From 2010, never published.
archives
#FridayFlashback is something of an Internet tradition. We’re not very traditional.
#FridayFlashback is nothing new. If you’ve been on social media more than a week you’ve likely come across it somewhere. The idea is that one post an old picture of themselves or their friends doing something years ago. Typically, people drop back four or five years, or whatever they happen to have in their cell phone. It’s cute. It’s fun.
Around here, we don’t really do #FlashbackFriday, because almost every day we’re pulling pictures from the archives. So, in a sense, we’re doing flashbacks every day. Friday’s no different than the rest of the week.
Today, however, I came up short. I started work on an article and realized about three hours into it that the damn thing was larger than I anticipated and was going to take a significant amount of research. There’s no way I could get it done in time to post today. So, we’ve set that article aside until tomorrow or possibly Sunday. The problem now was what else did we have to post? It’s already past 1:00 in the afternoon. Most people are trying to get off work early. If we want anyone to actually see what we’ve posted, we needed something we could get up and online quickly.
Ta-da! #Flashback Friday! We’ve grabbed a set of photos shot between 2004-2006. Part of what makes these pictures special is that they were shot with a five-megapixel camera. Granted, it was one of the best five-megapixel cameras on the market at the time. Yet, compared to modern cameras, it seems rather insignificant. The biggest issue we had to deal with was noise. We carefully put each image through noise reduction software so that it wouldn’t look horrible on your monitor.  That’s the only change we’ve made, though. So, enjoy looking back at the old stuff. We’ll have that big article in a day or two.
The body can be an amazing background.
We completely forgot about some of these.
8/12/2007, 11:15:26 AM
2/28/2008, 1:17:32 PM
7/15/2007, 4:48:14 PM
7/15/2007, 3:09:30 PM
10/29/2005, 12:43:58 AM
10/28/2005, 12:23:42 AM
7/11/2006, 2:52:24 PM
8/22/2006, 7:19:18 AM
9/14/2007, 9:07:45 PM
3/22/2008, 4:02:40 PM
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. —Audrey Hepburn
Every once in a while we need to go back through the archives and revive some photos that were once ignored
This is one of those days where I just couldn’t handle the current topics in my newsfeed. The top five news stories this morning all dealt with the same issue which dominated yesterday’s news. I don’t want to add to that noise. Plus, I’m still tired, recovering from a month of fashion shows and trying to get things in gear for next year. This is typically a quiet time where we don’t shoot as much, but we’re extremely busy with business stuff.
Given all that, today seemed like a good day to show you some pictures we’ve revived from the archive. Rather than put them in a slide show, though, which would be very easy, I want to take you through each of them and explain why they were omitted from their original set’s production. Perhaps this method will be a bit more interesting.
Let’s start with the photo above. This is a picture of downtown Dallas, TX taken from the passenger seat of my brother’s vehicle. I love that Dallas is not afraid of modern architecture. There is a lot to that city that will surprise you, despite the  large number of morons who live there (No, baby brother doesn’t  actually live there). Why was this image not part of the original set? Two reasons. First, the uniqueness of the architecture leaves me uncertain as to where the straight lines are supposed to be. Perspective is a wonderful thing and this image defies it. Second, look in the  bottom right corner and you’ll see my reflection in the snow-covered hi … uhm, I mean, car window.  Rather creepy.
Revived Workout
Why I Revived This Picture:Â I love the ambiguity of this frame. We see their arms extended upward but have no reason why they are engaged in such a pose. I had only recently met both girls and they were such good sports to be out shooting on a rather cool Sunday morning. What are they actually doing? Pullups. Â There’s a bar just above them, hence the reason for their arms being in the position they are.
Why This Photo Was Omitted: The very reason I like this image is why we left it out of the original set: it’s too ambiguous. We were doing an article on fitness, had tons of photos, and this one just muddied the water too much.
A Bit Of Tack
Why I Revived This Picture:Â Symmetry. This is the tack room at the stables where my niece rides. I was taken first by the color of all the different tack, but as I looked I noticed the symmetry with which they were hung on the wall. I couldn’t resist the photo.
Why This Photo Was Omitted:Â We were on a family vacation. Do you see any family in this picture? No. This happens every vacation. I take a lot of pictures and then never get around to processing the ones that don’t include family members.
Body Paint
Why I Revived This Photo:Â I really love the painting Kelly Oswalt did for this set. Having to cover an entire body in white is a lot more difficult than it sounds. The design she chose was absolutely wonderful and has always been one of my favorites.
Why This Photo Was Omitted:Â At the time we shot this I was cropping everything to a square orientation and this photo just doesn’t fit. I was also dropping in a substitute background and that didn’t work with this photo, either.
Am I Blue?
Why I Revived This Photo:Â Color. It’s not often we have a photo with such high contrasting color, especially with any level of nudity in the photo. Here is one of those rare instances where it all comes together and looks best with very little treatment to it at all.
Why This Photo Was Omitted:Â Originally, this photo was part of a composite image, hence the blue background. The image was heavily blurred and at a reduced opacity so that the bright contrast of the colors was not evident.
Long Sleeves
Why I Revived This Photo:Â This sleeve is one of the best examples of detailed color ink work I’ve seen. There are a lot of times I don’t like full sleeves like this because, depending on how the arm is bent or what clothes might be worn, the flow of the image is interrupted. This piece works nicely, though, even under blouses that cover most of her arm. Very beautiful work.
Why This Photo Was Omitted:Â When we first processed this series of photos I really wanted to make sure every image focused on the ink more than a model. I was concerned that the nipple might be distracting because, as the past few hours have demonstrated, the world is full of pigs.
Down On The  Farm
Why I Revived This Photo:Â Because this is one of those sets where we should have done better. We had been shooting all day outdoors and hadn’t taken enough lights to adequately handle shooting after dark. Not many of these photos are worth saving, but this one is.
Why This Photo Was Omitted:Â The whole set was largely buried. I only processed three images when we first shot them. As an aside, since these photos were taken, the model returned to college and is now an RN. A lot of people called her a lot of not-so-nice names and refused to work with her. To those people, we say, “Fuck you.”
Eternal Terminal
Why I Revived This Photo:Â Lines. Look at them. The perspective of the hallway, uniquely shaped by unseen staircases, trailing off into darkness, lends itself to so very many stories. My imagination runs wild when I think of all the adventures that might have had their beginning or ending in this hallway.
Why This Photo Was Omitted:Â This image is not from a public set. We were doing some location scouting and this was one of the images that convinced me we needed to shoot here. However, I typically don’t process photos from a scouting shoot. In fact, it’s rare I keep them at all. I just couldn’t let this one go.
Almost Anonymous
Why I Revived This Photo:Â Nothing from this set has ever been processed. They were shot a few years ago, the middle set in a three-set shoot. First set was processed, third set was processed, these were skipped. Since I was going through looking for photos that hadn’t been seen before, this seemed like a pretty good choice.
Why This Photo Was Omitted:Â I don’t remember exactly, but the set that comes after this is a very popular series involving a pocket watch. Some of you might remember having seen those photos. I think there’s still one in my portfolio. Excitement over that last set most likely led to this set being ignored.
Life Sometimes Sucks
Why I Revived This Photo:Â This poor young woman has had a rough go of it lately. Every time she turns around, someone she cares about is dying. There are other issues as well. This is one of those moments when life is not being kind and there’s not a helluva lot anyone can do about. So, I’m hoping this photo might bring a smile to her day and remind her that someone cares.
Why This Photo Was Omitted:Â At the time we processed the other photos from this set, this one didn’t seem to particularly fit the narrative. We’d had a fun shoot. She had a fun shoot. This image seemed a little too serious to match with all the smiles and laughter. The photo feels a lot more poignant by itself.
There, ten photos revived from the archive. I hope you’ve enjoyed the stroll. Maybe I’ll  think of something important to write by tomorrow.