Today’s Post by Joe Farace
We’ve all heard the expression “Time flies when you’re having fun” but that really got to me when I posted these two portraits of Mary and I for today’s blog that are separated by more than 40 years years.
A 41st wedding anniversary is something to celebrate, and there is no traditional wedding anniversary gift for a 41’st wedding anniversary, but the modern gift is land. That’s certainly something for me to think about as I write this.
The photograph at right was made more than 40 years ago in Denver’s Johnson’s Park, a short time before Mary and I were married. It isn’t our official engagement portrait but in many ways I like this one much better than the official one. Interestingly enough, I couldn’t find a link to our official engagement portrait, which surely must say something. At the same time I don’t recall not liking it and I know we used it for a long time as our official business portrait, so who knows.
How these photos were made: We were in Johnson’s Park to make some photographs for fun and also for me to show Mary how to load and shoot with a Hasselblad 500CM—ah, the film days, remember them? It turns out that it was the very same camera as it turns out that was used to make the above portrait. The lens used was a Carl Zeiss Sonnar 150mm f/4 and it was shot on Ektachrome 120 film. Exposure was unrecorded.
Here’s how it happened: While we were at the park, Scott LeBaron, a local portrait photographer and a friend of ours, was photographing a high school senior. When he finished his portrait session, he asked if he could photograph Mary and I with our camera and the result was pretty terrific, I think. Thank you, Scott.
The bottom portrait was an iPhone selfie that was made recently at a car show—Corvettes, I think. In looking at these two pictures, I’m struck by how quickly the past 41 years have flown by.