Oh how awesome it was to combine my love of photography with my love of music, with a personal project on film. Yep, we went "old school" with this, not only photographing this on film, but developing & processing it myself too!
Anyone who knows me, knows I have a fondness for country music, dirt roads, and occasionally a little Jack Daniels. Dirt roads are a place I run to when the world is its normal chaotic self. Its somewhere I can go to center myself when my world is on a tilt and needs righted. So when I was tasked with a project for the film class I took during Fall quarter, I instantly knew what I wanted to do.
For this project I had to take a song I draw inspiration from and attempt to put it into photos. I chose to do a sort of story-line approach. The song I chose to use for inspiration for this project was Jack Daniels & Jesus, by Chase Rice. You can find his lyric video for this song on YouTube here.
I suggest listening to the song and coming back to take a second look at the images to get the feel I was trying to bring with this shoot.
I was blessed to have my younger brother assist me with this fun shoot. Shout out to Billy! This class was my first experience with the whole film process - shooting, developing the film, and developing the prints. A LOT was learned.
I fell in love with the process and hope to be able to occasionally to shoot film again.
These images here are all scanned in prints (which I learned I need to find a better scanner as it does them no justice to the beauty of the original prints *insert pouting*).
Billy did an outstanding job for the quick time we had before it turned dark. The wind went from still to whipping in a matter of minutes midway through the shoot which was slightly problematic. He didn't flinch at the challenge and was easy to direct through the planned posed ideas.
One little tidbit I did learn was to be cautious about shooting a white pickup on an overcast day on a flat dirt road with film. The digital photos I took of this shoot were easier to contrast the pickup from the sky. I learned how to dodge and burn in the darkroom while creating these prints to help the pickup to pop a little more (which can be seen on the actual prints versus scanned images) while not losing details in the pickup and Billy.
A little random background on some of the props, the Polaroid photos are actual childhood photos borrowed from my mama. While there are four of us Dukat kids, the three of us older ones are really close in age (within two-and-a-half years). Billy is the youngest and the one missing from the photos. I think my mama gave up on the Polaroid camera about the time he came around. There are plenty photos of us all as children; I think the Polaroids give it a great look and feel to reminiscing.
The Bible used was one all of my brothers and I have grown up with. Its pages slightly worn with age and use from our Catholic school upbringing.
This overall was a great shoot which a lot was learned. I have found joyed in artistic styled shoots and plan to continue including them into my portfolio. I enjoy the brainstorming, planning and directing of them as well as the interaction with the models for the shoots. I loved being able to include my other passions and interest as well.
For behind the scenses and preview of other shoots, please feel free to subscribe to my blog as well as drop me a comment of your thoughts about this and other images in my portfolio.
These images can also be found on my Instagram account @EMDukat.Photography and are not available for purchase.