Roll-A-Week | Page 2 | YOUR THEMES | Photo Forum

Finally got around to developing some rolls.  Almost caught up…depending on your definition of almost.

So here is week 4.  My new car and Julianna wanting to go for tea.

Finally caught up.  Here is week 6

First is my friend Anne looking yonder.  Both of us are enjoying the view.

The second shot has an interesting story.  Because of my very bad experience trying street photography I have become extremely nervous about taking pictures of people that aren’t Julianna or my cats.  So anyway, I saw this very dapper gentleman in a local coffee shop.  He had a really nice suit and a lovely purple satin fedora.  His kerchief matched the hat.  I got up the courage, and said I love his hat and suit, and asked if I could take his picture for a photography project.  He smiled and said ‘obviously, I am very photogenic’.  So as I am focusing, he said ‘a young fella like you should be shooting digital’.  I laughed and said I mostly shoot black and white film on this old camera.  He got very excited at that and asked for a copy of the picture when I had it developed.  So I gained some confidence after that and asked some others after for their picture and got them all. 

The bad experience…well I was taking my digital camera and my pentax spotmatic to Gore Park in downtown Hamilton to take pictures of the Queen Victoria statue and the fountain.  There was also a small crowd gathered to watch two men play chess, but the pieces were three feet tall.  It was quite the sight.

Anyway so I am walking around taking pictures of the fountain, and the chess players, some of the buildings on King Street etc.  Then I see by the Queen Victoria statue the coolest of transecting lines.  Between the mirrors of the one building, to the flowerbeds, and the stripes on the bus.  Just made for a cool things for your eyes to follow.  So I snapped a picture.

All of a sudden a guy is in my face asking me what I am doing.  I said taking pictures around the park.  He asked who do I work for.  I said no one, I was just taking pictures for fun.  He demanded to know who I work for again.  I said no one.  He asked if I took his picture.  I said not intentionally as I wasn’t paying attention to him, but it is entirely possible he was in the shot.  But I explained to him the neat line pattern and said that was my subject.

He asked (angrily – he was very angry at this point) what I was going to do with the pictures.  I said nothing, I was just taking pictures for fun.

He then said I was a pervert and he was calling the police.  I said I am doing nothing illegal.  This is a public park, but if he wanted to call the police, please do.

At this point I walked away towards the fountain.  I saw a neat rainbow effect in the water, and I wanted to capture that.  So I started shooting the fountain.

He yells out ‘you can’t take pictures here pervert’.  I said once again that this was a public park.  He said (again) he was going to call the police.  I said please do.  No laws are being broken.

Then he did the thing that can destroy mens lives…he accused me of being a pedophile.  He was yelling it out.   I told him to fuck off and was getting quite stern in my voice (I don’t yell or get angry usually, I kept control).  He approached about 10 people in the park telling them that I was secretly taking their pictures and I was a pedophile.  Not that it matters, but there were no children in the park.  He walks right up to me and said he was calling the police again.

Now he was harassing me big time, and made a very bad accusation.  I was worried.  So many mens lives are destroyed because of crap like that.  So I decided it was time to leave.  I wanted to call the police myself, but I was worried if I took my eyes off of him, he would attack.  Also was worried that if I did call the police they would take his side, and my life would be ruined.

So I left the park.  And stopped taking pictures that had people in it, unless they were my friends, or family.

I was very shaken up by that.  Really hit me hard.

So yeah there you have it.

And yes I consider all animals to be people.  Buddhist thing

It’s ok.  I understand he is mentally ill and probably a victim of something from when he was younger and just lashing out, or simply paranoid.  He couldn’t help himself.  I did the best thing, by not retaliating and eventually just leaving.

So anyway, I am careful now.

Here is week 7.  These are of my friend Cassandra.  We went to Waterford Conservation Area in Waterford, Ontario.

I didn’t even realize there was a subtle ‘things coming out of heads’ theme going on.  Not sure what to make of it

Here is week 7.  I am not happy with it and have had a strange set of set-backs for developing.

First was I took a roll (the original Week 7) and I was having a VERY hard time winding the film onto the spindle.  Took me about an hour.  So of course the film was badly scratched.  And of course I lost my temper, pulled my hands out and cause a light leak.  So most of the pictures aren’t usable.  So I did another roll, and the images all look so flat, even after playing with them in LR.

Anyway, here is the best picture from the roll.  It is of a train.  Please tell me how I can improve it.  I have already put it through LR to bring as much to it as i could, but there is no pop.  It is so bland and flat.  No idea what I did wrong in taking it and no idea how to fix it.

So any and all advice is welcome.  That being said, here is my sad week 7