The story behind your photo?

[kundalini]

The last trip to the mountains I was able to have with Monty. Don't worry, in this photo he is only resting. What a trooper he was.

 

[slackercruster]

This is a mediocre snapshot that would mean nothing to anyone else, but it's special to me simply because of the story.

I HATE swinging bridges. Really, really hate them. Actually, I hate bridges of any sort that are not absolutely rock-solid steady. Foot bridges, swinging bridges, I hate them all. When I was 3, we went to Grandfather Mountain and everyone except my grandmother went across the swinging bridge. My sister, who was just 4, walked across it herself, and yet today has NO fear of them. My dad carried me across. While I don't personally recall the specifics, evidently when the time came to cross back over, I held a VERY strong opinion against EVER crossing that bridge again. I don't know how they finally got me calmed down enough to carry me back across, but that was the LAST time in my life I ever went across a swinging bridge.

until last year. Last July, on my 50th birthday, my sister and I went to Fall Creek Falls for a day of photography. She hadn't planned on going across the bridge, knowing how I felt about the idea, but I had decided that on my 50th birthday, I was going to conquer the fear, go across the bridge AND take a picture while I was out on it.

I DID IT!! I moved Verrrrry, very slowly and every time someone else made it move too much I became frozen in place, in terror.
But, BY GEORGE, I went across that durn swinging bridge AND back, of my own volition!! AND took this picture of my sister while I was on it (okay, admittedly, I was only about 10 feet out on it...as we approached the middle, I was too terrified to let go of the rope with even ONE hand!).




I will not do that again for at least ANOTHER 47 years.

Go ziplining. Youy will get used to it!

 

[slackercruster]

No big story with the pix...story behind this is the aftermath.

I did not take care of my negs. This and all my negs from late 1970's to mid 1980's were lost. Also lost were all my silscreen prints, color separations, dye transfer matrices, widlux negs and lots more.

All I got left is this 3 x 5 proof print from my darkroom with the cropping marked on it.


...do better than me...take care of your stuff!

 

[slackercruster]

The old adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" should be all that is needed most of the time.


Sid

Nobody's saying otherwise here--this just happens to be a thread devoted to photos that DO have a story behind them. Some of them, like KmH's paper abstracts, certainly don't NEED the words--but it doesn't make the stories behind them any less interesting.

I get the idea. I tried to offer some stories with the images.

 

[rokvi]

I was taking my dog Czar for a walk to the river. On the way home a car pulls up beside me and the man in the car asks me where a certain street is. "I say I don't know". He then says "Its near the primary school, do you go to that school"? I say yes. He then asks if I want to go for a ride in his car to show him where the school is? At that very moment Czar brakes loose from me jumps up at the window of his car inches from his face and growls like Ive never heard before! You can bet he left as fast as he could.

This is the only photo I have of Czar.

 

[sm4him]

Go ziplining. Youy will get used to it!

Weird thing is, I wouldn't mind going ziplining. In fact, I probably AM going sometime this year--because that is what my almost 86-year-old mother wants to do for her birthday! In the past few years, we've taken her whitewater rafting, motorcycle riding, and on a helicopter ride for her bdays.
The idea of ziplining doesn't really scare me. It's just those stupid bridges...

 

[rokvi]

Go ziplining. Youy will get used to it!

almost 86-year-old mother.......... whitewater rafting............ motorcycle riding........ and on a helicopter

:salute:

 

[Buckster]

I'd say that a lot of my photos have a story to them. This is the first that comes to mind:

In the mid-1980's, I decided to get more serious about learning off-camera lighting, and started diving into books on the subject. In 1989 I was still doggedly at it (and really, still am today), and bought this book at one of the photo shops in Manhattan while living and working there for a year:

There are a lot of great images and techniques throughout the book, and I learned a lot from them. I always found the cover shot by David Zimmerman to be really compelling, and always thought I'd try to emulate it someday, but never seemed to get around to it.

Some 22 years later, I was sitting at a table in a rented cabin tucked away in the woods in Northern Alabama with no internet connection, staring at an empty aquarium I'd just used to shoot photos of a tree frog, and wondering what I could use it for next, when I remembered that cover shot, and thought, "why not?"

I didn't have the book with me and, indeed, hadn't actually seen it in several years as it had been packed away in storage while I pursued my career on the road. But I could still see it well enough in my mind, so off to the nearest grocery I went, looking for a suitable red pepper...

These are the resultant shots:

1.

2.

3.

I really liked my results. Now that I've dug out the book again that inspired these however, I see that his use of lighting is SO much better, it literally blows my efforts away! Glad to say though, I'm still learning here, and glad to have made the attempt from memory.

 

[tylerzachary412]

Yes, photos is the best way to remember greatest moments is a second, especially if it's printed on paper sheet. Have one of my favorite photo on the canvas also. Placed on my bedroom, and can't take eyes of it