Hi All… welcome back.

I hope you are all doing well.

I had the opportunity recently to head out with my wife (Michelle) on one of her beach combing trips, and I decided to take the Bronica out for a spin. It was probably one of the most frustrating days I have had behind a camera in quite a long time. I haven’t developed any of the film as yet…so I don’t really know if it was a total bust…or maybe there will be a gem or two?

I spotted a composition almost as soon as we hit the beach. I set up the tripod and camera, focussed, took a light meter reading and went to attach the cable release…and the bloody thing just fell apart in my hands. Not a total bust, but it pretty much ruled out any long exposures.

Oh well, on to the second comp.

After ten minutes or so of rock scrambling I found my next shot. I have been using my Fuji x100s as a way of previewing a composition…so I was pretty sure this would be an ok shot.

Using the Fuji as a composition preview.

I went back and retrieved the camera, tripod and light meter and attempted to get set up. I faffed around for about 10 minutes and finally gave up in total frustration. There was no way I could get the tripod into position...it was physically impossible. I could wrangle the legs into all sorts of positions but just couldn’t get low enough due to the centre column. Grrrrrrrr!

The centre column won’t let me get any lower.

Some of you may be thinking, ‘why not just hand hold it’? To get the depth-of-field needed for the shot I needed a large aperture and consequently a slow shutter speed (no cranking up the iso when you are shooting film). I have purchased a new tripod with no centre column. Maybe I can revisit the shot another day.

If anyone is in the market for a new tripod…I will have one for sale soon. A great little carbon fibre Benro with a ball head.

I managed to find (and take) a few more images before we moved beaches…fingers crossed that they turn out :)

And then…on to the next beach…the second set up…my spot meter died. Not totally, digits still showed on the readout, but it won’t take a reading. So it’s pretty much useless. And there endeth the day. I went home pretty pissed off.

As I mentioned earlier, none of the films have been processed yet so the images in this blog are from previous shoots.

All the black and whites I have processed myself at home. The one colour roll I have shot, (out of date Ektar 100) was developed in Melbourne…not a cheap exercise. If you include the purchase price of the film, (and postage) there is little change out of $50. It doesn’t pay to bugger up frames.

Some of you are probably scratching your heads and asking, ‘why are you wasting money shooting film when you have thousands of dollars worth of digital gear’?

A very valid question.

My rationale is that I am trying to maintain my love for photography. When I go out to shoot film with my 1970’s era medium-format camera it is nothing like picking up my ‘work’ bag. I am going out purely for me…no client, no brief, no requirement to make money…it is wholly, selfishly for me. And it is a return to the basics of photography…the magic stuff that made me fall in love in the first place.

I hope you enjoy the images

Until next time…be nice to each other.

GWP blogspot

Frustrating as F%#k