Sunflower in Winter

The first in a series of photos taken exclusively with a film camera.

This was my first attempt at working with slow-speed black and white film. It was a winter day in Brandon, Manitoba, in early 1978. I had recently purchased a new Pentax semi-automatic film camera, and was intrigued by the possibilities of black and white photos. The film was Kodak 100 ASA, probably taken at f8, and the camera was definitely hand-held. It was sometime later that I decided to invest in a tripod. The sky was overcast, which turned out to be ideal. I later learned that a sunny day is less than desirable for taking pictures - too much glare.

With this image, and the satisfaction of the tactile experience when using the very well-built Pentax, I was hooked, and have been ever since.

There is almost always a song playing in my mind, and I've chosen one to accompany this image. One of my favourite songwriters, Leonard Cohen, wrote a song called "Winter Lady" which was featured on his first album, and later in the movie McCabe and Mrs. Miller. It's a great lyric about desolation and contains with these lines:

Well I lived with a child of snow
When I was a soldier
And I fought every man for her
Until the nights grew colder