Searching for That Which is Lost

[pameladlloyd]

I've just spent a couple of hours searching for a photograph--not online, but in my own collection of photographs. You see, I'm working on a graphic image for a website I'm building for our local science fiction convention. After consultation with the con comm, we decided we wanted an image that incorporated elements of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. (This was based on a couple of sample images I showed them, but requires all new artwork.)




In order to complete the scene I want to include an image of a woman in a long dress, facing away from the camera and standing in the prow of a boat heading toward the center of the image. Oh, and I don't know that I'll be able to pull this off, but I'd love to have skeletons swimming in the water next to the boat.

I had no, have! a photo, in which I am wearing a flamenco dress and staring out a window. I wanted to crop the photo, so I could position the figure in the prow of a boat. (I'm not sure how well that would turn out and I don't know where I'm going to get the boat image as I haven't found the right image in either my photos or public domain, or if I'm going to have to try to draw the boat, but I hope I can make it work, somehow.)

Unfortunately, the album in which the photograph was stored was not in its usual place and is nowhere to be found. So, I went through the boxes and boxes of duplicate prints and other photos that never made it into albums, but although I found many wonderful memories, I didn't find the photo I was looking for. In fact, all my photos from Spain are missing. :(

They will turn up again. Just not right now, it would seem.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Very frustrating when you can't find what you need when you need it... you can search Google images for an image in the common domain (and if you do that, the photos you're looking for of your own may just turn up)

Edit: to clarify, I don't mean that they'll turn up online! But that if you turn away from looking for them, it may actually become easier to find them.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Yes, if I could find exactly the right image, that would be great. Or, I signed up with Fotalia (http://www.fotolia.com/) a couple of years ago, and they offer very inexpensive options for royalty free photos.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

And, I know what you mean about the search. As soon as I stop trying (or as soon as I don't need it any more) I'm sure the album will turn up. :)

[core-opsis.livejournal.com]

I hate that--looking for stuff that's not where it's supposed to be. Especially when you know where it SHOULD be. I was looking for a photo the other day too (for a much more mundane project) and could not find the right album--still can't. And there are still things I can't find here in my house that I've lived in since 1996, yet I can picture exactly where those things were in my apartment in Minneapolis before that. Frustrating!

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Oh, my, yes. I've always been a bit of a pack rat, but one of the things I noticed looking at photos, was how much neater my house used to be. Not that I've ever had a house that was neat enough or decorative enough to be in the pages of House Beautiful, but between my boys moving out, caring for several months for Lisa, the aging parent of a friend who died of cancer, and then remarrying and having my husband and his boys move in about the time Lisa's grandson came for her, lots of things have been shifted around, put in storage that was supposed to be temporary, or otherwise displaced. Still, I'm not sure why my photo album wasn't where it was supposed to be, when all the others were. Probably someone (even me) got it out to look at and didn't put it back where it belongs.