Friday 26 April 2013

#FridayFlash - Seconds


Click. Wind the film on. Focus. Click. Repeat.

Six shots later, Dana rewound the film and popped open the back of her camera. Her fingers danced a familiar routine as she removed the film, and added another. The new film was black and white, and strictly for artwork. Not like the colour film she'd just finished.

Dana slipped the used film canister into her pocket and slung the camera over her shoulder by its moth-eaten strap. She'd develop the film when she got home.

Dana did some calculations as she walked. The film was composed of thirty six frames, so that meant she'd taken thirty six shots over a period of forty minutes. Each exposure was just 1/100th of a second long. She'd captured nearly a third of a second on film. Added to the films she'd already processed, that gave her three seconds of suspended time. She drummed her fingers against the camera. Three seconds wasn't enough. Even just thinking about it had taken long than that.

Dana opened her front door and deposited her camera on her desk. A pile of developed photos sat beside the phone. She picked them up and leafed through them. 288 shots, all of her. 288 snapshots of time. She sat down and fished the canister out of her pocket. Would another thirty six snapshots make a difference? Three seconds of extra time didn't feel like enough. It wasn't enough. The doctors had given her only six months, and she could never shoot enough photos to offset that, to buy her more time.

Her gaze roved around the room and alighted on her flatmate's video camera.

Perhaps...

14 comments:

Tony Noland said...

Alas, such frozen moments can't be strung together...

Larry Kollar said...

Oh, what a brutal twist! It explains her obsession for capturing time, though.

Harry said...

Cool concept with a meaty detail exposed <(heheh)just at the end AND a cliffhanger? Hope so!

John Wiswell said...

Her flatmate can't mind extending her time a little more.

Sulci Collective said...

oh that was a punch to the guts with that reveal. Time lapse photography for lapsing time

marc nash

Shelli said...

Wonderful, poignant twist at the end.

Cat Russell said...

I didn't see where this was going AT ALL! So sad!

Helen A. Howell said...

Nice twist, maybe the video would work.

liminalfiction said...

At least she'll leave behind those photos, so people will remember her in at least 324 poses.

Cindy Vaskova said...

Sad, but chilling in the same time. This finale with a twist is dubious!

Bevimus said...

I had the feeling this was leading to a tragic end. Quick note: in "Even just thinking about it had taken long than that" dud you mean "longer"?

Peter Newman said...

Tragic. This put me in mind of people who are always taking pictures of things rather than doing them.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful concept, Icy. Well told, too, as usual! I actually found the ending slightly hopeful, in that the video camera could help her 'collect'(?) more suspended time to live in?

Katherine Hajer said...

Cool idea -- goes with your other story about the woman whose hidden character got trapped in a Polaroid.

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