Twenty years ago, I was walking along this street in Chicago when I saw a television crew surrounding this very well dressed woman. She looked important, tossing her hat in the air, as if for some television commercial. I remember having to step around the pavement to get around her and the crew. I spent a few minutes watching the scene and then I took a photo because, I was a tourist and I had a camera with me. I had no idea who she was. It wasn’t until later, back in Australia, that someone looking at my photos told me that this woman was Oprah and had a somewhat popular television show. O! 🙂
I think this may have been on North Michigan Avenue, but if anyone can correct me please let me know.
In 1993 I spent a couple of weeks in “The Windy City”. I was travelling with an SLR in those days, my Konica T4 auto reflex and mostly using Kodak Gold. As I am currently digitising my negatives, if I find any nice or interesting ones I’ll pop them on my blog, although this will only be sporadically but may be of some “historical” interest.
Etcetera Etcetera Etcetera 
So, who was she? Did you ever get to know her name or the name of the show? Interesting!
Oprah Winfrey. 🙂
NO…
Yes, this was twenty years ago. Sorry I don’t have a close up photo.
But when you say it, it’s possible to maybe understand…
Wow, how lucky are you! Right time, right place!
Yes, but I didn’t know that at the time. 🙂
Wow how fortunate!
Thanks. These days I’m guessing she’d have a much larger entourage and gather a much larger crowd than she seemed to have had on that day.
A historical shot
what a good luck !!!
greetings
🙂
Thanks. These days you would not be able to get so close as she’d attract a much larger crowd.
Look forward to seeing more of your film work. As you’re digitizing the negatives and looking at them, it would also be interested to hear how you feel your vision / approach has changed over the years. 🙂
Thanks. Until I got my M9, I mostly photographed scenery and things, rather than people. The effect of the rangefinder has been to make me appreciate more the photography of people and life. Strange, isn’t it?
Not so strange…maybe it’s forced you to get closer to your subjects? I still have a ways to go before I can take shots like you, as much as I want to. Not to the point where I feel comfortable doing so…
I guess it’s the history of Leica cameras and their use in reportage. After I had my M for a while I really stopped to think why I bought it over other cameras, and realised I did want to do reportage style photography. It was a bit nerve racking to start with but then it got easier.
that’s amazing! not that you’ve captured O but that you kept negatives from so long ago. i’m sure looking at them brings back a lot of memories. 🙂
I could not never throw out a negative. It would be like wiping clean your hard drive of photos. And photos can be so tangible.
Unfortunately, I never archived them very well. I’ve got drawers full of them. 🙂
Fantastic shot and story. Today there’d be a crowd a mile wide!
So true, and every single person in that crowd with a camera phone.
I guess that is why you should always take a lot of photos! You never know what (or who) you might “capture”.
Absolutely. Unfortunately back then I only took one photo because film and processing cost money, and I was travelling, with limited means. 🙂
The colors are very smooth, a little soft in a pleasing way. That’s the film, isn’t it? and if so, how much are you paying attention to that & trying to preserve it when you digitize them?
The canvas is the film (Kodak Gold Generation 3, asa 200) but I have done some adjustments to contrast and light in Lightroom 4. Unfortunately my focussing was a little soft when I took the photos so some of the fine detail can’t be restored but I can (have to) live with that.
Scanning is something I am still learning to do properly. I’m not sure I have all the parameters correct. I’m using the Vuescan program and there are way too many options.
Thanks for the comment.
you were shooting on film before? that’s cool…
oh, wow, 20 years ago…how long have you been into photography?
I bought my first real camera (SLR) when I was 14. But the enthusiasm varied over the years.