Lightbox Wednesday #5

I am attempting an orderly transfer of the photographs I have taken over the past eight years from on old MacBook Air to a new MacBook Pro. In the process, I am gutting many, keeping the ones I like. It's fun to look back. Just like a song, a photograph can put you right back in the moment.

In September, 2013, I was shooting quite a bit of Tri-X film in a Nikon F2S that had just been serviced by Sover Wong. I took the Nikon to San Francisco for the weekend. Since living in the Bay Area, I had been meaning to go see the Painted Ladies, the City's famous row of Victorian houses made famous in the television series Full House.

I am not much of a street photographer, but I seem to be able to get my nerve up a bit more when walking the crowded streets of Chinatown.

Looking through the images I shot that weekend, I remember it was hot for September. I took the trolley down to Fisherman's Wharf, walked around a bit there and then started thinking about getting back to the car which was parked near the Ferry Building. San Francisco is a great city for walking but with the heat that day, I had about enough. I flagged down a bicycle taxi and rode back to the car in comfort. I got this shot of my driver as I neared the parking lot.

I feel like I used to re-visit my work more often in my pre-digital days. If I didn't print a photograph in the darkroom, there would at least be a contact sheet around somewhere. The lightbox always had negatives or slides on it and somewhere in the house; an old shoebox with snapshots. This transfer process has been a good exercise in looking through the pictures I have made since returning to film in 2009. It's helping me learn and grow. If, like me, you've not looked back through your digitally stored images in a while, try it. It's a healthy and fun process.