More than SIX weeks after it was mailed, my enlargements finally arrived. It's been longer than that though because they got lost in the mail for three weeks on the way out as well. Initially, I was heartbroken, and later frustrated by their loss.
The past couple days, I'd been thinking about them again, dismayed by the loss of the negatives but resigned to it. I asked myself what I'd been expecting when I sent them in the first place. I'd had some notion that these enlargements might provide clarity, purpose, or direction to my life; I'd been excited about making the largest enlargements of my work that I'd ever seen; and because I'd thought and felt that, I felt like that accounted for their loss. What did I really expect to change anyway? Could two 12"x18" photographs inspire me to do more than frame them? Their loss in the mail didn't seem to matter as much.
Mom's holler today was completely unexpected, yet not surprising; apparently I hadn't given up hope. "Claire! Come downstairs right now and open this tube that came for you." I was in the middle of saving a file and thought she was just excited it had arrived, but then she added, "It's wet!" I left the dialogue box open and went downstairs.
It would figure that our mail carrier would stuff the tube into the mailbox, leaving the end exposed in the pouring rain. One end of the tube was well soaked. I opened the other side and peered inside. Of course, everything was down at the wet end. I pulled out the paperwork and negatives, and then carefully slid the enlargements from the tube. Fortunately, nothing was ruined.
I unrolled the photos and took a quick look at them; they looked good but seemed small. Maybe they'll seem more impressive once they flatten out. I set them aside so I could put a strip of negative that had slipped out back in its envelope.
And? So, are you happy, are they great? Life's a blast again, just like is should be?
ReplyDelete(I'm going to look up metric cinversions to see what 12"x18" is in centimeters...)
I'm pleased with the prints (I would've printed them a hair darker to saturate the colors more), but all the waiting and distress I felt effectively diffused my anticipation.
ReplyDeleteOh, and ~30 cm x 45 cm for the metric types out there. Not that big really, but up till now I'd only had 8"x10" or 8" x 12"s made (20 cm x 25 cm or 20 cm x 30 cm).
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing next time you wont mail them anywhere, you'll have them made at the local photo thingy...
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty big, anyway - good for you!
Probably, but it's pricey to do, so it'll probably be a while before I undertake this again. Frustrating because the place I send them does quality work- on their larger enlargements, they have someone correct for dust and scratches and process it by hand... local places either don't do that or charge a lot more for it.
ReplyDeleteAnd the shots are growing on me. They just seemed smaller because of all the poster sized framed prints around. I'm sure they'll size up better once matted and framed.