Standerd Slides

Subject: Aaron Reed
Photo: Josh Letchworth
TSQ Location: Book 2.1, Cover photo

We’ve been talking about an underwater shot for the cover for quite a while. So, with consideration to water clarity, it’s not always the easiest to pull off.

I told Reed about the idea and our brains collided. Bo Burton chimed in with a spot that he new of up in Ocala that was a crystal clear spring out in the middle of the woods. Seriously…this place was literally in the middle of the Ocala forest.

One cloudy afternoon, we drove up there in my truck with the winch and Ophelia (Reed’s dog). It was raining off and on, and I remember thinking that we picked the absolute worst day to do this.

I really wanted to see the clarity of the water and the bright blue sky. Clouds = B&W film. We must have made a dozen left and right turns down dirt roads to get to this place. Our last right turn took us through a “no trespassing” sign and onto a trailhead. “This is it,” Bo said.

We dragged all of our gear and the winch down the trail for about 20 minutes and popped out at this beautiful, natural spring in the woods.

It had a perfect place to put the winch and a creek that led into it that worked well to start in. We felt like the Native Americans, discovering something for the first time. (Reed always feels like a Native, because he is one.)

We played on the rope swing, held our breath in the spring, swam with the dog and then decided we should try out this photo idea.

I had a housing for the digi with me, but every time I took it in the water, it would leak. The film gods were definitely speaking to me. I went with ye ‘ol standard F5, fisheye and Ilford FP4.

I gave Reed the signal, dove deep and pointed the camera up. You should have seen these ridiculous goggles we all bought at Sports Authority. They were awful. Leaky. Distorting. Painful. But we looked like badass swimmers.

Anyways…we shot two rolls of film and felt confident that we got something.
This is one of them. Thanks Reed. Thanks Bo. Thanks for company, Ophelia.

- Josh Letchworth