Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can’t sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can’t sleep with the window open.—George Bernard Shaw
We’ve all heard the expression “Time flies when you’re having fun” but it really hit me when I placed these two portraits of Mary and I in today’s post, the first of which was made more than 40 years years.
A 43’rd wedding anniversary is something to celebrate, and the traditional gift is opal or Serpentine. Serpentine is believed to have several powers, including detoxifying the body, enhancing cellular regeneration, reducing stress, and clearing energy blockages. It is also thought to promote spiritual growth and enlightenment. That’s certainly something for me to think about as I write this. (PS. don’t tell Mary. I bought her a serpentine bracelet as an anniversary gift.)
How this photograph was made
The portrait of Mary and me at right was made about 44 years ago in Denver’s Johnson’s Park, some time before Mary and I were married. It isn’t our official engagement portrait but in many ways I like this one better than the official one. Interestingly, I couldn’t find a scan of our official engagement portrait and don’t recall not liking it and know that for a long time we used it as our official business portrait.
The portrait was made while we were in Johnson’s Park to shoot some photographs for fun but also to show Mary how to load and shoot a Hasselblad 500CM with a meter prism. Ah, the film days, remember them? It turns out this was the very same camera used to make the above portrait. The lens was a Carl Zeiss Sonnar 150mm f/4 T* and the portrait was shot on Kodak Ektachrome 120 film. The 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. After he finished his portrait session, he asked if he could photograph Mary and I using our camera and the result, I think. was pretty terrific. Thank you, Scott.
The bottom left portrait was an iPhone selfie—Mary loves making those things—and was made at a car show—Corvettes, I believe—in Colorado Springs. In looking at these two pictures, I’m struck by how quickly the past 43 years have flown by.