Photographing

DSCN3591.jpg, originally uploaded by BenTG.

I wish I had more time to write these days. Or maybe it's not so much a matter of time as it is a matter of psychic space and mental energy.

When I'm not at my job, a lot of the energy that I might have put into new blog posts has instead been poured into shooting photos and working on them in Photoshop.

I did not expect such broad enthusiasm about the photos I put up at the Haley House Bakery Cafe (thanks again, Lolita). It bowled me over to have strangers come up to me and ask to buy prints. But really what surprised me most was how moving it was to see large 11 x 14 prints of my photographs hanging on the wall. I had never made large-size prints before, and I had never displayed my work publicly.

When people started asking me about my background in photography, I found myself explaining that I first learned the basics from my father. I remembered standing with him, out in our large, suburban backyard, former marshlands turned bedroom communities for state workers like himself.

He was showing me how to work the Pentax 35mm I had received for my bar-mitzvah. He was explaining f-stops, shutter speed, depth of field.

Even as a small child, I stood under the red incandescent bulb in his basement darkroom, the latent image coming clear in the tray of developer.

Call it my new obsession. Call it research.

I've got another show coming up in August. The first one was about Katrina. I think this one will be about the American flag.