The Tarkine

Tarkine Photographer - a shot penny took of me at Philosophers Falls, not on the 3 day walk.

Just came back from tassie, where I’ve been for the last 2 weeks. We spent most of our time in beautiful Sisters Beach, and the surrounding Rocky Cape National Park. But the highlight of the trip probably would be a 3 day overnight walk in the amazingly beautiful, huge and old Tarkine Rain forest. Camping and walking around a site called heaven, and near the Tarkine Falls. It was perfect. I took along 2 cameras on the walk, my minolta and the 500d, as well as a tripod strapped to the pack. The Wilderness Photographer.

A sneak peak from tassie. This was taken just a week or so ago, on our 3 day walk. The rest aren't edited yet.

Finished.

My Photo For Day 365. It is Chooks For A Reason

Finished. Since December 18, 2008, without break, I have taken at least one photo everyday. I finally finished, on friday. Above is day 365. Click that to read about my details on that image, and the importance of it being a chook. But here, I have a few things to say: this 365 project, was and is my photography. If you have a look back at the something like 5 photos I took before the project you’ll understand why. I took up photography, and a few weeks later I was doing the project, and haven’t looked back since.

I was extremely lucky to have Penny’s old 350d, which though meant to become the family camera once she got the 40d, I kind of abducted it for myself. So then started my adventure into photography. Months passed, I slowly got better, I discovered the f/1.8 and therefore an obsession with bokeh, I played around with silly ideas like HDR and overdone photoshop textures, and I developed. It was odd, because of having taken a photo  everyday, it felt like I had developed so much, which when looking back really was a tiny amount of time, and there was little to no difference in my photography, but it was feeling I was starting to get, what I liked, what I didn’t. See my night post, which is about the 2nd post on this blog, I wrote like it was amazing, which it is, and how much I love it, which I do, but I spoke as if I’d been taking it for ages, which in no way had I. Even now, just 7 or 8 months later, I feel like I have so much more to add to that post. The 365 project is a crazy thing to experience, because it is so demanding and so always pushing on you everyday you can can change and develop very quickly, more than is apparent to the viewer.

A Project

So, I a couple of days ago, I had an idea for a photographical project. Brought about by a few things, wanting to make sure I don’t get lazy with my photography, trying something new and different, pushing boundaries, a long walk I had on the river the other day and some very inspirational, creative and amazing photographic projects and portraits I’ve seen in the last few weeks. Anyway, my idea:

I would like photograph people on the Maribyrnong river. Perhaps, specifically people and their dogs, as they walk along the river. Capturing small moments and scenes in their lives. Kinda like candid photography but where it’s interesting, and the only reason I’m doing such a thing, is I plan on actually stopping people, asking if I can take their photo/a portrait of them, and taking it. Not some candid, hiding away my camera kind of stuff. Being approachable, polite and talking to my subjects. That’s what’s inspired me to want to start this project, actually taking photos of people, with them knowing I’m taking their photo, something I’ve never tried before (not counting friends/family). Much harder and much braver than candid stuff.

I think it might help lead me to something new, and for you the viewer, you can see much more of person quite often when it’s not a candid shot. What I want to do through this, is explore everyone’s varying characters, personalities and backgrounds. Perhaps it might help by having along side each photo their name as well as their dogs? I’m still not certain. This was just the first idea to pop in my head, (I thought of it while walking along the river) if you have another subject which you think might work better, suggest away.

The reason I went for the people and dogs stuff is that I thought a regular form to each photo could help to bring out all the different characters in the people, which might happen less so if I did it more generally. I could also do it with fisherman or something (like that photo above), but there’s not as many of them. And also, I went for the Maribyrnong because, despite my time on it, I have very few photos of the people on it (that photo of above is really the only one I can find), most photos I’ve taken on the River have been more nature focussed (by the Maribyrnong I mean my area of it, the 3011 general space). But there are a lot of people who spend a lot of time on the river. What do you think? Do you like my basis, or perhaps I should go for a completely different frame to focus the idea around? That idea being the portrait of strangers stuff.

I really feel like, what with the end to my 365 fast approaching that I need a new project to focus on, and confirm to myself that I have actually achieved something out of this 365 project. This seems like a good a place as any to develop my photography more, and focus it, being able to leave the meandering in style you get from having to take a photo every day for a year. So yeah, this seemed like a good way for me to leave behind the randomness of photography I got from the 365, and concentrate it, even if it is on something new.

Thoughts on this would be great appreciated,

Thanks, Leon.

EDIT- the people and dogs idea is already taken, i remember a flickr contact of mine already did it. any other suggestions? perhaps the fishermen?

Also, I’ve been avoiding going on twitter and facebook (trying to test myself) for the last few days (visitors from there, this is an auto-update, linked by the magic that is twitterfeed) so here are somethings I would’ve tweeted but haven’t. Well, the slightly interesting things, which I can remember and also would make sense to more than 1 or 2 other people.

• Your house is worth more that 2 million dollars, why must you make it so disgusting?
• “Wow, I’m a good looking teen girl, and the semi-naked photos I’ve taken of myself and uploaded to flickr are really popular! I must be the best. photographer. ever.”
• I keep on thinking the pliers on my desk are natural confectionery co. snakes.
• look what happened just as I was starting work on Saturday night and trying to tune up a really flat E!  http://twitpic.com/sis54
• Falling asleep on the couch watching the cricket is the perfect way to spend the summer holidays.
• This is an awesome and really interesting article – http://nymag.com/news/features/16529/

Goldilocks and the badly written story on higenic food preparation.

AKA Goldilocks and The Food Sickness Causing Porridge.

note- this is a story I needed to write for science last year. you know, that kind of homework you don’t think about it until it pounces on you at 11pm at night and you do in a mad rush of lack of detail, form, shape or rhythm and which read anytime after a week from when you wrote looks like crap. BUT I felt like posting something. And this has some not bad aspects. And the only other thing I’ve written recently is ranty and chock-a-block full of absolutely unnecessary profanity. So for now, read this. Hopefully you don’t mind it. Please keep in my mind my first sentence in this note while reading.

p.s. humour style and actual jokes are shamelessly stolen off people such as Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Stephen Fry and Bill Bailey. You may recognize aspects of any of their writing throughout this. As well as word for word their own jokes. And any other non sequitur related anything. i.e. Monty Python. (need i say more?)

AND FINALLY, enjoy my food photography throughout.

“Uhhhh….I don’t feel so well.” Moaned Goldilocks as she stumbled up the stairs.
“And you know why?” Exclaimed a 50 year old man in a pinstripe suit as he climbed out from under the stairs. “Because you didn’t watch what you ate!”

“What the hell?” Mumbled Goldilocks, stopping halfway up the stairs.

“Now, young lady, it is probably recommended that you lie down so go up those stairs and relax on the baby bear’s bed (I heard it’s the comfiest) while I will educate you on a safer way to eat.”

So the two Homo sapiens walked up the stairs and Goldilocks lied down on the bed while the man proceeded to set up a full multimedia presentation about the dangers of eating without thought. A few minutes later he was ready.

have a photo dump.

I was sick of that film post at the top of my blog, so needed to post something new. Here are some photos I like that I’ve taken (not so)recently.

Film

Due to the untimely demise of my 350d I have been pushed quite heavily, with no one to around to ease the fall, into the wonderful world of film. Sure, I would have like to ease myself in, perhaps with handrail or some handy rope to hang off but due to the careless nature of mother fortune I have fallen heavily into something new for some, and old for others. Depends on what side of the millenium you’ve spent the majority of your life. For me, it’s all new. But I love it, there’s still a few bruises around, but they’re healing up. I patch myself, get up, and run dancing happily down the road towards all the wonders which have been revealed to me. Sure I trip in a few potholes, but it’s all part of the fun.

Ok, stuff that metaphor. I’m getting sick of it.

Perhaps this sudden jump into a purely analog world is good for me, all hands on, no nice safety rail, I can go crazy. It feels like a long time,since I was on my dslr, though truely it’s probably less than a month. But suddenly I spending every second hour reading up different films, developing oppurtunities (my just finished roll is gonna be cross processed) or going down to a photolab to pick up/drop off a roll.  Thanks to my current position, film has become a major part of my photography. I love it. The look, the feel, also the fact that I feel more highly regarded than your average joe hobbyist walking around with a entry level dslr. And I think, that even when I get myself a new dslr, film will be still in a higher regard than it.

Don’t try argue to me the advantages and such of digital. I know them. They’re good. But there’s something I find inescapable about film, the physicalness of winding the roll, of knowing that each shot costs half a dollar, therefore thinking everything through. Instead of taking 400 shots in a day I take 4. And I’ll probably still find my best shots in that 4. I miss the instant gratification of knowing each shot after you take it, but perhaps that’s for the better. Quell my impatientness. And nothing beats knowing that you’re walking away from a photo lab with probably 36 shots easily flickrable and all great in their own right. Compare that with walking away with 300 EACH day knowing you’ve got a good hour or two of sitting infront of your computer sifting the 4 good shots from the slush.

Film and Digital are two very different and good mediums for photography. Both should be used, side by side, not against each other. When pared up, most arguments are just stupid. My photograhic life won’t be the same without film, but nor would it be the same without digital. Photographers in general today, are in a great age. We have such a wide range of different mediums, styles, systems and looks to choose and to create our own. From what I’ve read proffesionals are now embracing film, offering clients shots taken with a Hasselblad instead of a 5d! They know the advantages, and hopefully soon the clients will too.

What I’m trying to say is that, people who argue that film is dead medium are stupid, but so are the people who steadfastedly avoid digital and act like snobs who are better because “only with film you get proper photography! Digital is just photoshopping! That’s not art!” They’re being hypocrits.

So, In conclusion. I love film. I love digital. I’m gonna buy myself a new dslr. But I’m never gonna forget the film slr.

Woah, that turned into a rant. Hopefully it’s readable. Comments would be enjoyable even if you’re just  saying “Idiot! Film is a dead/Idiot! Digital is just photoshop!”  This post was a combination of thoughts running through my head in a jumbled mush due to absorbing many absorbing articles and webcomics (yes, webcomics) on the subject of film and digital. My head was hurting so I wrote it out as something which is hopefully understandable.

Leon

An Eventful Week

First my camera died. I dust off the film camera (a Minolta X-300), and spend friday and saturday taking my 365 shots on the last of the colour roll in the camera, which I had been using for a week or so anyway. It was just some basic Kodak Ultramax I bought at K-Mart, 400iso. So anyway, I finish it off Saturday night, try to remember what I’m meant to do (Penny told me a week or 2 ago, she’s now in Helsinki), and stuff it up.

I remember about winding it, but it seems to not let me, so I thought, as I misguidedly but correctly remembered, that I just pull up the lever and take the roll out. I open it up, and whaddaya knows, there’s a roll of film, open to the elements and getting ruined as I look. I quickly shut it, and try and wind it. I force it, and there’s a snap. Open it up again, the films ripped. It’s then I remember that you’re meant to hold that little button on the bottom as you roll it off. Crap.

So anywho, this morning, I take all the film off, in a suitcase, with a blanket over my head and put it in a wrapped up cardboard box. I’ll take that into the city tomorrow, thinking some of it may be salvageable.

Then, I go buy some more film, regrettably just the basic 400 ultramax again, because I needed it for this afternoon. Earlier this week, I got an email about music performance in Footscray, and I thought it sounded like a good idea, and could I take some photos? The guy replied, keen, and asking for copies of the shots. Of course, this was after my DSLR died, so I said yeah, but it’ll be with a film camera, so you’re going to have to wait till they’re developed. So, because I woke up at the normal school holiday time of midday, and all that bother about the other film, I had 20min to get some film and go to a performance. Disappointingly, not time to go into the city for some quality film. K-Mart ultramax again.

And then, just to top it all off, as the musicians were starting up, I noticed a little thing on the camera, which was wound to 100. Yes, I had taken all the shots on the last roll, which was 400iso, with camera still thinking it was 100. Well damn. There goes all of the last roll.

But I fixed it up, took some photos, and hopefully this roll will turn out ok. You live and learn.

Surprisingly I’m feeling quite positive about this. Last night, I was feeling like just stopping the 365 and everything for a week or two until I had some idea with what was happening with my camera, but now I can feel I can manage it. Flickr have been very nice and caring about everything that’s gone wrong, and I thank you all. I’ve just gotta keep on going. A point and shoot, a film camera that I’m stuffing up everything that there is possible to stuff up and probably a few drawings again. It’ll be fun!

I doubt many people’ll be bothered to read this, but I felt like writing it down. And having holiday’s has helped, more time, I might even dust off this blog! Especially with one of the greatest things about film – I don’t have to spend an hour or so everyday editing photos!

Oh…You’re meant to update blogs?

Sorry. I’ve been away fro last week or so. In Tassie. And Am Feeling really lazy, perhaps a post on tassie/landscape photography will go up in the next week. But don’t really hold me to anything. It’s quite hard to havbe a 365 days project, a blog and manage to have something that resembles a life at the same time. But I enjoy writing, so when I feel like it, something will go up here every so often (also, this may not be a fair representation, I am feeling extremely lazy today).

Melbourne Meet

I went on a melbourne group flickr walk/meet today. It was fun. The lighting was really boring from the walk, but I took some cool photos of people at the meet section of it. See my flickr for some shots from the day, more of which will be uploaded later. I made this post though to talk about an experience I had after the meet, and also to make this blog more appealing by the fact that I will post on it more often.

Anyway, On the train back from the meet there was one guy sitting near us, who was quite quiet, didn’t really say much or anything, I’m not certain why I even noticed him. Sat there, and minded his own business. But when we got off at parliament he completely lost it!
Started walking up the platform yelling very loudly stuff along the lines : “You fucking killed my dad! I fucking killed my dad! I’m fucking dead! You Fucking Killed Me!” the last line repeated with much force…once he got up to the other end of the platform he started punching the wall, and even though he was at the completely different end from us you could still hear him quite clearly. Someone ended up calling the police (pressing the RED button, i’ve always wanted to do that!) but we don’t know what happened next as penny and I had to get on our train.

I think the strangest thing about him was the fact that he was perfectly fine on the train but just went crazy once at parliament station.

It was a strange experience. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any good shots of him.

Also, tell me what you think of the shot above! I like it, but it’s not doing that well on flickr.

Night Photography

In the last few months, I’ve really started to enjoy night photography, especially of the candid people kind. The lighting, especially on these dirty Footscray streets creates some amazing textures in the street light, and of course, who doesn’t like a bit of bokeh?

The people, too, seem different for some reason, and capturing them in their candid moments (like the shot above), in that moment of the shutter clicking and hoping that they are not going to yell at you for stealing their souls (or whatever these moan about) is really an amazing feeling. Anywhere at night becomes a different place, and I find great fun, in just wandering around snapping shots of people. Of course, still being only 14, there is a danger too it which I worry about. When you are walking the streets of footscray by yourself and taking photos of people, especially the half mad ones (who always look more interesting) it is kind of risky, (the yelling can be bad for our ears, and their spit may be infected) but I still enjoy the general experience (not the crazy yelling hobo).

I can’t really put into words how much an enjoyable experience those kind of evenings are though, except the only one better, is going out on a walk to take photos of a sunset, having a great dinner and then walking home taking photos of people. It’s perfect!

Take a look at my “The Streets” set or my “Night” set, for more examples of what I enjoy to take.

Hope you enjoyed my first entry on this blog, the writing may not be perfect (I wrote this at quarter past 11), but I really felt like mentioning how much I enjoy the night. Comments on anything, blog design, my writing style, whether I’m silly for making this blog, what you think of the “about” page, are apprecciated. I’m still working this thing out!