Part 1
Over Easter I spent a few weeks in Melbourne. After putting a roll of film through my grandfather’s old Olympus 35RC, and also shooting a roll of film on a Vivitar K-mount SLR I bought maybe 10 or 15 years ago and hadn’t used much (I had taken maybe 4 frames on some black and white film and never processed it), I took even more cameras than usual, including a few film cameras.
My standard drive down to Melbourne from Canberra usually starts on Friday afternoon. I have a short day at work and head off around 1PM towards Albury where I stay the night. This breaks up the drive nicely and I get into Melbourne by lunchtime on Saturday and not nearly as wiped out as I would have been if I do the whole thing in one sitting, by myself.
Because I am not fantastic at organising things the cheap hotel I booked in Albury was cheap, but not the best place I’ve ever stayed. It met the requirements of somewhere to sleep though, and I was there for hours, not days.
In the last few trips I have managed to find a decent coffee shop that opens nice and early, but this trip I was not super early so was able to go to The Proprietor, which don’t open until 8AM but maybe makes slightly better coffee 😁
The route from Albury takes me “the back way” via Yea. Which, is almost impossible to type into anything because everything thinks it knows better and wants to be helpful and correct it to Yes 😒
I was very happy to find that a good chunk of the B300 had been resurfaced, I assume just for me and this trip.
While I have been enjoying the process of taking photos with film cameras I would never consider not taking digital photos, and I still love the little Ricoh GR IIIx.
I’ve recently started using “Ricoh Recipes” – JPG processing in camera with different looks or themes. I have always edited my images (usually for about 70% accuracy and 30% taste – having more of a focus on what did the scene look like rather than what do I want the image to look like). Having JPG that is done and I really like the look of has been nice. I am not ready to commit to anything though, so I shoot in RAW+JPG just in case I don’t like the processed image.
After stopping at Yea for a quick top up charge I set off again and then pulled over to take a few photos.
My current fixation with the Ricoh Recipes is ‘Royal Supra’ that just wonderful turquoise skies that I enjoy. I know the teal / turquoise look has gone out of vogue at the moment, but I was late to it and it is still new to me.
The fact that the Olympus 35RC has a focal length extremely similar to the Ricoh GR IIIx is fantastic for me. I really love the 40mm focal length. Not quite a 50mm, so there is a little more room, but also not as wide as a 35 or 28mm which I fee like can push everything away a little too much.
Arriving at my parents’ house there were a few boxes of deliveries waiting – standard when I travel down. This time one contained a camera, a very second or fourth hand Pentax SLR. I didn’t enjoy shooting with the Vivitar a whole lot.
The mirror slap was almost violent and if I had my fingers on the focus ring on a lens I swear it would shift the focus when I pressed the shutter. It makes a loud noise, but not a reassuring solid noise.
Just outside the window in my room are a few trees I get to enjoy when I am visiting. You don’t even need to go outside if you don’t want to 😁
But if you do go outside you can see the sky as well.
The scan I got back from the lab of this shot had a lot more green in it that really wasn’t there at all on the day.
When I visit Melbourne I try and get away with as little leave as possible, and I usually spend a couple of days a week in the office. It isn’t too bad, and I get 45min to 1 hour to catch up on podcasts I haven’t listened to in months with the lack of a commute at home. Having said that, 2 days in a week is more than enough, 3 really would be a stretch.
It also gives me an excuse to go for a walk around the city during lunch.
While I am enjoying the process of talking photos with the film cameras, I am still enjoying digital photography, especially taking photos with the Ricoh GR IIIx.
But Melbourne isn’t just the city, and there are other places to walk with a camera or three. I really need to do something about taking less cameras with me.