Blake Pack Photography

This post doesn't exactly correlate with the great outdoors. However, it is in the great outdoors and photos where my face is flushed, my bangs are dripping from sweat from my full face helmet, and there is blood painted across my knee from landing a jump wrong while downhill mountain biking like this one, don't exactly do me justice. I may not do it very often, but I clean up nicely.

It's been three years since Charly and I entered into the eternal bonds of marriage. To celebrate we had our friend/worker of the shop do a quick photo session on his old large format camera- Blake Pack. When I say quick, I mean an hour, and that includes driving time. Charly isn't one for the cameras. I have a feeling it's going to be a life long battle, along with the fact that we just can't seem to settle on what temperature the thermostat should be set at.He wants it at seventy, I want it at eighty. I knew these differences of opinions would come though, and I'm just grateful they're about such trivial things.

Here's a look at the images taken. We formatted them in a way that was a bit unusual. Instead of taking a hundred plus digital photos, we took six or seven on 4x5 black and white film. Three of us, and then two to the right. That way we can interchange the one of us and still have a panoramic shot. Oh, and the puppy? Yes, that's right. Just like that group of hikers that forgot their headlamps, we became that couple that puts pictures of their dog in their family photos. I think we kept it just a little bit classier though.

Having a difficult time keeping a "serious" face, Blake snapped a candid one of me resting my head on Charly's shoulder as I was trying to regain my composure. For some reason, and as how Charly would put it, I was all giggly that day.

Maycee enjoyed the bribes of grated cheese we gave her to convince he that life was worth sitting still for sometimes.

Blake also worked on a bit of a side project where the photos don't quite line up. It has an intriguing look and are the ones I love most. I also love the look of 4x5 film when it is scanned. The dark notches and lines on the edges of each photo form that look and feel you can't get with digital without forcing it. We also made good use of the tilt shift on Blake's camera. Having your photo taken by someone that you can sit back and converse with about all the potential and possibilities that you can take advantage of in the photo session is the most rewarding part.

I had originally thought about having Joslyn Mcnair, who took our engagements which and were stunning, do the a session with us. We talked a little about things, but a change was in store and as difficult a decision it was, film was what I wanted. Seriously though, she made my poorly hand chopped bangs work in our engagements.