After a recent vacay to San Miguel de Allende, I made a rookie mistake
(that I never made as a rookie) in the darkroom. I ruined 2 rolls of film by processing them in the wrong
chemistry. By the time I had discovered my film faux pas no amount of silver
saving CPR could rescue the images.
When the blank rolls revealed themselves, I was disappointed, yes, but
mostly all I thought was “Cool, now I have more material for my Mardi Gras
costume”. It also gave me the
opportunity to write lines like “silver saving CPR”, haha.
In truth, I didn’t lose that many photos. Most of what I shot was for handtinting
purposes, so I had captured the same images in digital. Still I was very careful when I
processed the next roll. The camera I brought still had film in it, I wasn’t
sure what was on it, but I soon discovered images from Zwolle, Louisiana – shot
in 2014! Apparently it has been a
while since I used that camera…There was only one image of San Miguel on the
roll – an image of a Buddha. Somehow, it just made sense.
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| Christine's Terrace |
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The statue was on the terrace of the apartment I stayed in. The first day I was there, my birthday,
I woke up to a shadow of myself on the terrace.
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| Shadow Selfie |
The next day I woke up to a hot air balloon, which I since learned is a fairly common sight:
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| Morning in San Miguel |
Signs of the spiritual were everywhere, not just on terraces, but all along
the picturesque landscape of San Miguel.
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| Sunset Cross |
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| La Parroquia |
So naturally I was drawn to sacred
and somewhat sacreligious selfies..
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| San Miguel Selfie |
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| Slightly Sacreligious Selfie |
The last day of my trip was spent at the
amaaaazing La Gruta hot springs.
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| La Gruta |
(Where I took weird shadow selfies)
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| Weird Shadow Selfie |
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The color is intense in San Miguel, hence my desire to handcolor the film photos. (4th roll was
the charm)
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| Streets of San Miguel |
There were two images
in particular that I really wanted to handcolor – one was the shop with the colorful brooms & bags,
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| Shop with the colorful brooms & bags |
the other was of towels at La Gruta.
The brooms survived, the towels did not. I have no idea why, with all the intense color in San
Miguel, that this was the one image I was sad I did not get on film.
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| La Gruta Towels |
It would have been nice to have those extra two rolls of film to explore some printing options. But unlike my 22, 32, or (who am I kidding..) my 42 year old self, my 44 year old self recognizes my good fourtune of the experience and what I was able to capture. At the end of the day I was chillin
with the Buddha on the terrace anyway.
All's good.
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| Me 'n B |
Now I've got a Mardi Gras costume to prepare.
Til next time..
(c) Natasha Sanchez
Oh wait - carrots! I also shot some carrots.. :)
(c) Natasha Sanchez
