Blog

The photographic blog of Sean Wood (aka motionid)

The buildings

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New home for an old photo.I was visiting Sydney one year and wandering around the city on my own. It looked like rain but I risked taking the camera out. A drop of water hit me and i looked up and saw this almost symmetrical view of these two buildings. By some miracle I got the exposure right.

A day at the beach

During the holiday period (to be politically correct for Americans, or, as most Australians like to call it, Christmas)  I returned to Australia with plans to do a fair bit of shooting both inland and on the coast. My plans were dogged with sicknesses and bad weather which resulted in only a handful of pictures I managed to make while I was there. I was fortunate that the day was overcast and there was enough cloud in the sky to make the shots interesting. I've always liked dogs on the beach so while I was on the 35km strip I searched out the lone dog who became the feature of this three image set.

Shot on TMax 100 and developed in Tmax developer but scanned with the brightness and contrast way down so I was able to screw with the balance afterward.

On the hill

I have been uninspired lately to post anything of  Tokyo. I am wanting to do a series but have too many other half completed series' on the go I cannot muster the energy to start another one. 13 rolls of film yet undeveloped and many rolls unscanned and forgotten. Every photo chosen is a photo unfinished which is probably why I have so many pictures and post so few. That, and I can never decide if I like some shots or not. Or maybe I should accept that I have run out of good shots and should stop trying to feed the blog and get on and make new ones. This is a shot taken mid 2006 in Australia where I first visited Tea Gardens. On the way if you look carefully you can find this tree on a hill. I have visited the site a few times and shot it with the Hasselblad . One of the many forgotten images made. maybe the past is worth revisiting? Even if it's just for a short time.

The march of progress

Visited a wetlands the other day. Was this amazing little 3km of land dedicated to the natural biodiversity.Shame that power lines have to spoil the environment. Still, I guess this is why the land was handed to them in the first place to create the wetlands. No one else wants to be around them.

The Bogey hole

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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.

Edit: July 3 2010.

Click the picture for a bigger version.

For all of you searching for the location click here for the map

Tips: If you go early enough in the morning, ignore the no entry sign and drive right down to the hole. Otherwise it's a real hike. Especially if you are trying to catch the sun. You should be in and out before anyone can catch you. Go during a week day early. The locals like to turn up super early and swim or actually make it the last point of call after a night out. You won't get any pictures then. Be careful. The whole place is really slippery so take your time walking around. The boats on the horizon you can't do anything about. It's a pain but if you don't want them in your shot you're going to have to pick your angles carefully. If you want your picture to have any depth to it like the one above you should use film. Even if you have a pro DSLR (I own a canon 1d mark 3) you won't get the depth and colour. And anyone who says "HDR" as a solution should be shot. If you think you've taken a winner picture post a link to your shot in the comments. I'd love to take a look. Someone should do a great B+W long exposure. But I bet I end up doing this before anyone else (no one likes B+W any more).

When everything goes wrong

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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.