It’s been a hot minute since I blogged something. Not that I’ve been inactive in my life, but perhaps it goes into the category of practices rather than projects.

These are photos from a new years eve party at my house I helped make happen. I enjoyed getting dressed up and wearing my new hat I bought from a local clown, Bri Crabtree. I felt like Loonette from The Big Comfy Couch show.

I felt good about having a lot of time to set up the projector textures. You can see me experimenting with the framing with the textures, ultimately I had to make the screen taller so the people didn’t block the bunting I made.

I was really proud of the bunting. I cut out the numbers from a glittery cardstock I got at Michael’s. I accidentally cut the twos backwards which gave me the idea to put some shiny fabric on it. This was the first time I sewed fabric onto cardstock. It’s a nice alternative to glue because my hands did not get sticky and I think the fabric has more room to fluctuate or wrinkle, kind of like a deflated mylar balloon. I hung the bunting in my room and it’s a nice reminder of what year it is. Time seems to flow rather strangely these days.

Back to the shoot. I wanted to comment on how it was nice to do four shots. People tend to loosen up after a couple of takes, and I think people loosen up knowing there will be a couple of takes. To be fair, my housemates are very photogenic and playful. I really didn’t need to give them any direction other than where to sit.

I stare at this photo a lot. This was the last take and I really like how each of us, in our own little stripe, have our own vibe. It feels really cool to not have to color coordinate and enjoy how the composition gels because of the way the colors on the projector organizes the image, like the brady bunch, we have our own relatively equal section to express ourselves.

I would love to do this particular arrangement again. I like the idea of making a collage where there’s a long strip of portraits where each person gets a nice equal sized stripe to pose with their instrument or beloved object. That might be the thing I like the most about the photo is that everyone is equipped with a meaningful prop. Often photobooths give you a cheap generic prop. That’s the nice thing about partying at your own house I guess.

One thing that I regret that I want to keep in mind. After we took photos, one of my housemates said that you didn’t get to see the cake he made. Turns out, I wasn’t as detail oriented as I wanted to be. I can chock some of it up to the limited nature of a timer set camera versus being behind the camera when it fires off, but still, the way that this kind of photobooth works is is whatever is in the light is in the frame and I think that’s good to tell your people when you are ushering them into position. Some of the shots do get the cake, but still, I think that it might have been nice of me to offer singles for each person so that they get center stage and have a nice photo where it’s just them and in this case, they get to show off something they want to show off.

I thought and journaled a little about this phenomenon as a photographer, you are a historian, and you have an opportunity to shape how this memory will be fortified. And how it does everyone an honor to be reminded of stuff that they were proud of or worked hard on or were very into. How virtuous a photograph can be. And I can say that this year, like last year, I missed out on an opportunity, partially just being unpracticed in the ways of being a photographer. Last year (2019-2020 NYE party), I missed getting two party attendees photos taken, making the composite group shot incomplete. And now this year, I missed the cake. I suppose that’s an improvement though the number of attendees being what it was, perhaps, the percentage of incomplete relative to the party is the same.

Alas, I’m glad to start this year off with an opportunity to reflect on a beautiful photoshoot and with gratitude for beauty and aesthetics in this time of pandemic and significantly low overall party-quotient.