Grit, Grain and Rain
It appears to be a thing for your first roll to turn out well enough to get you hooked, then the following rolls become the learning experience.
Now onto the adventure. To avoid missing out I preregistered a trip into the Walls well in advance (before I realised I’d booked the June long weekend). The weekend came around and with the wild winds and heavy rains cascading from the roof gutters, I had little motivation. I eventually started putting some gear together Friday night, knowing that if I didn’t I definitely wouldn't get anywhere. I continued to slowly pack Saturday morning, which rolled into afternoon before I decided to make a move.
I wanted to focus on shooting film for this trip partly for practice, but also to see the landscape a little differently (and to get another roll or two done before my developer exhausts itself and I head interstate). I ended up packing the Rolleiflex SL66 fitted with the 80mm f/2.8 (the most compact and lightest lens equating to a 50mm in full-frame terms) and two backs (Ektar 100 and Delta 100). In addition the Voigtlander Bessa R3A was packed paired with a 21mm f/4 and 90mm f/3.5 shooting HP5. To complete the set I also snuck in the Fuji X100V, since I’m not confident in my analog abilities and knew if conditions were favourable and I really wanted to produce a print this camera would be capable. Leaving the carpark I knew I’d packed too much.
After watching a group of wedge-tails circle above, I decided to walk the main trail directly to Dixon’s, given I now only had a night. Sunset was already happening before I made it to Wild Dog (the first campsite), which was when I realised I had left the cable release at home, an essential piece of kit when shooting 100 speed film on dark winter days/nights. So while the fading light shimmered across the over-ground flows into the building mist I continued on to the new Dixon’s campsite.
Sleep was broken, feeling colder than usual and sunrise was a no-go with ongoing rain, so breakfast and coffee was tent-bound. I later managed a small wander once the sky became lighter and the rain eased, prior to packing up and making the return trip. Having the full day to get home did allow for time to explore and wait for conditions to change
I do find each camera system encourages a different approach and visualising a composition in one does not always work for another. Similar to switching between colour and monochrome, each requires a different mindset. I believe the Rollei promotes a much stronger and balanced composition, firstly from being a square 6x6 format, but having the image reversed in the viewfinder makes me focus on shape and light rather than just the scene in front of me. The Rollei also takes more thought, generally being tripod based with an external meter, often taking multiple readings to ensure the desired components are captured (I’ve been using a rough zone system technique). The Voigtlander is the complete opposite, quick, small and discrete, it’s just point to focus, recompose and hit the shutter, the in-built meter flashes a reading to quickly check, but that is all.
On one occasion, I had the Rollei lined up, metered and ready for the sun to reappear (as it did several times during set up), waiting half an hour just for the rain to build and to realise I’d already shot the last frame of the colour roll! Although the composition was better suited to colour, I did try a B&W frame which ended up as a double exposure with a waterfall from Cradle. I followed this shot with one on the Voigtlander, only to shoot it with the lens cap on (composition and focus doesn’t go through the lens with this camera)! It was just one of those trips.
Returning home, I developed the Delta 100 roll, which worked well until I learnt that you can over-use a squeegee. A few weeks later I developed the HP5 roll, but for a yet to be identified reason resulted in a layer of grit spread evenly across every frame, perhaps sediment from the reused Df96 developer? Looking back at the resulting images, in a way I feel they do represent the trip quite well, like a constant sodden downpour across the frame, but while being surrounded by one of the most wonderful landscapes.
Colour images to follow.
