dealing with our cluelessness all week) which meant that for a group of three, it took six hours of work outside in the cold and wind to just make sure everyone got their photo.
One thing I appreciated was everybody’s readiness to help, and the patience of the team members while the primary photographer was figuring out their shot. In my case, Ashli, Caitlyn and Sasha were always around to offer a second eye for framing and focus, which was incredibly appreciated.
At the end of the day, we got our images and I’d say that they were successful. Marina’s food warmed our souls, and Sasha’s exquisite taste in wine warmed our bodies. Nobody said that shooting 8×10 would be easy, and to nobody’s surprise, Francesco did warn us that it would actually be very technically demanding. We just didn’t expect it to be so physically demanding too.
In the end, looking at your processed negative against a light feels like you’ve just given birth. Because after a day of physically and emotionally exhausting yourself to the max, the product was worth it. And if it wasn’t, we still have tomorrow. Let’s just cross our fingers for better weather.
Tuscany Photo Trips 