Photoessay #325 - Orange Invitations

I saw this laying around, from the supply cabinet. Our wedding invitations from 1976. Somehow using this persimmon and gold combination seemed fresh and exciting at the time. The colors look fluorescent in the scan but really the coloring was somewhat subdued. Before computers, of course. Dennis took the photo and used special equipment to make the half-tone and I believe he printed them himself on a printing press. Making something like this now is rather trivial, but it was challenging then.

Looking at the text, I see that Dennis misspelled his mom's name. No Capital "N"! Wonder why he did that. My mother nearly had hysterics hearing that the invitations were orange and yellow and had a picture of my dog on the front. "You didn't send them to the relatives did you?" she gulped.

Funny story behind the picture. Dennis worked at Coronet Portraits in Sacramento (still in business I believe). The owner, Noel, was very tolerant and patient, probably too much so. He really played a huge role in convincing Dennis that he could be a successful worker. But he didn't pay too much attention to the location of his equipment. So we are standing in front of some thick foliage in front of the photo studio which was in a big old house in an urban area of Sacramento. Dennis has all the fancy equipment out with a self timer. My dog Winnie, my large useless bassett/collie/something? mix accompanies us. Dennis sets up the whole shot and there we are grinning away. Meanwhile, Noel, the owner and boss, drives by and sees all of his expensive equipment arrayed on his front lawn for an unauthorized shot. He nearly drives off the road leaning out the window, wondering what the heck is going on. But, by some miracle, he didn't fire Dennis.

Thanks Noel G!!!