Princess Skylar

Update: I give my full permission for *Blacks-and-Whites to submit this in their gallery.
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Skylar, 4 yrs

8x10 black & white scan
Ilford FP4 @ iso 125 developed in FG7
Evening window light

A month into class, our first real assignment, and I'm already behind! Oi!

It's Saturday (Sept 15) and I'm on a photo shoot in Redwood City taking the Redwood City Region 1 soccer league photos. In the back of my mind I'm thinking about the 4 prints I have due on Tuesday, a two roll assignment...

I've only done the one roll and have 2 prints finished. I've taken Tuesday off from work so I can develop my second roll of film and get the 2 other prints finished before class later that night. Trouble is, I need to get that second roll of film shot either after the Redwood City shoot (which was a 9 hour day!) or the next day on Sunday.

I decided to head to my friends house in Livermore after I wrapped up the Redwood City shoot. I don't know what possessed me to do that, I was worn out and tired as hell, but there I was cutting through Niles Canyon Road heading into Livermore. I just knew that if I wanted to get this assignment done that I would probably get my chance with her two kids, specially Skylar since she just loves to have her picture taken. Tired and exhausted, I was down to the wire and it was do or die, now or never and I was taking it.

On the way there I was thinking about what I had to shoot for this second roll. We had to shoot either window light or open shade. Knowing the layout of her house in regards to where the sun was in the sky by that time I figured I would get some window shots and open shade shots and thought I'd just do the two and see what I got come Tuesday.

Now, had I thought about this assignment way ahead of time, I would have used the FP4 when I did my bright sun assignment instead of the HP5. But of course, it never happens that way and I ended up with the FP4 for the window light/open shade. But on the other hand I was thinking with the FP4 I would get sharper pictures using it for the window light/open shade assignment.

Let me tell you, at an iso of 125 with evening window light for your only source of light, a lens with an f stop somewhere around f3.5-3.3, and a 4 year old that is just bouncing with energy... I was hoping and praying I was able to get her to stand still long enough to get sharp enough pictures that weren't too blurry.

Well, 1 out of 10 wasn't too bad!

Here I give you Princess Skylar.