Wednesday, August 11, 2010




This is the list of equipment I took to photograph Quilla in her bedroom today:

A. I Mamiya RB-PRO-SD with 50, 90, 140 and 250mm lenses. Two backs, one for Plus-X one for Ektachrome.

B. 2 Nikon FM-2s with 24, 35, 50 and 85 lenses. One Nikon was loaded with Kodak b+w Infrared Film the other with Plus-X.

C. One Dynalite pack and two heads. One small and one big softbox.

D. Two light stands and one heavy tripod.

C. One Minolta Flashmeter IV-F.

D. One iPhone 3G



The idea was to get some rumpled bed sheet pictures of voluptuous Quilla in her bedroom and continue in my series that began many years ago in one room of the Marble Arch Hotel. The series may have suddenly ended or perhaps (I suspect) shifted towards a different focus altogether. While at Quilla's I had this strange feeling of comfort but unease, that is was going to be easy but that it was going to be difficult. In the end I was troubled by the salient fact that shooting with the iPhone was easy as long as I understood its limitations. Notice the flaring at the bottom on Quilla's right arm. The light for all the pictures was from her bedtable lamp and the iPhone could not cope with the contrast from light to dark. Because I must correct the overly warming of the image by the tungsten lighting of the lamp it renders the flare an unsightly green!



In short I was on edge but feeling like I was on some virtual downer drug. I felt confused with so much equipment which I laid on the floor as if I were a surgical nurse placing scalpels and other surgery paraphernalia on the operating side table. I felt that it was too easy for my own. Good. I had few of those “Don’t move, let me take this picture,” kind of moments. All this while Quilla looked at me and I could not really look back. Had I been 30 years younger and unmarried, I would have and I would have gotten into trouble.



In the end I took a few pictures with both Nikons but took many more with the iPhone. Just the light from Quilla's bedside table seemed to be enough for the pictures. Some are blurred, but I like them anyway. Because of the low light the dark areas of the pictures have lots of little red grains which are commonly called noise. But I like them anyway. I have used Paintshop Pro 10 to vignette the pictures. I think that these will be soon followed by more which I will take the next time in which I plan to travel light.

The name of Quilla's cat is Caliban.