Shot at about 5:55am on the 1st Jan 2010 in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. Managed to wake up at 4 and leave at 4:20am. Never actually saw the sun but was lucky enough to get a bit of colour in the clouds before everything went a flat bright colour.
My next trip back there will be with a view to achieve something very different.
Words of advice from the inexperienced. Wash your negatives thoroughly and DON’T change the type of film you shoot unless you have experience with the new film you plan to use.
I’m a bit disappointed that I traveled thousands of kilometers to meet up with the family (which is hard considering everyone lives in a different state) and manage to destroy all my black and white film in an afternoon.
I shall, from this point, revert to my tried and trusted film stock and developers. Not that there is anything wrong with what I’ve just ruined. Just that I don’t want to have to spend more money learning the in’s and out’s of another stock when the current one already serves me well.
On a recent trip to Australia I managed to find these little spores which I’d previously spotted in Japan. Thanks to Brett for giving me one of several random rolls of expired film which I (for only the second time ever) cross processed.
From a series I’m working on from Australia
Late afternoon on Birubi beach, north of Sydney Australia
Reflections in a dam north of Sydney Australia.
So there I was, packs of ice in hand, Rodinal at the ready and the cold water running at 24c. hmm. I figured I had this problem solved by putting my container of rodinal into a container of ice water to drop the temp. Seems that I was a little off with that theory. Next I tired putting the ice into the water the rodial was to go in. Not sure which batch came out better but I definately got a few dodgy negs out of it. Moral of the story…be super careful in summer when developing and always have ice on hand.
The image above might be a bit small but the shot starts to break up in the dark tones towards the top. Bummer.
Lane 3 Narrabeen pool. Yet another taken in the same spot.
The sky was amazing. Basically exactly like it is in the picture. After being away from Australia for so long I couldn’t understand why the beach was not full of people. Instead, to my complete joy, there was almost no one there. One swimmer in the pool, a few joggers on the beach…the atmosphere was fantastic. Just the sound of crashing waves and this amazing sky that was changing by the minute.
Going out on the rocks (near where the pole in the photo is) was my biggest worry. I wore my shoes, worried that I’d slip with 2 camera’s and a bag full of lenses which was a bit of a mistake. Ended up having to trash the shoes. During the shoot I discovered the tide coming in which made for some seriously wet jeans and a slightly wet camera bag but no real damage done.
Managed to take 11 rolls while I was out before it got too light.
And to finish off the morning I found a great cafe close by serving excellent lattes, muffins and fresh fruit and yogurt.
If you have a chance to go to Sydney I highly recommend shooting a beach sunrise. But do yourself a favor and make sure you know a great cafe near by for after. It’s the only way to finish off a morning.