No, waiting is not misspelled, lol. That’s how we say it down here. I took off work to assume my chauffeur and babysitting duties. My wife had a doctor’s appointment and as homeschoolers, you have to find a babysitter or take the kids along. Since this was going to be a more in depth visit and knowing my wife does not like to drive in the city, I decided to take her myself. After dropping my wife at the doctor’s office, my son and I decided to head to Centennial Park while we waited for our favorite gal.
Before heading to the park, we grabbed some lunch. We went to a Chinese Restaurant that my wife and I frequented often when we lived in the area. Everything looked the same from the outside, but the inside and the people had changed. The food was good, but not as good as I remembered. While we waited for our order, I told my son how his mom and I used to come here before he was born. I talked about how we lived in the big city back in the day.
After getting our order we headed out to the car. I noticed a man in a wheel chair setting outside reading a newspaper. I immediately went into street photographer mode. I had 3 frames left on a roll of Kodak Portra 400 in my Mamiya 645 1000S. I had been holding on to these 3 shots for a few weeks waiting for the right image. After I got the food and my son in the car, I grabbed my Mamiya from the trunk and took a light reading before getting in position to take the shot. I was hoping to catch him reading his paper, but he put the paper away just before I took the shot below. I did not noticed until after I studied the shot on my monitor, that this gentleman was wearing a Vietnam Veteran hat. I bet he could really bend your ear!
Vietnam Veteran outside a storefront in Nashville, Tennessee – Mamiyia 645 1000S, Mamiya Sekor C 80mm f2.8, Kodak Portra 400, Developed & Scanned by the Film Box Lab in Nashville, Tennessee
You will noticed a line and a discolored or bright patch of light running across the top of the picture above and the ones below. It is less evident in the picture above. This is most likely a light leak. At least, I hope it is just that. My research and talks with a local repair shop says a simple light seal replacement should take care of this issue. Nonetheless, I still wanted to post these images to demonstrate one of the perils of shooting film. There is a long list of negatives, pun intended, that keep most people from shooting film. I’m in the camp that believes the positives far out weigh the negatives for my style of shooting. I take less pictures now and enjoy making photographs much more, go figure?
I got the news of the light leak from the lab while I was about 9 shots into another roll of film. I decided to tape up the film insert door of my camera. If I don’t have light leaks on the remaining shots, light getting in the door is most likely the problem. I could buy a seal kit and make this repair easily at low cost, but I think I am going to have the shop do a complete CLA (Clean, Lube and Adjustment). I will keep you posted on how these shots turn out.
Now, back to waiting. What was interesting about this man, was that he actually drove himself to this location. I discovered this as my son and I made a trip back to the restaurant so I could log in my gps location for the photograph. When we came back, this gentleman was getting out of the wheelchair and making his way to the car that was parked beside us. He put his wheelchair in the back of the car and proceeded to get in the driver’s seat. He moved very slowly, so I figured the wheelchair is how he gets around once he gets to where he needs to be. He appeared to be a very determined individual. This goes to show that everything is not always what it seems.
We ate our lunch on a bench in Centennial Park with the Parthenon as our backdrop. We walked around and through the Parthenon talking about everything from baseball to video games. With 2 more frames left, I chose to take a couple of shots of my son to finish the roll. He is always a willing participant. Those shots are below. The light leak is more obvious in these shots.
Centennial Park – Nashville, Tennessee – Mamiyia 645 1000S, Mamiya Sekor C 80mm f2.8, Kodak Portra 400, Developed & Scanned by the Film Box Lab in Nashville, Tennessee
Centennial Park – Nashville, Tennessee – Mamiyia 645 1000S, Mamiya Sekor C 80mm f2.8, Kodak Portra 400, Developed & Scanned by the Film Box Lab in Nashville, Tennessee
Our wait finally came to an end when we got the call from Mom. We did manage to sneak in a McDonald’s ice cream cone before we got that call. That was a fun little outing. My son told me he had a fun time with his old man. I guess as men we are always waiting on a woman just like the song says. Chances are I’ll be waiting on the beach in my white suit waiting for her one final time in the end.
Images Best Viewed in Lightbox Below!
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”41″ gal_title=”Waitin on a Woman…”]
One response
[…] have shared the picture above in a previous post. If you want to read more about this shot click here. Thanks for reading! I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Memorial Day […]