RED: Lily Glass Photography [dot] om: TWELVE

FINALLY! If I could scream through the interweb, I would! I've been doing jump-dances all day - it feels so good to finally be finished with my website. I've needed one for, oh, more than a year... but had so many great weddings this summer and very little time to do anything else but shoot and edit (which I loved!). But alas - the time has come to be able to pass along a real dot.com website and I am so excited. So please, drop by the site, look around and then spread the word!

At the risk of sounding like a bad award acceptance speech: First, thank you to all the beautiful people that allowed me to work with them this summer - here's to years of yummy home-cooked meals and new opportunities. Most importantly: my sweet husband who put up with hours of my scrunched face scowling at the computer screen, my disgruntled mornings waking up from HTML dreams, panicked screams when the website disappeared for hours, called his web-genius friend, Daniel, when I couldn't figure out the menus... and of course he proofread the entire thing. He's selfless and wonderful and I don't know what I would do without him. Thank you, Benny.

RED: 8mm Movie: TEN

Like the majority of 20-something year old couples, Ben and I are aching to explore Europe together. Our refrigerator proudly displays a crumpled piece of notebook paper which was the product of a late night dinner with friends during which we decided upon 5 European countries we would like to visit the most. If all goes according to plan, one year from now you will be reading the most exciting RED post yet - a detailed description of a four week Glass Family European Journey. 

You should not be surprised that during one of our first planning sessions, the subject of photo documentary devices was brought up (i.e. "we need to set a limit on the number of cameras you would bring, Lily").  I don't need to tell you that my brain immediately began strategizing a way to fit my two polaroids, two brownies, two 35mm, digital cameras, my three favorite lenses, and enough film for four weeks into the most efficient bag possible. Ben saw right through me and intercepted my blueprints with "Two or three. Max." Uuuhhh arrow through the heart. You know we're talking about Europe right?! It's not fair that his craft simply require a pencil and a piece of paper...

As I created a mental pros and cons list for each camera, we started talking about how great it would be to have a motion recording of this fantastical adventure. One hour later, a Kodak Brownie 8mm movie camera was purchased on Ebay. (I know what you're thinking - that boots out one of my still cameras. But once you watch the treat below, I'm sure you'll agree that it's more than a fair trade). 

Ben did some research and found the film we needed and a lab in Kansas that processes and transfers the footage into digital files. We ran two test reels and he edited the video into what you see below. My first thought after watching the video? "Our grandkids are gunna think we're so cool."

I can't begin to tell you how excited we are to take this little treasure to Europe with us. Can you imagine the Swiss Alps on this film?! I can't think of a better souvenir. 

RED: New Lily Glass Photography Packaging: NINE

Watch out - L. Glass Photography is gettin' swanky with new photo disc packaging and personalized labels. Take a peak at the new look here. Or better yet, schedule a photo appointment and receive one of your very own! Every photo session receives a disc with edited images and the shared rights to make prints to your hearts desire. More upgrades to come!

RED: Fix up old camera: FIVE

I've always loved the physical product that film produces. The convenience of digital photography is brilliant, but there is something special about holding a captured moment in your hand as the photo itself has been effected by time and touch. I stumbled upon this beautiful little kodak duaflex camera at a yard sale at the beginning of the summer. I had fiddled with my grandpa's old camera enough to know what I was looking for and immediately purchased the $5 camera. I found film on B&H and immediately began cleaning up the camera. A few adjustments were made, a few photos ruined, but I eventually got the hang of things. I spent the afternoon out on the farm at home in Tennessee with Rascal and then took the camera to New York with us. I wrapped up the roll of film when we visited the Columbus Zoo a couple weeks ago.

The Duaflex is a medium format camera which uses film larger than a good ol' 35mm camera, but smaller than large format film. Due to the larger size of the film, the format allows for better control of depth of field and produces a sharper all around image making better quality enlargements. The box Brownie popularized medium format film making it more accessible to the average person (initial market price was $1), and was adored for its compact, portable nature. Today, medium format film can be tricky to find and is priced similar to instant film (about $1.00/image), but if handled properly, the final result is always gratifying. The images themselves produce a dream-like, nostalgic nature unique not only in their high quality resolution but their square shape.

Above: the Brooklyn Bridge, NYC. 

Below: Asian Elephants and Ben, Columbus Zoo. 

While the model that I have comes with a "double-exposure prevention button" (you have to hold a lever while you press the shutter and it locks so you don't press it again before manually advancing the film), the camera itself cannot guarantee that you forget to advance the film and press the lever and the exposure button again... However, sometimes it can result in happy accidents like the photo below. I wish I could say that I planned this, but I did not. That's my favorite Ohio tree with Times Square in the background.