Miss D, My Chickering Baby Grand & Fuji FP-100C
At my age of 74 (it seems I begin many of my essays in this way) and as an obsolete, redundant and retired magazine photographer I keep thinking that my interest in the photography of the female undraped woman should be curtailed. I should settle down to read, listen to music, take care of my wife and cat and plan trips to places we have not seen.
And then my friend Curtis Daily from Portland, who plays the baroque stand up bass comes for a visit and I suggest we find a model and take photographs together and perhaps exchange some knowledge on the matter.
We photographed this past Wednesday, February 22, 2017 Miss D who was an enthusiastic subject. I still have a few boxes of Fuji FP-100C Instant Colour film that fits my Mamiya Rb-67 Pro-SD. This film is sadly discontinued although Daily has told me that Fuji plans to make it available again by manufacturing batches of it.
The wonders of this film is that it produces a very nice print but also a peel negative. This negative can then be used in various ways:
1. I scan the peel as soon as I dislodge it from its print because the image fades quickly. You can see the result here before I reverse it in Photoshop.
2. In a method that Daily and I have now perfected by sharing knowledge I strip the black backing of the negative with bleach and then with careful washing a soaking I have an unconventional negative-like, but not quite negative.
3. I then scan the “negative in three ways:
A. I tell my scanner it’s colour negative.
B. I tell my scanner is it a positive.
C I tell my scanner it is a b+w negative.
What you see here are those three different versions plus a scan of the print.
The excitement that this picture has generated for me perhaps urges me to keep taking photographs while I can still see and have the energy to press the shutter.
You will note that Miss D has a lovely body. I photographed her by our Chickering baby grand piano. I believe I might has Miss D pose for me again.
