Arran Salerno | Photography - Blog » Sydney

Urban Study

admin — Thu, 20 May 2010 02:40:40 +0000

As part of one of the subjects in the Masters course I started at the beginning of semester, we had to document a urban social phenomenon. Here are a few photos from the set of 15. To sum it up briefly, the photographic essay was looking at the dichotomy of conformity and individualism in the Sydney CBD. Taken in context with my essay and annotations it was well received.
For the project I used the little S90 which performed quite well I thought and was a fun change from film. The b&w conversions aren’t as bad as I anticipated also but not particularly special.

Sydney Camera Market… Again

Arran — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 11:20:53 +0000

I’ve been to the last few camera markets in Sydney and have had a lot of fun. A great range of cameras, most at pretty good prices. I never actually “need” anything when i go, so normally set myself a very low budget (about $20) and try to have a bit of fun searching around for something a little different.
The market this time didn’t seem to have the selection compared to previous times i’ve been. I also noticed quite a lot of the same cameras doing the rounds – they must not of sold last time. The instant vibe i got wasn’t that great, so thought that i’d have my work cut out for me this time. The place was crowded as ever(which is a positive thing), but the number of rangefinders and “cheapies” had fallen considerably.
Did the circut a few times but didnt notice anything, so started to get a little concerned. I’ve never left this place empty handed before!
As the time on the parking meter grew closer to running out, things weren’t looking good.
Desperately searching a table for something that will make my time spent worthwhile I lift up the strap of an overpriced SLR and notice the unmistakable shape of a Konica Big Mini BM-201.. I test it and buy it. Well under budget, so there’s still hope
I get to a table i’ve been to a few times before, but now have a bit of room to look around (did i mention it was crowded?). I think my eyes have trained themselves to spot out anything with black paint and the name Olympus on it. That’s how i found this little guy.
When I picked the EC up I wasn’t expecting to the silver bottom plate, and was actually a little disappointed when i noticed it. But, the added “quirkyness” of the silver bottom plate started to grow on me, and now I quite like it. I doubt there’d be too many other Panda EC’s around also.
There was a label on it saying “needs service” so i asked the vendor what was wrong, he said the shutter was stuck, but I knew these little guys were battery dependant so thought it may only need new batteries and decided to take a gamble on it. All up I was still under budget, but decided to call it quits. People were still rolling in, and I noticed an increasing number of people with an aversion to deodorant, so took that as my queue to leave.
Getting home I searched the net for battery adapters and found an easy solution involving aluminum foil – it’s pretty handy stuff.
Put some old batteries in it and hey presto, the shutter works.
Anyway, that’s that. I’ve attached a leather wrist strap to the EC and will putting a roll through it next week hopefully. It’s a neat little camera. Very compact and well built. Will try the Big Mini out eventually also. I wonder how well it performs with flash photography.

Some shots around Sydney

Arran — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:33:53 +0000

Developed an old roll of Tri-x and found some shots I took in and around the city. Alot of the shots are in the same area as an old set i did around Circular Quay with the Olympus Trip.
I shot this roll in my Bessa – a camera i haven’t been using lately. I seem to of gone back to my Olympus OM’s which i’ve found are with out a doubt my favourite cameras to shoot with. That’s no real secret though i guess.
Got a few rolls to put through the Mamiya RB67 which i cant wait to start using again. I’m going to finally bite the bullet and get a new scanner though for the 120 film.

Dollar Portraits

Arran — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:14:22 +0000

Several months ago, a friend of mine started work on a photographic project based around a simple premise – “For each portrait I take, I donate one dollar to a charity”.

The basic idea itself has been done before, and donating to charity is nothing new, but mixing a passion that is quite often a self centred pursuit and using it to give back to the community is really great in my opinion, and like anyone contributing to a charity/community should be supported.

Armed with a medium format camera, and his newly acquired Letter of Authority from the Cancer Council (his chosen charity), George now roams the streets looking for people willing to contribute to his project. So if you see him hunting around with his Bronica asking for a portrait, don’t knock him back, let him take it, and consider atleast matching his donation.

You can read more about the project and the man behind it on his website : dollar portraits.
I know have my own goal, and that is to get a portrait of George. He’s not a fan of being in front of the camera. Watch out…

Woohoo.. I think it worked

admin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 01:06:59 +0000

Ok, i think i managed to get this blog transferred to another server.
Things got a bit “iffy” for a few hours there, im not a fan of going into databases and editing values, but i think its all working now. Just in time for Christmas too, arent you lucky?
Anyway, don’t have much to say besides being relieved that i got the blog transferred over and didnt loose any posts/pictures in the process (i dont think).

On another topic. Heres a picture i shot the other day. First time i’d picked up the DSLR in a while. There were some really interesting storm clouds i could see form the back of my house so thought i’d get a few photos. It looked pretty dramatic. I would of loved being in that plane

“Instant” 35mm Film

Arran — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:52:40 +0000

Well, not quite “instant”, but pretty damn close.
I didn’t know this (maybe you did), but Polaroid used to make 35mm film that you could process at home without messy chemicals, in a matter of minutes. The system seems to of had some popularity at one stage, but like other Polaroid products, the profit margin must of been pretty small and the product was phased out.Several types of film instant film were made (all slide film) in both colour and black & white.

The system is based around a hand operated Autoprocessor. Into this you place your film and its matching processing unit (single use-comes with each roll of film). You then complete a series of winding actions and hey presto, you’re film is developed in about 2 minutes.
I saw a processing unit and 6 rolls of film going for less than $5 the other day, so thought I’d give it a go. The only thing is, the film had expired in 1984! I was more curious to see if anything would come out at all, and have a bit of fun.

I did get results, but as you’ll see, its pretty rough and insanely contrasty, but surpringly ok for film that coule be over 25 years old! I have a few rolls left, so might shoot them deliberately to bring the most out of the unique aesthetic. I’m kind of thinking of the movie “Metropolis”

First roll from the new camera

Arran — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:40:57 +0000

Well i finally got around to developing the first roll from my new Bessa today.. What a bloody disaster.
For the first time ever i had trouble loading the film onto the spools. It kept getting stuck, and would crease and bunch up.. I started to loose patience so decided to chop the film randomly in half and load the rest of the negatives on the other spool. By that time i was thinking about chucking the whole film out. I wasnt in the best of moods. But i eventually stopped having a sook and put the Fujifilm Acros in Rodinal at 1+50 for 14 minutes. It turned out ok i think, not perfect though. Temperature was about 16 degrees which probably didnt help.

I went back to the Opera House again. I know its touristy, but i think its one of the more interesting structures in Sydney. I really likes it’s angles and curves and scale. Its very unique. I’m going to keep going back there trying to shoot some non touristy compositions.
Oh, and i had the 35mm on for all (except the last) of these shots.

Here’s a few more taken in the city:

Now this last shot was taken with a Russian Jupiter 8, 50mm f/2 lens from 1962. I only took a couple test shots with it, but wow im impressed. I’m really surprised how nice it looks wide open at f/2. It has really nice bokeh and bit of a natural “glow”. I think it’ll take a little while to get used to it, as it can render some areas a little bit too grey. But i’m going to keep practicing to get the best out of it. It’s by far the most unique looking lens i have. Oh and it cost me nothing which is extra nice
I’ll be using it with some colour film also.

Sydney Sunset

Arran — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:44:47 +0000

A couple friends and i were talking about how we haven’t really taken any photos lately. It’s Just been hard finding time with so much other stuff on at the moment. So we challenged ourselves to take atleast one photo today, of anything at all. We were all going to work so couldn’t really dedicate too much time to it. I ended up almost finishing a roll of film, but wont be able to develop and scan it before our “deadline”, so here are a couple sunset pictures taken from the car. There were some amazing colours in the sunset, so i waited until the sun went behind a cloud and shot a couple of pics with my digital p&s Fuji F10. They’re nothing amazing, but i think they turned out ok considering the limitations of the camera, the time i had, and the fact i was trying to drive at the same time =/ . Atleast i completed the challenge, i’ll see if the others have though :p
I just did a resize and cropped out soem of the bottom on the second shot, no other processing.

A week with my Mju:II

Arran — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 09:06:42 +0000

Last month, for a bit of fun, i shot a roll of cheap film over the space of a week with my Mju:II. I kept the camera in my car and in my pocket most of the time just taking pictures of things that looked interesting. Theres nothing revolutionary about this concept, and i’ve been carrying cameras around with me for quite some time now. But there seemed something different this time. The fact that the camera only offered a limited amount of options to the user. No manual settings, no zoom, an auto focus, auto everything pretty much. Every other camera i own has manual settings, so i wasn’t sure how far i’d get with this automatic plastic fantastic Olympus. Also, i’d never used the camera before so thought it’d be a good opportunity to test it out.
To say i was happy with the results is an understatement. This little camera has now shot up the list of my current favourites. The lens is sharp, and i think the photos it produces (looking at the prints) has a distinct look. Its also very compact and strong. I was walking over rocks covered in moss once and managed to slip over (im normally not that clumsy). The camera was in my right hand, which took the full weight of my body when i fell over on the rocks. The camera survived with just one scratch, alot better than me who managed to be bleeding from my arms and back =/ . The camera had this roll of film in it too, so i was worried at one point that the back may of opened, or somethign cracked letting light in, but everything was completely fine. I finished shooting the roll that day.
Photos were taken in the Sydney CDB and suburbs, quite often driving to or from things. Theres a night shot in Circular Quay where i just put the camera on a fence and let it select its own shutter speed which turned out perfect. Theres some other night ones where i turned on spot metering and turned the flash off.
Here are some shots.

This is my postcard shot! (aka, pretty average photo trying to fit as many landmarks in as possible…)
Here is a more detailed review of this neat litle camera.

Developed my first roll today

Arran — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:11:40 +0000

Wow, two posts in one day. Go me.
I developed my first roll of film today. As i mentioned in a previous post, i’ve been thinking of trying out some black and white film developing for a while now. This week i got some gear and gave it a go.
I shot a roll on Agfa APX100 and developed it in Rodinal at 1:50 for 13 minutes, then used Ilford stop bath and fixer.
It was a pretty straightforward process, the hardest bit was starting, as i was worried about stuffing something up. In the end i did stuff something up, but it had nothing to do with the chemicals and timing etc. It was the fact that i stupidly hung my negatives to dry in a shower with a leaking head. So i got drips of water down the bottom of my strip of negatives. Some of the water marks dried out, but others didnt. You always stuff up the shots you’re most interested in seeing dont you… Well i do anyway.
The negatives that didnt dry out are being re-soaked. Hopefully i can salvage some of them.
I was quite happy with the ones that did dry properly, so i scanned them in with my ancient scanner that magnifies grain and dissipates tonal range.
Here are a few shots that scanned ok.
They’re arent amazing, but i am more interested in seeing if i developed them correctly or not. I think they’re pretty close.
As you can tell in some of the shots, the light was incredibly harsh the day i took these…. One day i’ll be able to shoot in favourable light… One day.

EDIT: Added another pic (first one)