Jump to content

Ephemeral displays, or, "What can I cram into 1 photo?"


Bob Hudson
 Share

Recommended Posts

Ephemera covers "things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time." Usually it's paper - photos, documents, even books. Paper and photos - depending on various factors - can fade, crack, crumble and otherwise destroy themselves even if not subjected to a lot of handling by people.

 

In some cases a photograph's content is as ephemeral as the medium. I am lucky to be in a geographic location where I continue to find military groupings straight out of the woodwork. It is always fun to bring home boxes full of history and do the unpacking, sorting, research, etc. The final step is the group photo, where I try to come up with an interesting display of the grouping, something that sort of shows everything in one photo, such as:

 

0.jpg

 

That actually is not all of that grouping, which came in 10 footlockers, but it captures the essence.

 

It took quite awhile to set up this photo, to create a nice display. But the display is more ephemeral than the photo of it, and within 30 minutes after the photo was taken it was all boxed up again.

 

For the most part the photos are my only souvenir of the groupings. I like to say I have a rotating collection and have been the brief custodian of incredible bits of historical memorabilia over the years. Pretty much eveything here was bought from families or estate sales and had had been packed away for decades before I found them.

 

The photo displays vary from lots and lots of stuff, to sometimes just 3 or 4 uniforms. There's a civilian one too below, with a military connnection. Sometimes there was so much stuff that I had to make a photo collage to get it all in one image and I show several of those below. I regret now that I did not save all of the images at higher resolution.

 

So here's my ephemeral ephemera collection:

 

0a.jpg

 

0b.jpg

 

0c.jpg

 

0d.jpg

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sky King to Penny: She did a USO Show and her artifacts display just like militaria! I have to admit this is the most fun civilian grouping I ever found.

 

31.jpg

 

These are photo collages. Everything in a photo is original to the grouping. It still amazes me to look back and see what surprises awaited.

 

a.jpg

 

b.jpg

 

d.jpg

 

This had text for use in an ebay listing. I actually still have many if not most of the individual photos in this one (same with some other groupings too),

 

e.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bob, "That's all I found." Greatest under statement every voiced. Did all this come from a single individual as it is so diverse! Jack

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bob, "That's all I found." Greatest under statement every voiced. Did all this come from a single individual as it is so diverse! Jack

 

No this is about 13 years worth while living in the San Diego area.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On my enclosed patio I have a waist-high table, and hanging above that is a roll of white paper, a little over four feet wide. I have three two-tube flourescent light fixtures: one on each side angled inward, and one overhead angled down toward the wall. I now use six LED tubes in the flourescent fixtures.

 

The photo corner looks junky-looking at best, but when I turn the lights on and move the camera in close to crop the image, it produces nice results. I do some quick white balancing in Photoshop if needed. ometimes whites come out too cool or too warm and a white balance tool adjusts that. I don't go for perfection here, just a tightly-cropped, in-focus image with accurate color and no shadows if possible. A white background and lots of even light from all directions makes it much easier to do these things.

 

p1.jpg

 

p2.jpg

 

p3.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The table is designed to drop down for taking photos of uniforms and other long stuff, but the space beneath became one of many places I store boxes for ebay so it stays as is. I took the combat SEAL and USAF pilot mannequins photos in front of my north-facing white garage door and I have a 7x4 white vinyl photo back drop attached to the back of a garage storage rack. It's just inside the garage and catches the natural light. The vinyl was sold for wall coverings or some such thing. The roll of paper I use on the indoor photo table comes from a photo store (yes they still have some) and as it gets used, you tear off the dirty part and roll out a clean section. The paper is not creased so it has that invisible edge where it meets the wall (creases cause shadows).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Excellent groupings and beautifully photographed. Thanks for explaining how you did this. Now I have to create my own 'junky looking' photo corner ;)

 

Rene

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...