The Poet

When I was photographing this band, we went on a road trip to Palmerston North. May Day celebrations or some other leftwing liberal union nonsense in the form of a concert.

This poet type dude turned up and started ranting away.

He does good poems and he's got such a fantastic voice.

And if you haven't heard this yet, you should. It's a classic.

The Musical

Building up to the Arts Festival, this week I've been rediscovering what it's like to go out and do things at night. You know, have a life.

So on Thursday I saw one of my favourite bands from last year. And it was a huge disappointment. Simon Sweetman describes their music as "sharp, sometimes cute, often friendly noisy pop". It's a good description. It is, in fact, the type of music I would make if I ever bothered taking that side of things more seriously - except I'd add more drone, shoegaze and a touch of country (maybe all at the same time).

But (almost) everything about the gig was disappointing. There was hardly any audience. The band seemed low on energy. And the sound was atrocious. On record there's subtlty, harmonies, nice little textures, audible vocals. Live there was very little of any of this. But plenty of mud. So so sad.

On the plus side, there were a number of friends there, who it was good to catch up with.

Then last night was The 3Ds. And they rock!! They have only recently reconvened as a band, and I had forgotten just how brilliant their best songs are. Everything they played was fantastic in every sense.

Having become very accustomed to their recordings, to hear the songs live took them someplace else. They were loud and loose, but oh so tight. They were exactly what I expected and more.

I saw them just the once back in the day, and I can't remember being so taken by the show. But then it was in a tent off Courtenay Place.

The place was packed last night - lots of 30-somethings and older. And more friends to catch up with, and famous bloggers to meet.

All today's pics are from a job I did a few years ago - me playing the cool-as band photographer, cos I play cool-as so well.

As an added bonus I've just uploaded my latest one-take wonder. I like it.

The Guy

I know who. I know where. I know why. I know what.

But I ain't telling.

Cos it's not that interesting.

The Lucky

I once had a cat.

She was a cutey.

I loved her dearly.

I took these photos the day we had her put down.

She was 19, deaf and had cancer of the bladder.

It was the humane thing to do.

It was fucking sad.

The Ghosty

This, apparently, is what happens when you buy a new (to you) camera, then go on a roadtrip without testing all four backs which came with the camera.

I have a feeling that one particular 220 back wasn't as light-tight as it could have been.

So over half the shots taken on that back were affected by unexpected occurrences of light.

On the plus side, it does mean that I have to redo the trip in order to get some, hopefully, unleaky photos.

East Coast here we come.

Sometime ...

The Questions

This, apparently, is what can happen if you spend a few months and a few thousand dollars at Massey's Wellington campus.

Does this make me any more or less of a fine artist than I was prior to gaining said 'qualification'?

Do I have any more desire to be known as a fine artist than I did prior to gaining said 'qualification'?

Does this mean I am more intent on a career as an artist than I was prior to gaining said 'qualification', or from someone who has been regularly exhibiting for ten years without any formal 'qualification'?

These are not rhetorical questions. These are questions which deserve answers.

The Impossible

This, apparently, is what happens when, don't ask me how, the film does something really weird in camera like folding over on itself so you end up exposing through the anti-halation layer.

This shot is the correct orientation, but as the film was nearly clear, i.e. grossly underexposed, it was impossible to work out where the actual frame was.

This shot, however, is the wrong orientation, as you can kinda tell from the above shot (it being the same subject), and as those who know the location would be aware, and as you would be able to tell if you could read the text on the caravan.

The green lines appear to be where the film folded.

And this last pic was literally the end of the roll. And again is the wrong orientation. Just look at that sign. And, in case you were wondering, all shots were daytime shots, not too short an exposure night shots.

Just weird man.

The Windup

This, apparently, is what happens when you (accidentally) double expose a frame and then wind the film through and remove the camera from the tripod, all the time forgetting (or maybe it was intentional) that the lens is still open.

And a closer up of the pic I was meaning to take.

And the previous frame. Just cos it's kinda nice. If a little underexposed.

The Dense

This, apparently, is what happens when you process C41 BW film in traditional BW chemistry.

You get very dense negatives. Primarily because the fix doesn't clear the base dyes.


Here's two adjusted scans. My scanner pretty much refused to accept that any image existed because of the dense negatives.


And here's a couple of raw scans which have a nice arty, grainy, almost cyanotype cast to them.

I just did an experiment with bits from the ends of the roll and discovered that fixing for over 24 hours clears most of the base, but I hate to think what it would do to the image.

The Leakage

This, apparently, is what happens when you open the back of your camera to load a new roll of film only to discover that there was a half shot roll already in there.

Follow the sequence. It's exciting.

This last shot was from another location a day or so after the stuff at Parliament. Obviously some of the neg was still safely in the canister keeping dark.

I actually used that third shot in the final 'publication' thanks to a particularly nice PhotoShop wizard who got rid of the unwanted.

The Wet

This, apparently, is what happens when you drop a less than watertight camera in the river you are shooting in.
The black mark in the sky indicates where emulsion is entirely removed.

The purple indicates, at a guess, where one or two emulsion layers are removed. The negative thing does my head in, and my lack of colour theory means I'm not sure what layer(s) have gone, but, as you'd probably imagine if you know anything about colour theory, the negative appears green in these purple areas.

That photo up top was the second frame shot on the film, and the one I had just taken when I dropped the camera. Interestingly the first frame was completely unaffected. And, even though I made no attempt to dry off the camera (it was fresh water after all) it was only these three frames that showed any evidence.

I keep meaning to try this deliberately - exposing a roll, partially immersing it in water, then getting it processed - but I can't bring myself to waste the film.

The Didactic

or ... "Three self-portraits and a landscape."



All from the one roll of film, shot over a couple of days.

The Reflective

I'm not sure the subject of the photo was that taken with it, but I think it's a lovely shot.

Okay, maybe I should have moved that out-of-focus bottle or whatever, but we had just finished lunch and I saw this nice reflective moment so I grabbed it.

I have very few pictures of my immediate family, which makes this more special.

And on the same roll of film, this cool wee movie.