The Wind Against my Wings

September 2019: Shooting at Gibraltar Point, Toronto, CA

Maybe, I should have consulted my horoscope instead of the weather forecast before taking the ferry across the lake.  I understand weather patterns can vary close to bodies of water, but this was like standing in the middle of a storm.

The ride to and from the island was calm, filled with the usual crowd of day-trippers and tourists excitingly snapping pictures of jets gliding above.  On this particular journey, however, there was a woman who had mistaken the ferry (and its docking area) for a battleship; her overly animated speech seemed as if she was relaying messages to unseen crew members.

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For some reason when I began shooting the sky became overcast, producing unpredictable lighting, and the wind started furiously blowing.  Waves were crashing so loud, it sounded like roaring.  I took it personally.  Should I have asked for blessings and permission before stepping onto the sand of a public beach?  I was photographing the grass tufts in the sand, of all things I didn't need wildly blowing around that day was the grass.

Nevertheless, the wacky weather gave me a chance to practice slightly shifting the camera angle to get a better shot under spotty lighting. Also, I discovered that wearing jeans does not lend well for crouching down in a shifting sand ditch - I sadly displaced a few plant roots as I struggled to stand up.

The negatives came out OK. Some images are blurry and dull because the shutter on my Spotmatic goes up to only 1000 and I should have used a different film developer - oh well, lesson learnt. There are a few good potential prints on that neg. and with some creative ingenuity maybe a great photograph.

wishing you serenity,

♥️ Christina