OK, NOW we are starting to get somewhere. I needed to run to Tahlequah to update some of my tribal records with the Cherokee Nation (I am a Cherokee citizen, my great great grandfather came over from Georgia on the Trail of Tears). Once my work was completed I ran out to the Cherokee Heritage Center. I had photographed Tribal Vice Chairman Joe Crittenden there a couple of years ago while on an editorial assignment for Oklahoma Living Magazine. We had used the Cherokee village as a backdrop, but I knew they were rebuilding it the last time I was there. This time the work was completed but they still didn’t have much going on there so I decided to skip photographing in the village and went instead to the Murrell Home just south of the Cherokee Heritage Center. I found this old log home in the woods near the Murrell Home. It must have been used as hired hand quarters since it was much smaller and simpler than the main building. I really liked how it looked turn of the century so I thought a cool black and white photo of it would look boss.
I was using a different light meter than normal (I have a couple) and low and behold, later on that day I found out that I had been reading my meter wrong and had underexposed this shot by two whole stops! When I got back home I decided to push process my film by leaving it in the developer longer, thus turning the less more silver halide crystals into silver. I was able to scan the negative and still get decent detail from the image. I thought it turned out pretty cool. I wish it had a person in it, dressed in period costume, rocking on the front porch.
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