I recently made some images unlike any I’ve made before.
And I made them in a familiar spot, one I visit frequently throughout the year, both with my camera and without. I hike there. I’ve run the trails. I’ve visited with my wife and with my dogs.
But on the day I made these images, it was just me and one very small person who I carried on my back: my daughter. And this was my first tentative attempt at photography while she was with me.
She was about 9 months old at the time, and I understood the likelihood that the morning wouldn’t go the way I wanted it to. A 9 month old can run the show. If she is hungry, uncomfortable, bored, or simply decides she’s had enough hiking, she will let you know. There will be no mistaking her discontent.
And I knew that she may not appreciate the stopping, backtracking, kneeling, and bending over that photography frequently calls for, but this was a risk I had no choice but to accept.
So I exhaled my expectations as I pulled into the parking lot and began situating her into her carrier. Under her careful watch, I then prepared my 35mm pinhole camera, freshly loaded with a roll of Ilford FP4.
I am pleased to report that she tolerated her father’s photographic dawdling remarkably well, and for the most part, was fully content coming along for the ride. She looked around and babbled, perhaps curious what it was we were up to. She pulled at my hat and patted my shoulders. There was just one moment, during a minute-long exposure, when I began to sense that might be losing her patience with me, but she calmed down as soon as I began pacing under the trees.
I exposed just one roll of film on that beautiful morning with my daughter. The images in this gallery are the result of our outing together.
