Cowley Road Carnival, 2014

It's apparently been a few years since I last made it to Oxford's Cowley Road Carnival. I went the first three years that I lived in Oxford and filled up memory cards full of photos every time, but in recent years, circumstances have prevented my being there.

 

With this feeling like a reunion, I thought I would apply a new strategy to this year's photos. I've long since chosen to do my own photography on film and to save the digital camera for work. I enjoy the entire process of film, but most of all, I love that restriction of cost. I can't spend twenty frames to ensure getting a single photo that I want, because each frame costs me a little money.

 

So, it was established, I wasn't at Cowley Road Carnival this year to snap everything I saw, all restraint thrown to the wind. I was going to bide my time, pick my shots. My new strategy still didn't stop me from running backwards down the street, trying to stay in front of Oxford's community samba band, Sol Samba, happily snapping away, all while looking down into a Rolleiflex. I might have chucked a few frames, in the end, but I didn't have hundreds of near-duplicate photos to throw away, and, most importantly, I had fun. (I have wondered, since, if the parade staff weighed tossing me off the parade route vs. waiting to see how far I made it down the street without tripping.)

 

* Rolleiflex 2,8F Planar *

* Kodak Ektar 100 *

* Developed by AG Photo Lab *

* Epson V500 scanner *

* Photoshop CS6 *

 

www.DavidStumpp.com

Done