Shippies at the peak of the mega swell in mega, mega pixels. Simply click the image to see more detail
The downside of shooting film is that everything takes more time, there is no checking the back of the camera to view what you've shot or how you've exposed it. There's no instant correction or instant digital gratification, there's just a long nervous wait, a mental tussle of self doubt and excitement over what could be on those rolls of film. The lab only processes film on Tuesdays now, long gone are the days of 1 hour processing, so for these rolls it was a week long wait.
Last week's panos ghetto scanned, to do side by side comparisons and final choice
This time around there were choices a plenty, in fact, that then became the issue, which one! The top one was chosen because the waves are the best shaped and the set is stacked around the top of the point, there's a feeling of anticipation.
Edit decided, then scan in full resolution, grade and 'clean', it's intensive and laborious. It takes about 4 hours to get a single panoramic image print ready. The work could be farmed out for sure, but really only the photographer who took the photo knows what they envisaged.
Why put yourself through this for one image? Simple, peace of mind. A film panoramic like this one is over a gigabyte in size. When someone orders through the website it is actually a reduction from the image's native size... this is getting real photo nerdy huh? It all means every client is going to get an even better print than they expected, because of the fine detail. It's a stoke to drop off a piece or get an email back with the familiar 'I liked the photo, but I never expected it to look this good in real life!' The devil is in the detail.
The Fotoman 617 Pano camera has been getting a workout! Just click on the image to see it larger, oh, there's even a video on the page
Meet Hoddsy
Hodds just out of the drink for a change [ahhhh Dad joke!]
Say hello to Richard Hodder, aka @inthedrink on Instagram. You're probably following him already, the quietly spoken surfer [yes, he surfs as well as he shoots!] is the most followed Kiwi surf-photographer on social media. His daily post of inspiration clearly hits a chord with us all. Hodds has spent the first half of 2015 travelling to the the Four Corners of NZ shooting in only the way he can. I've been trying to cajole him into making a book, but that's another story. In the meantime come support and enjoy his fine work off screen and on gallery walls. More details HERE