A Very Pregnant Pause
I’ve been building quite a backlog of images to process over the past several months; so many that I’ve come to the realization that I need assistance; this project is simply too big to complete without help. More on that in a moment.
November and early December provided, thankfully, quite a few sunny, warm days and I took full advantage of them by hitting the street and shooting from one end of Swiss Avenue to the other. Christmas provided a great opportunity to do some nighttime shooting; I grabbed my camera and tripod several nights just prior to Christmas and walked up and down the street, stopping to photograph almost every home with a display of Christmas lights.
For those with an interest in photography, I shot several exposures of each house, using greater or lesser exposure times than my normal exposure. This will allow me to create High Dynamic Range (HDR) images — photographs that come much closer to showing the full range of tonal values, much closer to the way the human eye sees. Watch for these as we go forward; they’re time consuming to produce but worth the effort.
Which brings me back to the subject of my backlog. I am actively — and aggressively — looking for two or three unpaid interns to help with the Photoshop processing of the image backlog I’ve created. To date, I have shot 70–80,000 images and will likely have shot well over 100,000 frames before I finish the Project. Many of those are still unprocessed and I now realize I need help to process and organize images, and gather information and write rough drafts or outlines of text that will be included in both the book that will come from this undertaking.
So, what I’m looking for is people who are skilled at an intermediate level in Photoshop, who can take direction, but are not afraid to offer their own ideas. I also need someone who can do some research on the homes and people of Swiss Avenue, either on the phone or by hitting the bricks, walking the street.
Essentially, these two or three people should be able to commit to 3–10 hours a week for 2–3 months. Again, because this is an unpaid gig for me, I’m looking for people who are more interested in being a part of a large photo documentary project — something that will look good on a resumé — than in being paid. (Should also not be allergic to cats.)
Once shooting on the Project is complete — after the Mother’s Day Home Tour — the production process begins. The book will need to be laid out, the monograph (400–600 panoramic photos), and incidental photos, will be printed and boxed, and documentation linking people, places, and events will need to be created. This is a huge project and I hope those of you reading this will reach out to someone you know who might like to be a part of this tremendous enterprise.