Saturday, March 25, 2023

How word of Mouth and Being in the right place at the right time makes for a photo shoot.

Some years ago now, about the turn of the century, we were visiting the Riverland in South Australia. My wife and I were on a Sunday drive with her parents. The Riverland Country music festival was on at the time and we were visiting Overland Corner Hotel where a music event was in progress. I naturally had a camera with me. Film camera,35mm, Pentax and also my Pentax 645.. I took some shots of the performers headlined by Olive Bice. I wandered around and saw a little dog out at the back of the hotel which was following me and I thought he would make a great pic. I was at the bottom of some rough stairs and he sat himself down and looked at me. He seemed to be a willing subject and was keeping still so I lined him up for a shot. Before I could click the shutter a little boy came and sat down next to the dog and cupped his face in his hands and looked at me. How could I resist such an image. I was shooting black and white on that roll. I shot the image then went looking for family to explain myself. I found someone who was his grandma I think and explained what I had done and gave them my number if they wanted to follow Up with a copy of the pic. No instant transfer to a mobile phone in those days. To cut a long story short the family loved the image and I was invited back to the home in Renmark at a later date. The little boy had a twin and he he also had 2 twin cousins. So I did a photoshoot at the family vineyard of the 2 sets of twins. I shot some colour and black and white on 35mm film. It was hard work as all four had very different personalities. Anyway they loved the results and so did I. It is a good illustration of being able to “see” a good picture and what it can lead to. Below are some of the shots taken.