I was walking passed a photo of mine I have hanging up, and I realized this is where it all began! I thought I came across the cutting and layering, erasing and adjusting world of Photo Montage while in my second year at university. But no. It was much earlier than that. It all began in the darkroom at high-school.

We were shown how to do double exposures; laying one negative over the other in the little view holder, and exposing both negatives onto the paper. It is a delightful play with time and distance, and the results are not always expected. Lots of happy accidents. What I anticipated would come through on the paper often doesn’t.

My sister was my beautiful model wearing a white flowing nightgown as we walked through the woods down by the river in Mildenhall, Suffolk, England. A warm summer afternoon of photo taking and glorious nature. I was inspired by the early 19th century photographers, and the Surrealists when taking these photos. I was playing with Sepia tone, Black and White, and ethereal figures in the natural world.

I guess this is where it started for the painterly side of photography for me. I have always approached Photography from an artistic angle. I’ve never been the type to read through manuals and learn what the buttons do: lots of trial and error to get what I want to do.

And now I find myself using the medium of Photography and the tool of Photoshop to paint digitally.

I miss working in the darkroom as everything is hands on. It can be frustrating when you hit a glitch, especially if that is with developing the negatives. Several times I’ve lost the whole reel due to not processing it correctly, which means going out and retaking all those shots. Practice, practice, practice, right? The long process makes the end result more precious.

Thanks for stopping by

Blessings,

Evelyn

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