It really wasn’t late when Sam fell asleep on the cruise ship. We had just finished dinner and went back to our room to watch TV before going to the live comedian at 8:30PM.

But that’s what a cruise is for.It is for Sleeping.

On our last cruise we got into our cabin in slept for 4 hours at the beginning of the trip. We were exhausted because the number of arrangements that need to be made for four young kids is staggering. In addition to the kids I was operating a large portrait studio and leaving a business like that requires a ridiculous amount of planning and work. You all know what I mean.

If you wish to sleep then go on a cruise. The rumble of the boat as it “cruises” is so soothing. It rocked me to sleep each and every night. Its wonderful.

I have several photographs of Sam sleeping on this cruise. She was tired and nothing was going to stop her from sleeping. I had photography to keep me awake.

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Photo tips, philosophy and slightly technical information:

Shot with Rolleiflex FX onto Tri-x film. Exposure somewhere around 1/2 second at f 4

I love Tri-x film through my Rolleiflex. Kodak first released Tri-x film in the 50’s. It was a “high speed” film back then. Truly high speed compared to its older brethren. They had 50 and 25 speed films at the time. 400 speed was crazy fast back then.

I recently read that the newer Canon digital cameras can support 25000 ASA speeds. WOW.

Tri-x is grainy and some people think that it is ugly. When I went through photography school the film of choice was TMax 100. It was smooth as porcelin. I grew tired of it and started to experiment with all of the other films. I got a 100 foot roll of Tri-x and ran it through my Canon A1 and fell in love with its grain structure. I couldn’t quite put into coherent thoughts how I felt about it until I read in a magazine called “shots” an analogy that stuck in my brain.

“Shooting with Tri-x film is like having a blaster that dissolves your subject into tiny particles and then reassembles them later in the darkroom.” I laughed outloud when I read it and have had fun through the years imagining all of my friends and family being dissolved into my camera. I’ve trapped them on my film.

I spent a week shooting New York City in 1999. I used 35 rolls of Tri-x on that trip. I had a darkroom in my basement and I spent the better part of a month processing film and making contact sheets. Later I printed 24×36 prints in there. They are silvery, grainy and gorgeous. Wow.

-Jon Ball is a photographer who specializes in portraits. His portraits can be ogled on www.studiojonball.com. Thank you for reading photo tips.