Shinjuku Station

So I often find my favorite place to shoot these days is on the way home from somewhere. The great thing about stations is that people are transitioning and are usually not in one place for that long. They don't want to move from their place in the que and are often in their own world wasting time until the train arrives which is the perfect environment for me to be shooting in. Why go find the people when you can let them all come to you? The difficult part is that a hasselblad or rolleiflex is not subtle and a regular rangefinder or slr is very obvious so you still have to pick your moments.

Polaroid

Well, It's actually not Polaroid, it's FujiFilm FP-400B but it's close enough given the number of boxes of the stuff I've gone through without getting a single result because, for the last year, I've been loading the fucker the wrong way! I was hoping, on my first outing with the stuff, to keep the negative side. But alas, it seems you have to really wait till it dries before it can be moved. Not really suited to taking a shot and moving around either unless you have some special container to hold the negatives (tried a box but got carried away with putting more than 1 in the box. Result? Stuck together and useless).

Any tips or suggestions on the negative holding, drying carrying or scanning are most welcome.

When developer dies

Sometimes you get lucky. First 2 rolls from my trip to Kanazawa and I'm using expired developer unbeknownst to me. The grain is huge but somehow this accident ended in a shot I am happy with. This is also an example of the over use of the red 25 filter I have :-)

4am

The thing's you do for a shot.I've been inspired lately by Mike Stacey, flux and Teiko's photos and while on a trip to Australia I thought I'd have a shot at doing a sunrise. Woke at 4am, which was a bit early but once I was up I thought it best to stay awake. Ended up leaving a bit late and arrived at Monavale beach just in time to see some colour in the sky. I wasn't sure what I'd have to shoot at (ISO) so I brought everything. Hasselblad with the Distagon 50mm, Planar 80mm and Sonar 150mm, a load of Kodak epp, GP and a bit of Provia 400x, my Canon 1D mark 3 with a 35mm prime, the Horizon 35mm panoramic camera and my light meter. My bag was brimming with gear. Worried that I'd meter incorrectly, I used my Canon as a meter, which, in hindsight was a good idea.

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.

Interesting to note that none of my pictures turned out anything like those who inspired me. Credit though goes to Mike Stacey for the location. I use to live in Monavale for a time and after seeing his picture just thought it made sense to go back since I knew the area.

Rolleiflex

Shot from the new Rolleiflex. Cake doesn't look that good in monochrome but with a Rolleinar 2 the tones become super soft.Shot on TMAX400-2 @800 developed in D76