05-12-16 Bowling

By Scott Shephard

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I posted a photo a couple weeks ago that elicited several responses amongst my facebook friends. It was called "Memories for Sale." Today I am posting two photos taken back in the late 1960s by an anonymous photographer that captures my mom and dad in great form.

In looking for photos to decorate my mom's new room in the nursing home she has moved to, my sister found these and stuck them up on the bulletin board. When I visited my mom this past weekend, they were one of the first things I noticed. I didn't have access to a scanner so I simple took photos of the photos. Thus, the quality isn't all that great. But to me, the great subjects make up for that.

05-05-09 Polly & I

Forgive the self-portrait, but since I posted my cat Mac yesterday, I thought I owed it to my dog Polly's memory to post one of her.

This is the last photo taken of Polly. She had been struggling with bladder cancer and had already had 1/3 of her bladder removed when symptoms of her problem recurred. On the day we took her to the vet to have her put to sleep, she and I went out to my studio for one last official portrait. I set the camera up on a tripod and hooked up a self-timer and took four shots. This is my favorite.

People who see this picture comment on the adoring way she seems to be staring at me and the way her paw seems to be posed on my bare foot. The adoring look really comes from Polly's eagerness for another treat, which I am holding in my hand. And the paw just happened to rest on my foot - it wasn't posed there.

They say that we should try to be the kind of person our dogs think we are. Even though Polly has been gone for over five years, I still try to keep that saying in mind. Are we too crazy about our pets?

05-04-09 Mac

By Scott Shephard

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This one showed up in a folder of film scans I hadn't looked at in a long time. Mac is fairly young in the picture and looks a little suspicious - he's probably afraid of my camera.

05-03-09 Memories For Sale

By Scott Shephard

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After my father died and my mother decided to move to an assisted living center a few years later, she sold the house in which I had grown up and held an auction for its contents. I was present at the auction and although I wasn't sad that day, I am saddened now when I look at the photos I took. If you could imagine all of the things that decorated the walls and stood on the shelves being boxed and then, with any luck, sold for a dollar or two, maybe you can understand my sadness.

This box of bowling trophies won by my mom and dad was one of three that was up for auction. No one even bid on them and I suppose they were thrown away. I guess there is no market for old bowling trophies. But when I look at these, there are so many things that I recall about the bowling leagues my parents participated in, the times I hung out at the bowling alley and the friends my parents knew through bowling.

For me, this picture is the most personal and powerful photo I have posted in this blog. I'm guessing most of you will look at it and wonder what the big deal is. . . .

04-14-09 Child Labor?

So far I am responsible for taking the pictures posted on my "Photo A Day" blog. But this photo isn't my doing - it was taken by a woman named Leah DeGeest. The subject is my wife, Debra and Leah was Deb's grandmother. The setting for the photo is the DeGeest farm south of Miller, SD, and it was taken in the late 1950's.

What is little Debbie up to? Some kind of chores, I'd guess. What a great moment and great photo! I think it has a kind of Dorothea Lange look, though during the late '50s, spending time on her grandparent's farm was a near-perfect existence for a city child like Deb.

Camera and settings unknown. This is a scan from our family photo archive.

03-25-09 Katie & Brian

Here's another one with high sentimental value. I was asked by my recently-engaged son, Brian, to take engagement photos of him and his fiancée, Katie. Of course I said, "Yes." But I was nervous - partly because I hadn't done any studio portraiture in months and partly because I had never done any real formal portraiture of my own family. But both subjects were relaxed and easy to work with. And they were photogenic. (How could a father and future father-in-law say anything else?!)

Brian has been the subject of another post to this blog - Take A Leap (02). Some might argue that delving into a relationship and ultimately into marriage constitutes a sort of a leap of faith, as well. But as I observe Katie and Brian, I don't think this about them. Their relationship seems like the perfect mix of reason and emotion - but it's not a leap of faith.

Canon 5DII f/8.0 1/100 Canon 24-105 4.0L 88mm ISO 100

03-06-09 Helping Hand

By Scott Shephard

03-06-09-helping-hand

My nephew's new born son Ethan was only a few weeks old when we visited him for the first time. I wish all portraits were at simple as this one - both subjects were easy to pose.

I intentionally used a narrow depth of field so that most of the photo would be out of focus. I shot this in available light in Derek and Alicia's kitchen. An assistant (my wife?) held a white sheet of paper to the left of the hands to provide a little more light. I also used a soft focus action in Photoshop to make details in the photo less distinct. Finally, I applied a sepia action to the picture.

I am told that this picture has considerable meaning and symbolism but I guess I'll admit that all I was trying to do was to get Ethan's grip reflex on his father's finger.

Canon 5D f1.2 1/640 50mm 1.2L iso640