#ishootfilm. It's a hash tag used on Instagram, but my favourite is #shootfilmstaybroke.
I do shoot film and it probably is knocking the budget around quite a bit. Film costs to buy, it costs to develop, it costs to scan, and then it costs a lot of time in cleaning the scan. On average 2 hours went into spotting and removing all the dust and specks off the images below. It's laborious, and quite honestly it's boring.
Of course the reoccurring question comes up with every scan opening...why shoot film! My reasons are different to a lot of other film shooters. First and foremost is quality, these images are still 6-4x larger than the best digital camera. There's also the thrill of picking up your processing from the lab and seeing beautiful big 6 x17 cm strips of transparency film. There's the manual-ness of the camera, it really is just a lump of [beautifully engineered] metal with a lens at the front and some film at the back. There's no batteries, light meter, no auto focus...there's no rushing. Everything has to be considered. This is not a snapshot.
So here I present mother-lode of this year's USA trip, scanned, cleaned, and soaking up precious gigabytes on my hard drives, but holy heck I like them!
Bombay Beach, 6x9 on T-Max 100. Click the image to see larger.
Bombay Sunset 6x17 on Velvia 100. Click the image to see larger.
Broken Home 6x9 on T-Max 100. Click the image to see larger.
Live A Great Story 6x9 on T-Max 100. Click the image to see larger.
Bombay Graff 6x9 on T-Max 100. Click the image to see larger.
Salvation Truck 6x17 on Velvia 100. Click the image to see larger.
Salvation Jeep on FP100c, Polaroid Land Camera. Click the image to see larger.
Salton City Jetty 6x17 on Velvia 100. Click the image to see larger.
Oregon Cop Car 6x9 on T-Max 100. Click the image to see larger.
Millicans 6x17 on Velvia 100. Click the image to see larger.
Pine Mountain Shed 6x17 on Velvia 100. Click the image to see larger.
Royal Gateway 6x9 on T-Max 100. Click the image to see larger.
Oceanside Pier 6x17 on Velvia 100. Click the image to see larger.
In Print
It's the 30th year of New Zealand Surfing Magazine, that's a big feat for any surf mag, let alone one at the bottom of the world. I was there for half of those 30 years. The current issue features an interview about those 15 years. It's always nerve racking putting words out there; is it rambling foolishness, has the subject been kept to, is it even current and will the editor slice and dice the words to shreds. So far, people have said it's a good read, check it out if you get a chance.