Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/11/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Alastair -- Kangaroo Island sounds a bit like Montana. Just a bit. The bee keeper word is "apiator." A place where bees are kept is an "apiary." Welcome back. - -- Paul Paul Arnold 22 Sunrise St. Dillon, Montana Visit MY GALLERY at: http://www.geocities.com/osprey59725/index.html - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alastair Firkin" <firkin@netconnect.com.au> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> Sent: Monday, November 27, 2000 1:36 PM Subject: [Leica] All good things must > come to an end, and so it is with my holiday. > > G'day all, > > I have just spent a week on Kangaroo Island off the coast of South > Australia, camping and photographing. Firstly, for anyone wanting to > see the older style of Australian bush/farming community, KI is > perfect, but changing. It is years since I've travelled on so many > gravel roads, or had the car so "shaken-up" by the relentless > corrugations of the road. The isolation was fantastic, and although > the weather was not perfect -- blew a gale most days, the scenery, > wildlife and atmosphere were. It was such and interesting journey, > that we sort of forgot to relax, and so when I got home, it took me a > day to recover, and then :-( back to work. > > BUT, I have to admit, that being involved with our new Family of Man > Project, really got me up and running. It is fantastic to have a > purpose for all those people shots you would love to take, but don't > really fancy on the bedroom wall ;-) > > Now I plough on in there, introduce myself, and begin to take > pictures, and its working. Of course like anything in life, it takes > WORK and lots of it. At first I've found it hard to "intrude" into > peoples lives, but using many of the techniques I've read about here, > and by putting myself into the fray, the results are beginning to > show. We met eucalyptus oil distillers, sheep cheese makers, honey > bee keepers (there is a word for them, and I've already forgotten -- > starts with A, can anyone help) horseradish farmers, dairy farmers, > horse drawn tram conductors, and shared stories and traded > information with all of them. The more I worked at it, the better it > became, and they all accepted me and the camera (M6 0.85) without > much fuss. Now don't expect too much from me, though I hope some of > the images will work, but this is a learning curve, and for the first > few, I simply did not take enough images, and even in the end there > was still a little of the old AGF, timid and shy, but it was good fun > (if hard work). > > So FOM2 is working for me. It gives me a focus for my photographic > images away from the attempted artistry and away from the holiday > snap shots, and made the trip more like a photojournalistic week, > full of human stories and humour. > > Oh, and I could not finish without also saying that the wildlife and > landscape imagery was also fantastic. Damn Kodak for being so slow > with Kodachrome. The turn around time has become dismal, with only > one bloke in Australia now doing all the work for the region. Good > news is that on my return the darkroom processor Jobo was fixed, and > now re-installed, so perhaps I will have to move to E6 as well. > > Anyway, I'm back, and will be replying to those of you who sent > profiles and details into FOM2 soon. Hope to hear your stories, and > I'll try to get some examples of the week up on my home page soon. > > cheers and heres luck > -- > Alastair Firkin > > http://www.afirkin.com >