Today I’ve been flash-backing. I don’t know what happened, but just as year 2009 started I got a few fails.
The worst fail was that my grandfather Diki passed away. I really admire the man – that optimism, that will power, that kindness, that fair-mindedness, that enthusiasm. He had all that though he had gone trough a war and imprisonment. For example – how many grandpas are there who at the age of almost 80 decide to learn how to use a computer. We bought him a machine, he had some books and few months later he introduces me Skype. He had bought speakers, mic and was already an experienced user. He used it to keep contact with children/grandchildren here and abroad.
It was really cool how he memorized stuff – as he couldn’t speak English, he had this little notebook where he had written down all the steps to achieve a specific goal. “Click START, click Programs, click Skype.”, same for opening Word. I once explained him how to add an image to a Word document, he wrote it down step-by-step. I find it pretty amazing and I really want this notebook as a memory of him, as a symbol of will power and enthusiasm.
He was also a keen surfer in the Internet. Of course it wasn’t all that easy at the beginning cause on every pop-up he pressed “Yes” and ended up having a lot of malware in the computer that my relative had to remove regularly. That happens to every new user. It all got way better when my mom told him to press “No/Cancel” to every un-expected question. Also, at first he couldn’t re-use browser windows, he opened up a new window for every new page he wanted to visit and did not close the previous, so the computer run out of resources now and then. Again, can happen to every new PC user.
Oh yes, one day he went to a store and bought himself printer-scanner-copier and learned to use that as well.
Looking back, he never forgot those who were around him, I mean never. I can’t remember a single negative experience with him although we shared the World for almost 25 years. Zero. For real. Amazing. Try performing the same stunt on people close to you - there’s a lot that we can give.
Now he rests in peace.
I also failed to measure light properly the whole film. I decided to do some fail-posting to kick myself in the butt a bit by showing my totally failed shots also. As they say: “Good photographer is the one who shows only his best shots”. I’m not good photographer, I’m just another enthusiast doing it for the fun of it.
Image: The only and failed shot on film from my grandpas funeral.
Equipment: Hasselblad 500 c/m, Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm f2,8 / Illford Delta 3200
The Fail Set @ http://www.tiblu.com/img/mediumformat2009_5/
