I finally finished the darkroom and am astounded at the difference a printed image makes over a scanned negative; there really is no comparison. It's not just the depth and tones in the picture, but the feel of the glossy paper makes the viewing of the photograph a much more sensory experience, not just a quick and dirty glimpse of life on a computer screen or even an ink jet reproduction of a scan. It brings me back to childhood too, when you'd be handed a photograph and you'd really look at it, instead of a second later hitting the right cursor to the next image.

Of course techniques of passing information such as this blog will always be relevant, it's just a pity that you can't feel what you're seeing on here in it's full glory! (I have been scheming though, perhaps I could receive money in exchange for my manual labour and some Ilford Multigrade paper...........).

So here it is in it's full glory, the result of two garage sale purchases; lots of kit from a couple of people who no longer needed it. Well over a thousand dollars worth of equipment for $120!

In simple terms, what you can see is my second bathroom completely sealed from outside light, lit by a safe light (brown) with chemicals in the bath and an enlarger projecting an image (controlled by a relatively sophisticated timer). The images created with this equipment are washed and dried before they look like this.

I've been printing to roughly 10" x 7" dimensions and the photographs are looking fantastic, showing detail I never even knew was held in the negative and detail I certainly didn't see on the digital screen.

For instance, one of my favourite photos of a couple sharing Japanese food on Swan Street, below. I have spent much time enjoying this image but never once noticed the ghost of a cyclist streaking across the middle of the image, not even with it at full size on my 21" LCD monitor; not until I was shaking the last drops of water from the paper before letting it dry.

And so I venture further into the past.....

Ben's brain works in strange and wonderful ways. (Ben = El Presidente of COGS). What I thought would be a short casual spin around the twin mountains of Ainslie and Majura, turned out to be a little more than that; it actually hurt and a great race was had by all.

From the site: "Race two will be held on the morning of Saturday the 26th of February. It will be a self guided, point to point race in and around Mt Majura and Mt Ainslie including parts of Majura Pines."

There were three check points cunningly situated so that there were numerous routes one could take to reach them. Of course there were mountains in the way so every route was bound to hurt a little.

I chose to ride the Mount Cross as I envisaged much soft roading. Turned out to be the perfect weapon.

There was a good show of people, maybe 20 or 25, all on mountain bikes except me. The race started from Ainslie and to be quite honest I didn't see a person once I headed off; I was a little faster than those on fat tyres with low gear inches. Once I reached the forest I found the Mount Cross, with its flat bars, great on the single track. I eventually found two of the three check points, then it all happened. I could see a man in a woman's shirt in the distance behind me as I climbed out of Majura, it was Ed, and I was scared. As far as I knew I was in front, I would have been very surprised to see anyone make the distance I had without the ratio I was running. It seems Ed had out smarted Ben and predicted precisely where the check points were, I wasn't that smart and this saw me overtaken by Ed as I walked up the rise between Majura and Ainslie. He commented that it was now a war of gear inches and he was right.

Ed was well in front as we hit the saddle to the North of Mt Ainslie, it was a long downhill stretch before it flattened out. I pushed the skinny tyres at speed to catch him on the descent. Once we reached the bottom he cautiously peered over his shoulder to see how much gap he still had; I smiled from just behind his rear wheel, then left him in Tom Ritchey's finest handmade dust!

Elroy. Don't let the grey hair fool you, at nine years of age he may be getting on in years but he hasn't changed a bit.

(Taken with the new CV 75/1.4)

Another trip to Melbourne and another set of photos. This time I had the good fortune of discovering a new lens whilst roaming the streets. Within minutes of buying it I was shooting, it doesn't get much better than that (BTW, it's a Cosina Voigtlander 75mm f2.5 and it is awesome!).

I also had the good fortune of sharing dinner with Brett and Amber in Box Hill (unfortunately Charlie had to stay home). You know you're eating authentic Chinese when you feel out of place in the restaurant you're eating at; this place must have been authentic as I felt out of place in the entire street.

Perhaps the best round of polo yet was had on the weekend. New faces, new skills and great weather led to an afternoon of fast paced action. Although I'm starting to get a little worried about the competition; not only on the polo front but Rach is wielding the camera like a demon.........

This is all I could conjure up with the Leica....maybe I should stick to the street.....

Oh well, at least I know who the real winner was in the end.....

I spent the week investigating the process of 'pushing' film. In simple terms it is the practice of setting the ISO on your camera higher than the box speed, effectively underexposing the film. In order to ensure usable photographs you then  over developing the film during developing process. There are pros and cons to this practice - you can take pictures in far darker environments or at faster speeds, but you lose shadow detail and gain contrast or grain. My feeling is that the cons don't really effect my style of photography, so I pushed a roll of Kodak T-Max 400 to 1600, added some extra dev time and.......well, the results speak for themselves.

Yesterday I headed out to the cultural festival. I thought I'd get a lot more photographs than I did, but it was difficult taking photos with a full stein in one hand for the entire day!!

There isn't an awful lot to say other than that it was a truly fantastic day out. A multitude of food, music, drink and people.

Occasionally the planets align and you develop a roll of film that contains more than a few images you're really happy with, proud of. Perhaps it has nothing to do with the planets and is all to do with the Leica M6 you just purchased. Either way, it was a happy day today when I returned early from Melbourne and created these.

While in Melbourne I visited Tom, as I approached his house I could hear some kind of slapping sound, I made my presence known as not to walk in on something sinister; I found him practicing to become a rock‐star on his outwardly silent electronic drum kit......rock‐star or retard? You be the judge. (It is damn quality and fun though!)

The last week, prior to my trip to Melbourne, had been quite eventful. Luckily the machine that is the camera allows me to keep track of the goings on, recording them in the form of a chemical reaction, to be rediscovered later on. Due to this marvel of modern science I now know that the last week included: buying more cameras, Rach working, night, riding, bike‐polo, Eddy's b'day drinks, dumplings, the markets, lazing, antique‐ing, Braidwood and Elroy.

Cameras - the new memory.