All About Blue

Dowagiac, Michigan

I've been spending a lot of time studying, and printing, pictures from my drive-in theater expedition last September. Preparation for the Giant Road Trip that should begin in less than two weeks. Partly it's a matter of having a completely sure idea of what I want final prints to look like, both from large format film and from digital capture. For both, the basic technical answer is, HP Professional Satin paper from the Z3200 printer. It's also about reverse engineering how I will go about the shooting.

With digital capture now at such a mature state, the number of theaters, and details at them, that I can shoot is essentially limitless, though I've never found that just shooting away at everything with abandon leads to good results. However, the logistics of shooting this much material means that I'll have to limit my large format work, probably on the basis of targeting it for subjects that I "see" as platinum prints. Forget the cost of film, visiting literally hundreds of theaters, if I shoot everywhere with large format I won't live long enough to develop all the film.

Then there are subjects, like the 5-Mile Drive-in here, where the only reason to make a picture is the color, with the sure and subtle control of that color afforded by digital capture.

The reason for that sign on the ticket booth is that most DI theaters charge so little for admission to a double feature that the only profits come from the concession stand.