Serendipity's First Kiss

The Verdant Louise

 I've written quite a lot about serendipity (see here and here and here) but it was years after she first kissed me before I realized she was responsible for some of my best photographs. 

This was her first kiss -- and my first definitive portrait, although I didn't know it at the time. It was 1969 and I had recently acquired my first really good camera, a Nikon F, along with a pair of Tamron lenses: a 35mm and a 135mm, both f2.8. In my first flush of photographic enthusiasm I was pointing my camera and clicking the shutter at anything and everything. 

I also liked to experiment with different types of film: black & white, color negative, and color slide. But I had only the one camera body, and sometimes would want to change the film type before finishing the roll in the camera. Rather than losing whatever number of frames were left on the roll, I would check the exposure counter, rewind the film, leaving the leader out, and write the number of exposures on the leader. When I put the film back in the camera I would cover the lens, click off the indicated number of exposures, plus one, and go on shooting. 

This worked well most of the time, but sometimes I would fail to count accurately and would get an accidental double exposure. Mostly, those would be a waste of film; occasionally one would be mildly interesting. This one alone was a kiss from serendipity. 

Why do I call this a definitive portrait? As I wrote here, a definitive portrait is one that shows not only what the subject looks like, but also reveals some insight into his or her character. This portrait of Louise not only shows the beauty of my wife in her mid-20s, but also, through the magic of a serendipitous double exposure that combines her portrait with growing plants, reveals two things: one is her character as a nurturer, demonstrated especially in her career as a registered nurse and nurse practitioner 

The second is her deep love of growing things. Some years ago when we lived in a subdivision, Louise had a small garden plot, maybe 15x20 feet, in our back yard. My dad always referred to it as Louise's mini-farm, because it was so productive. She continues her verdant ways to this day, supervising the landscaping around our home and tending a sizable flower garden. 

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(Photograph copyright David B. Jenkins 2020) 

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone