The Jamjar

Farm Bike

Photography: old school

In the first week of this year, I spent 7 days at the Wanganui Summer of Arts learning about alternative photographic processes.

It's okay, I didn't know what that was before I did the course either. We learned two processes: Cyanotype, which produces a blue photograph and Gum Bichromate which is very similar, but with the addition of pigment, can produce any colour photograph - I tended towards brown pigments.

These processes are the old techniques used to create a photograph before the fancy cameras and modern methods used by local Camera House stores to develop your photos today.

I learned how to make a pinhole camera from a cake tin and then how to create prints from the photos I took with it. By the end of my week, I had quite a nice collection of work.

I was hooked almost instantly on developing photographs both in the dark room and with the alternative processes. Making the photos with a pinhole made the whole process unpredictable and exciting - I never knew exactly what image I had captured, or if my exposure was right until I was seeing it appear in the developing tray. The exposure times varied from 10 minutes to 3 hours depending on which pinhole camera I used so when you consider how impatient I am generally, you might understand how hard I had to work to keep my eye on the ball, so to speak.

It turned out I couldn't get enough time in my day to work with these new ideas and skills and time just flew. If Wanganui had turned on more sunshine/UV rays, I would have had a lot more cyanotype and gum bichromate examples but the damp weather made for the lengthy exposure times - in the end that ended up being a good thing because the low UV meant I got some beautiful subtle mid-tones in my negatives and consequently, my prints.

Arriving back in Auckland with this renewed passion for film based photography, I set about enrolling in a (reasonably) local community college course that offered a darkroom component. Now, each Monday night I go along to Selwyn College and am learning to develop black and white film in a more conventional, modern way than the alternative processes I learned in Wanganui. We're in Week 4 of a 7 week course and have developed a roll of black and white film, created a contact sheet and tonight we set about enlarging and developing photos from those negatives. I'm really happy with the results of my first film. I seem to photograph different subjects than my fellow students but then again, I see more concrete and glass than flowers and family so that's to be expected.

Unfortunately, the 2 hours in the college darkroom just flies by and before I know it I'm having to pack up and leave it for another week.

Atomic Cafe, Ponsonby: courtyard

Monkey See, Monkey Do

**Set Scene**
Work conference energiser (arg I hate these things) interval - instructions to move to the back of the room where there is space, and pair up.

**Rules**
First of the pair mimes an everyday action, the second will ask what they're doing but the answer must be different from the mimed action. The second then mimes the action the first suggested they were doing, but again, when asked what they are doing, must answer something else.

Molly: (miming driving a car)
Michelle: What are you doing, Molly?
Molly: (still miming driving a car) I'm eating food.
Michelle: (miming eating a bowl of food)
Molly: What are you doing, Michelle?
Michelle: (still miming eating a bowl of food) I'm mowing the lawn.
Molly: (miming mowing the lawn)
Michelle: What are you doing, Molly?
Molly: (still miming mowing the lawn) Picking my nose
Michelle: you bitch.
Molly: (mimes laughing her head off)