Filmneverdie Olinda Rhododendron Gardens Polaroid Walk

Last Sunday the 17th of May, us guys at FND hosted the Autumn Polaroid walk at the Rhodendron Gardens in Olinda.



From my perspective (Sebastian) this was an interesting photo walk. So let me start from the beginning.

Last week wasn't the greatest for me, just a lot of things going wrong and not the way I would have liked them too. 


On top of that I kept arriving late for work, through no fault of my own (Screw you Metro) much to Gary's annoyance. What does that have to do with anything? We'll get there.




After my bad week I decided to drown my sorrows at the local nightclub with a Coles workmate in Croydon on Saturday night. It certainly picked me up into a good mood again.




However, it got to 4:00am and I realised 'Shit, I have to be up in less than 5 hours to catch a bus to Olinda'.
So I said goodbye to my mate and stumbled off home grabbing a kebab on the way. At the tuck truck I met some other guy who was either in a bad mood or on ice, because I swear to god he was about to stab someone. After grabbing my food I heard him following behind me, so as soon as I turned the corner to home I bolted home as fast as I could.
Arriving home with a warm kebab and puffed out lungs, I finally climbed into bed; of course dropping the kebab on the floor without one bite from it.

I had my alarm set for 8:30am, knowing it'll give me enough time to stumble into the shower, eat that kebab and have enough time to catch the bus at 9:15.
Well in my half asleep/half-drunken state I must have hit 'off' instead of 'snooze' on the alarm.

So about an hour later (Still thinking I was getting up in time) I heard my phone going off again, 'Oh good, my alarm is getting me up' I thought. Checked my phone 'What the hell, why is Gary my alarm.....oh it's a call...'
'Eurhghhh.....helllooo?'
'Seb! Are you still coming to the walk this morning?!'
'Yeah, I'm catching the bus at 9:15, I'll be right, I'll see you soon'

Originally I was planning to meet Gaz in Olinda then get a lift to the gardens, so I didn't have to walk far.

I ran off to the shower and quickly got into some fresh clothes that didn't stink of spilt beer & cigarette ash. As soon as I got out, I realised the time was 9:50am.
'Oh shit, shit, shit....f******cccckkkkkk!!!' Late again, Gary's gonna kill me.




I stuffed whatever film I could find in my bag, grabbed my now truly cold kebab and ran for the bus stop. Well ran as good as someone who's necked about 15 beers the previous night. Luckily I arrived in time to catch the next one.




I jumped on and frantically called Gary to let him know I was coming as fast as possible.

Well, might as well have breakfast. Mmmmm, cold chicken and garlic sauce. Hey food is food when you're desperate!

Luckily I worked out which stop I had to get off at, thinking I had missed Olinda about 5 times.
I wandered into some cafe and asked the waitress politely 'Is it possible for me to just grab a bottle of water...?'
Some bloke next to me 'Nah, nah, it's not alright mate' jokingly.
'Oh get stuffed!' I retorted in friendly jest & had a chuckle between ourselves.
'Hmmmm, maybe today won't be so bad!' I thought.

I saw a sign for the gardens and wandered off seeing it was only a 10 minute walk. While walking I realised I had read a message from our friend Weng earlier.
I've had two rolls of the ultra rare Aerochrome film in my possession for over a year, just never had  the chance to shoot it. I took out our Hasselblad c/m earlier in the week, and had asked Weng if he had an orange filter I could use for it. (Aerochrome is colour infrared, so needs colour filters to block out certain wavelengths of light to achieve the desired effects).
Whilst I was at the club the previous night I was quickly texting him, saying to drop the filter off with Gary in the morning.
I remembered that I woke to a message from Weng saying he can't make it to the walk with the filter I need.
'Damn & blast, there goes another chance to shoot this amazing film!'
So I had to leave the 'blad & Aerochrome at home.



I looked in my bag and realised I had packed in some of the 35mm Lomography Lomochrome Purple film. Well this is close enough, it'll still give cool results. So I loaded it into my Lomo LC-Wide and kept wandering towards the gardens.



Once inside I had to try find everyone, luckily they weren't too far from the entrance. 'Thank god, I actually made it!'.

Now I could finally sit down, roll a cigarette and relax. Mind you, the world was still spinning. I laid back on the ground and forgot which way was up.
At least I had chugged that bottle of water, so I would sober up soon enough.



The walk was pleasant, it was nice to just wander around looking at the trees and falling leaves.





In a way I like being in nature, I'm just not a hippy. 'All they do is smoke pot & smell bad!'.




We had about 15 people turn up in total, which made it good to see some familiar faces that I don't get to see often.



I think we all ended up getting split up as there is a bajllion paths that you can follow, with something exciting around every corner. Well, as exciting as a tree stump or a pile of barkchips can be haha.







Gary was shooting on the Mint SLR SX-70 670m, which allows you to adjust the shutter speed manually. It's a beautifully crafted camera and a joy to shoot on.






However we discovered that on bright, sunny days it doesn't work well with the 600 film. Even at the fixed F/8 aperture at 1/2000th of a second the photos were coming out very overexposed. So I guess use the SX-70 film on sunny days, and use the 600 on partially cloudy/cloudy days. Either way, it seems the photos came out pretty cool!

   



After we got about halfway down the full length of the park, we thought it'd be best to turn around and head back to the entrance. Of course, for my luck, it was all uphill. EURGHHHH




My lungs hurt from a night of ciggies, so by the time I actually made it to the top I was ready to collapse.
Luckily, by the time we all regrouped we went to the Pie In The Sky restaurant. Having won many awards over the years for their food, it was a warm welcome to my spinning head and toxic body.


Not looking at the menu properly, I saw the country pie and saw how much was stuffed in it. 'Well this can't hurt to fill me up as much as possible'. I was hoping for meat, but alas, none was to be found in my meal. But you y'know, if you want a meat pie, you ask for a meat pie. Herp a derp. Oh well, it was food.

Luckily after this I was able to get a lift home, rather than having to wait around for a bus cooking in the sun for 40 minutes. As soon as I stepped into my room, I collapsed on the bed and passed out for the next 5 hours. What a welcome relief for the past 18 hours on my body.

I've still got to finish shooting the Lomochrome before I can even see what I actually shot on the day. Speaking of which, we ran a competition on the day as always. The person who shot the best polaroid won a free pack of film, and those who shot 35mm/120/110 etc will win a free roll of film. We are allowing a few weeks before people get them developed, but once you do, please post them here: facebook.com/groups/filmneverdieshooters/

Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published