My get pushed challenge from Milla @mbrigit was "something from your childhood or something that tells about the time you were a kid." I've always wanted to try this type of shot where you hold up an old photo and try to get it to blend in with the setting as it is now. It took me a little bit to get up the nerve to knock on the door and ask the current owners of the house I grew up in if I could try this in their back yard. I was SO glad there was someone home and he said it was no problem -- I could go ahead.
Well, as you can see, this old picture of me (kneeling) and my younger sister, Barbie (standing), looking at the Easter eggs we had found is not perfectly lined up with the real house and garage, but after some multiple attempts, I thought this was the best of the lot. When I got home, I realized why the garage still looked out of whack. If you look at the old picture, you can see the far edge of the single car garage on the extreme right. It's still the same sized single car garage, so I needed either a slightly different perspective or different ratio of photo to real (hold photo closer yet?) All in all, it was a fun experiment and I'd like to try more sometime. If I want to use that back yard again, I may have to start over with new owners, as the current one said the house would be for sale in a few months. They had bought a farm in a neighboring county.
Online, I've discovered that this photo technique is often/commonly called "Dear Photograph." So...
Dear Photograph,
The tree by the garage is long gone now, the house and garage are painted green, and there's no cherry tree, swing set, sandbox, or old truck parked out back. Barb and I are all grown up with gray hair. But my heart beat a little faster when I stepped into that back yard. I still think of it as home.
Much love,
Cathy
(In the photo, not yet commonly called "Mary Catherine" by classmates, and DEFINITELY not yet known as just "Mary")
I tried this a few times and realized it is way more difficult than the good ones make it appear. You did great for a first attempt. Better by far than I managed
@pandorasecho Ha, ha, ha...especially hard when the photo is fluttering slightly in the good Kansas breeze. Did you post any of your attempts? I can't remember if I saw them or not.
@mcsiegle I can't even remember if I did or not, it would have been a couple years ago probably, I have huge trees in my yard now but only grass when the kids were little, so I held a picture from when they were about four, to contrast the forest encroaching into the yard, but I know it was hard to line up the insular reference points that still remained.
I love this idea and it's completely fantastic. I saw your photo on the PP and went to look at it more clearly. Than something triggered about your name and I realize why...Mary you're my Get Pushed partner for this week. I think you did a brilliant work on this challenge, as well an excellent capture. So I was looking through your photos and different photography techniques, found a challenge I hope you'll like...it's motion blur photography. You can use any source and be shot inside or out. I hope you have fun with this and if it's not possible for you to do, just let me know and I'll think of something else. Have fun...great photo both old and new and following.
I recently did this too...and it's fun! I wasn't able to line mine up perfectly either, because part of the structure where my photo was taken had fallen down. But you still get the gist of it. You did well....great capture!
@mbrigit oh my gosh,I thought I had tagged you when I posted yesterday. Maybe I wrote the comment and didn't press "post comment" -- done that before...
