cross-processed – RadMania

Iphoneography: USA iPhone Travel Photography

Someone much wiser once said something like ‘the best camera you have is the one you have on you’ … and as my iPhone 5 is nearly always always in my pocket, it has become my go-to image creator. The quality of the images you can capture are quite amazing for something that also does a pretty good job of acting like a phone … and a computer. And with the outstanding Photoshop Express app, the level of post-production and editing you can do all in the palm of your hand rivals what many amateur photographers do on their desktops.

On my latest overseas trip to the USA my iPhone well and truly got a workout on the streets of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Reno. Around NYC I often carried my Canon EOS 1D MkIV, but with the ability to edit on the fly, then directly upload to Instagram and Facebook, I found that I have enjoyed the shots I took with my Apple phone much more. And sometimes having the limitations of a non-optical zoom, 8-megapixel mini-lens makes you think just a little bit more creatively to make the most of those limitations. So take a look at some of my shots, and if you like what you see, follow me on Instagram for more of my iPhoneography.

Click on the photos below to see larger versions…

This photo was taken with a Russian Horizon Perfeckt 35mm panoramic camera, with the film cross-processed.

Japan Journals: Shooting The Niseko Backcountry With The New Zealanders

For 18 months I sat in the sunny Gold Coast office of the surf magazine, watching the palm trees out the window and looking for a change in wind direction that signalled “down tools” across the office and a race to the Burleigh Point, or mid-Gold Coast beachies. But the whole time I was sitting in board shorts and thongs and enjoying the security (and paycheque) of full-time employment, I was more often than not dreaming of sub-zero temperatures, icy faceshots and the quiet solitude of hiking through the backcountry with a camera in hand. If there was one major gripe I had with what many would consider a dream job, it was that as the Online Editor for a major surf magazine, I just didn’t get enough time to follow my true love: snowboarding.

So when I left the magazine, the first thing I did was book a trip to Japan. I wanted back in the game … and with four weeks in peak pow season, the game was sure to be on.

Dane Tiene had teamed up in Niseko with the kiwi boys, filming their webisode project across the island of Hokkaido, Japan Journals. And although I wasn’t able to meet up with ol’ mate Dane before he flew out, Nick Hyne and Nick Brown were more than happy to have me tag along and shoot some snaps with Connor Harding and filmer Heath Patterson.

It’s always a pleasure to work with the kiwis, as every one of them is just so chilled, friendly … and willing to throw down at every opportunity. And with Japan Journals, these boys are onto a good wicket, producing some great snow-travel-themed web edits full of banging tricks with some great backing from their sponsors.

Veteran shredder Nick Hyne has been to Japan more than a dozen times after first visiting on a high school exchange program, and so I had no doubt that he would have the locations dialled. And so for two days in late February the boys picked me up in Niseko in their Rhythm Snowsports-supplied van to shoot a backcountry jump hidden not far up a valley in the mountains halfway back to Sapporo, and a pillow-line cliff band outside Niseko.

Check out the jump we shot at 3:15 in this Japan Journals episode.

While it might have been just another couple of days in front of the camera for the boys, for me it was quite a successful two day return to the snowboard photography game. The great li’l shred magazine from the other side of the Tasman, NZ Snowboarder, was looking for some shots of Hyner, Browner and Connor and I managed to have a couple of shots published full-page, as well as a double-page spread with one of my Shibuya Crossing 35mm film panoramas, and a couple more shots throughout the magazine’s two issues of the 2013 winter. And through Nick Hyne I was able to tee up one of my shots being used as a full page ad in the skate and snow mag, Manual Magazine.

Not a bad outcome for two day’s shooting, if I do say so myself!

And with another snow trip booked (back to my second home, Lake Tahoe) for this February, I can say: it’s good to be back!

Click on the photos below to open them up in a full size gallery, and take a look at the finished results…

Yep … it was pow season in Niseko during February 2013!

On the road with Japan Journals. Kutchan, just outside Niseko.

Pulled over somewhere on the highway.

Hiking to the goods…

Ahhh, the serenity!

Jump building with the Japan Journals boys.

Nick Brown warming up with a frontside 360.

Connor Harding dodging branches while he gets close to check out the Niseko tree-living wildlife (Heath Patterson).

It doesn’t always go to plan. Nick Brown bailing mid air.

Nick Hyne’s wise words alongside my photo in NZ Snowboarder Issue 58.

Double-back flip from Nick Hyne. You can see the front-on angle in the video above at 3:24.

Full page for Connor Harding.

Booost! Connor Harding launches.

Nick Hyne styling a melon on this pillow drop.

Back-lit vapour trail as Connor Harding bounces off Niseko pillows.

Double pager in NZ Snowboarder Issue 59.

Connor Harding dodging millions of fat Hokkaido flakes on this frontside 540. Check out the footage at 3:28 in the video above.

Shibuya Crossing shot with a Russian-made Horizon Perfekt swing-lens pano-camera, on cross-processed 35mm Fuji Provia 400 film.

When it snows, it pukes. We waited for what seemed like ages (check the snow accumulation on my camera bag) for a window of semi-sunshine to shoot the pillow line Browner had in mind. It was worth the wait to see the shot in the magazine…

Nick Brown gettin’ ‘er done in NZ Snowboarder issue 59.

Droppin’ bombs on Niseko backcountry pillows.

Nick Hyne advertising his Ride Snowboards Machete GT full page in Manual Magazein issue 50.

Nick Hyne launching and landing this frontside double cork 900.

Looking out from the frozen Rhythm Snowsports van back in Niseko-Hirafu.

Wanna see more from Japan? Take a look at my landscape and lifestyle photos from Japan here, and my iPhoneography from Tokyo here and Kyoto here.

Follow Japan Journals on Facebook here for all their latest wintry adventures.

Coolangatta Cross-Processed

Just a quick entry this time – some film that I took a while ago and only remembered to get processed and scanned recently.

I took a little Minolta instamatic loaded with some Kodak ektachrome 100VS, and then got the film cross-processed at Prism Imaging in North Melbourne. What that means is, as this was slide (or transparency) film, it was processed using the normal C41 chemicals that the regular “negative” print film would be processed in. Naturally, the end result is a little bit of a gamble, and i’ve found that the type of slide film you use has a huge impact on the shots – some come out very pink tinged, others greenish or blue, and here, super contrasted, yet mostly naturalistic colours.

It’s interesting to compare the hit-or-miss nature of film, versus the digital shots I laboriously post-processed with Lightroom in my previous entry. You will see many of the shots are very similar in composition, as I was just walking around for an hour or so snapping away with both cameras I was carrying, and I sort of wanted to compare the end results.

And if you want to see more film and cross-processed shots I’ve taken, click here.

The magic (and disappointment) of film

The last few times I’ve travelled overseas I’ve taken along one or two small(ish) Minolta instamatic film cameras. Maybe I’ve been inspired by Terry Richardson, or maybe I just want to have that little bit of doubt every time I take the camera out and the little flutter I get from gambling with the expected outcome.

Film is certainly a gamble. It used to be pretty bloody hard to get decent snowboard shots when you were working with slide film and not given the lattitide for exposure correction that regular negative film has (ie, in the processing of “regular” film into photos the lab can correct most minor mistakes you made in over or under-exposing your shots). Digital has made things even easier, with mistakes being able to be corrected in Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom. (You may have noticed that ever since Himbrechts put me onto Lightroom I’ve used the preset colour/saturation/etc settings on many of my photos, just to make them a bit more interesting). But not only that, digital allows for the snowboard style police to instantly check a frame and make sure arms, body, head and grab are all the way they should be…and if not, it’s a hike up the hill for the rider and another attemt to “get the shot”.

So it’s nice to play around with film when the end result isn’t so important, like with my travel shots. And I’ve always liked to add an extra level of “gambling” on the outcome by putting in rolls of slide film and then getting it cross-processed in the chemicals normally used for regular negative film. Here you can see the outcome of only 2 rolls I shot on my travels. I thought I had snapped off more frames than a mere 72 in 9 weeks, but I guess digital is really taking over my life if the amount of shots taken on my little Sony Cybershot are anything to go by. You’ll probably recognise a fair bit of the same subject material from my previous posts – I often wanted to be able to compare the film to the digi shot.

If you are interested, the film I used here was Kodak Ektachrome 100VS, cross-processed and scanned lo-res at Vanbar Imaging in Carlton. And I’m not sure if the gamble paid off. I’m not so happy with all the end results – maybe I expected more? I dunno. Maybe next time I’ll take alond a Canon EOS5 film SLR with a cheap zoom lens and use that as my “Go-To” cross-process beast: it’s fairly compact (certainly much more so than my 2 EOS 1 bodies), it seemed to handle tricky exposures well, and I got a heap of published snowboard shots back in the day with it, so it has good memories.

Roadtrippin’ through the middle…

After the Oz winter, a literal seachange was in order. My brother, El Rad, had moved down from Brisbane to the Gold Coast and had a spare bedroom…so it would have been remiss of me to not take up his offer of a place to stay 150 metres from the beach and within 15 drive minutes of four world-famous surf breaks! If i could handle the heat, it would be a great time to learn to surf better and generally just enjoy the good life the Goldy has to offer.

So back in early November i packed up the orange beast and headed north up the Hume, Via the Newell Hwy through the middle of NSW and into Qld. It was two days, 1800km and 18.5 hours of driving time according to my dashboard. I had my serious camera gear with me, but i always like the flexibility of small, pocket-sized point-and-shoot cameras. I have a little Sony Cybershot 8.5 megapixel camera, as well as a couple of Minolta film instamatics that i often load with slide (transparency) film and cross-process for interesting and unexpected results. It keeps photography fun!

Here are some of the photos i took of all the weird things along the way… Click the heading to see more: