I rarely do a long piece, yet we used to do it all the time on Livejournal. I miss it sometimes, and it was more substantial than just re-sharing a funny meme.
So yes, this post has two stories. One is about remembering good times, and the other is an attempt to return to a hobby that used to be a passion.
Before covid, from time to time, Raji would visit us, it was always the best of times; music, coffee, and other cool drinks and much talking (the best part). Sometimes T would suggest a “Photo Sech” and most of the time, we would agree. T would get the makeup out and her camera and throw ideas, and I would get the lightning out and my camera, Raj was always a good sport, she doesn’t want to admit it, but she’s a natural, she can be in front of a camera and not be intimidated and be able to express so much. I love the post-processing aspect, colour grading images, fixing stuff, and making it look natural but bringing a mood and stealing a moment. And above all, being respectful, T and I would never post anything without permission. It’s a creative process where all the parties have a say and rights, it’s not my pictures it’s ours. But this was so much fun.
This picture is from 5/6 years ago, others picture from that session were posted back then, check flickr, deviantart and Instagram, I try to use “Ennev” as a username everywhere so just googling that will bring stuff. You might find them. The dark picture just ahead of it is the original, I was working with a remote flash behind a white umbrella, but being an older flash, it didn’t recharge in time and did not fire, I did feel it would have been a great picture, but sadly it was dark, too dark to bring anything back without being too grainy and washed out.
You have to know that I’m a bit of a compulsive digital hoarder, so I rarely delete pictures, you delete that moment, and you’ll never get it back. And technology and digital processing have evolved over time, so something you think is crap can be salvaged sometime in the future. Also, I shoot in raw, if you’re not in photography, maybe that term is not familiar to you, but you might be familiar with JPEG, that’s usually the format you will find images on your camera and your phone, but JPEG use something we describe as destructive compression, so to make it fit in a reasonable size on a memory card and to download and show faster on a website that format is practical, but as the name imply to make it smaller is cut out information, pieces of information that would usually not really perceived by the human eye and brain in the first place. But using that format for photo processing can be limiting because if it’s too bright or dark, there is little a tool like photoshop or settings on your camera or phone will be able to do to fix it afterwards, raw format keeps everything each pixel on the camera captured as it was.
As I said, tools improve, and new techniques appear with time. Now, we even have AI tools that enable us to infer details and elements in images that would usually be lost. So having kept that ruined image anyway in my storage (if you like, maybe we can talk about storage at a later time, being a hoarder, like I said, if have experience in storing and protecting stuff) enables me today to revisit it with modern tools and to see if I can do something with it. I think it did.
Why do I revisit it? Because I’m trying to light back the hobby of photography, I would say I have a hard time bringing back the flame that is not there yet and might never be, and yet it was something I have been pursuing for many years. And it brings back a moment from a happy time.
Sometimes I’ll have an idea, but the energy is not there. But I’m still going to try. Writing the piece might help.