Photo Excursion Awesomeness: Memorial Park Edition
28. 02. 2010
Location: Memorial Park Cemetery, Memphis, TN. Equipment: Canon AE-1, Polaroid 250, Lomo LC-A, Nikon FE*
It was last year when I became sensitized to the existence of the Crystal Shrine Grotto, due to a small wedding I photographed there. Ever since since then, I have been fascinated, I tell you! As per usual though, I kept forgetting to go back to do more photographic exploration of the grotto. I mentioned this to my friend Ashley, who is both an adventurer at heart and a photo enthusiast. Ashley’s a GREAT friend, and wanted to help me remember that the Memorial Park grotto was on my photographic “to-do” list. She did so by scheduling a photo excursion to the grotto with me.
It was almost like kismet the day we went to Memorial Park. The weather in Memphis had been what I can only describe as “blah” for most of the weeks leading up to the end of February. The day of this excursion though, it was simply gorgeous outside! Blue, clear skies. Mild temperature – not too hot, not too cool. And Ashley had a few of her friends in tow with her, all of whom happen to be avid photographers as well. It was so awesome!
You’d think all of the above elements would mean all of us photogs would be intent upon running around, snapping photos of interesting elements of the cemetery and grotto. But really, this excursion was just the most chilled out thing ever. There’s this great seating area at the grotto that is meant to be like a large, hollowed out tree. I’m pretty sure all of us would like to live in a tree if we could, so this was right up our alley! Some of the boys were climbing on top of the tree while we were inside having a cupcake picnic (comes in handy to work on Saturday nights at a bakery – you get to take home the leftovers!)
We did poke around the grotto’s cave for awhile, but I actually didn’t end up doing much photography inside – as you can plainly tell by the lack of indoor shots featured here today (except for this creepy photo of Aaron with a wooden Jesus.) Most of our time was spent sitting in that tree I told you about, just talking and making photographs of each other.
So, in conclusion, my sincerest of thanks to Ashley, Grant, Aaron and Alex for giving me such a refreshing and photographically fulfilling way of spending a pretty Sunday afternoon.
*(Yep. I went a bit overboard with the scope of equipment I used on this wee little photo excursion. Not to worry though; I wasn’t burdened with lugging all these cameras around. Clever girl that I am, my car was parked closely enough that I could just go back and forth for what I needed. I could leave a camera in my car if I were done and pick out a different one to take back up to the grotto with me.)
Inside-Outside
As a photographer, one of my favorite things to do is drive around and come to a halt whenever something catches my eye. One day recently, I had my Canon AE-1 sitting on my passenger’s front seat, pondering what I might like to photograph with it. I got no further than my very own street, when I spotted this car sitting outside one of the houses. Of course, I stopped my car, jumped out, and snapped a few shots.
I have a great love for classic cars. I think this comes from my childhood, when our family car was a 1954 Pontiac Star chief which my father had named “Kawliga.” Dad even had the car’s name painted on the side of the car. We attended classic car shows often, and sometimes put our car in the shows. This was a big part of the culture of my family when I was a child. So when I began doing photography, old cars were among my favorite subjects. To be cliche, I’d say “they just don’t make ’em like that anymore.”
When you see a photo I have taken of one of these beautifully-crafted automobiles, you’ll know that I’ve photographed it for far deeper reasons than because I wanted to make an interesting photograph; I’ve photographed it because cars like that are a piece of who I am.
Forgotten But Not Gone [Photos from the Past]
When I worked at a photo lab, I used to find it funny that some people took photos so infrequently that they’d have both Easter and Christmas photos on the same roll of film when they brought it in for development.
Guess what? I found one of my cameras, loaded with film, that contained photos from *cough* THREE years ago.
During my trip to England in 2006, I went to a camera fair. Essentially, I picked my traveling dates based on the dates of the camera fair in a town called Wolverhampton. I don’t reeeeeeally know why I did that – I definitely didn’t have extra money to spend on cameras! I loved it though, because I got to see a lot of cameras in person which I’d only seen online. I finally did buy a camera, the Agfa Isola I. The dealer knocked of a few quid because it was near the end of the day and he was looking to unload some of his goods.
Before purchasing this Agfa, I had another camera that was quite similar (a knock-off?) called a Dacora Digna (see some photos I took years ago with it here.) Maybe I didn’t need the Agfa, but I’m just a sucker for inexpensive little medium format cameras!
Real quick, here are some cool features of the Agfa Isola I:
•”Telescoping lens”
• The lens folds somewhat flat when not in use, and with a simple twist, pops out so you can take photos.
(I made a cheesy animated GIF to illustrate this action)
• Two exposure settings: Instant exposure (about 1/35 second, according to the manual – wow!), or bulb for long exposures.
• Two aperture settings: info I find says f/11 (“cloudy”) and f/16 (“sunny”)
• Built-in yellow filter (for black and white photography)
And the photos? Drumroll please…
Any time I happened to remember about this camera and the photos I’d taken on it, I had a definite memory of photographing my friend Kelsey at Food Not Bombs, wearing a striped sweater. Beyond that, I had no idea what might be on that film. So, three years after the fact, I guess I was right about the details of the photo I’d taken of Kelsey! And I apparently also photographed the Cannon Center.
I think it’ll be a decent little camera medium format camera to tote around with me some times, as well of a reminder of a really lovely day I had when I visited England that one time.