Rocky the Rock City Elf and some friends.
Going through my files of film photographs to select some larger-than-35mm transparencies to convert into digital files on my new/old Epson Perfection 4990 scanner, I came across a photograph that has almost certainly been published more often than any other I've ever made.
From 1982 until 1994, I was the more-or-less official photographer for Rock City Gardens, creating many photographs for their ads and brochures. This picture of Rocky, the Rock City Elf with some of his young friends was featured on the brochure that is given to everyone who buys a ticket to Rock City, so it has been printed countless thousands of times over many years.
The setup was simple: Rocky stood with his balloons in front of the Rock City entrance and we had the kids run out to meet him while I snapped the peak action with my Hasselblad. We repeated the process six or eight times to make sure we got some good shots. Most were okay, but the one with the little boy jumping off the ground in excitement was exceptional. (The little boy, by the way, is the son of Rock City president Bill Chapin and is now around 40 years old!)
In today's world of "spray and pray" digital photography, making only six or eight shots of a situation like this sounds strange. But that's the way we did it back then, and it usually worked out just fine.
I had a great working relationship with Rock City, but in 1994 I got busy with the Rock City Barns book project and the day-to-day work for the attraction passed on to other photographers.
(The photo was made with a Hasselblad 500CM camera, the 80mm Zeiss lens, and Kodak Ektachrome film.)
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Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
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