Australia on slide (Ektachrome Leica M6)

Holidays are (were) here, once again I was very excited at the perspective of having something different to shoot (or just something extra, or just something). Something different this time was Australia, a family trip to the Coral Reef and Ayers Rock

This is the … err the rusty stuff in the sea

As usual now I picked up the travel kit in my travel bag (3 year old Wotancraft scout) : The Leica M262 and Leica M6, plus a few lenses, 28 / 35 / 50 Summicrons and also the 90mm Elmarit. I know that’s a bit too much, but hey you don’t travel these places every week.

Green Island jetty

I was quite excited to shot a roll of Kodak Ektachrome. This is my third roll and I quite like it. I an not a great landscape photographer, but I had to give it by best shot.

Seascape with dead wood

Most of the shots here are done with the 28mm Summicron Asph V1.

The models

I could jest by saying my recipe to shoot slide is : load the roll, removes the lens cap, aim, shoot. But that’s pretty is actually, the M6 meter is accurate (I changed the batteries before the holidays).

Chinese tourists at the beach

100 ISO is great for full daylight, still it was very bright, I cannot recall exactly, but a lot of shots where around 1/250 and F11.

Dive boats at sunset

The next best thing to shooting the the seascape is looking at sunsets. I often mock shooting sunsets, a bit cheesy, yeah yeah, but when its nice, its nice.

The jetty

And the slide film is doing a good job in this case as well. Mettering was a bit more on the guesstimate side. It was a bit easy for me because I made the guesstimate work with the M240, so I did not lost many shots doing the above and the next one.

The sunset

Final sunset with drinks at the jetty above before heading back to Cairns the next day, and hanging around a couple days there before reading to Ayers Rock.

Uluru in the evening light

Ayers rock is a beautiful place, at that time of the year (late October) but very hot (40 degrees Celsius), the colors are gorgeous. We had a very short stay there, so we did what we could.

Uluru

We walked around the rock at lunchtime and dined under the stars.

Uluru is surely a superb place, beautiful, magic to a certain extent, maybe not as toutching as other places I have been to, but maybe I did not stay long enough.

The rock

And finally before you ask, I was in Uluru after the rock was closed from climbing, and would I have been there the week before I would have not climbed it.

A beautiful gorge along the rock

Finally I shot a single roll during that week. The rest is digital and maybe that would be for another post.

Sunset over Kata Kuja

Meanwhile, visit Australia and shoot film.

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Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House is surely one of the most iconic buildings in par with the Eiffel Tower. For our first trip in Australia I select Sydney as our first landing point not to miss it.

If you stay close to Circular Quay the building is always in view.

I am not going to copy wikipedia but quickly the building was the work of danish architect  Jørn Utzon and was opened in 1973.

If you walk around the Rocks market during the week end you can see some vintage shots of the construction which are quite interesting.

We took the tour to visit the building which I highly recommend, but be warned, I find it pricey at 34$ per adult.

On top of having a guide that tells you the story of the building and describe its architecture, you can see some of the show rooms and inner pieces or architecture.

Definitely one of the nicest views is from Harbor Bridge.

All shots with the Leica M262 and M6 for the Black and White picture.

Sydney on Film

I went “down under” for the first time last school holidays. I was now carrying the “new” travel kit:

• Leica M6
• Leica M262
• Summicron 28F2
• Summaron 35mmF2.8
• Summilux 50mmF1.4v2
• Elmarit 90mmF2

5 or 6 rolls of film (I just shot 2) and small accessories.

I overcome (temporarily the urge to by a new camera bag by loading all of this is the very big Crumpler 8Mio and for day to day walks to put in my suitcase a Crumpler 1Mio. The later can fit one body with a lens and an extra lens, my wallet and phone, the second body goes around the neck.

On circular quay there are always a few buskers including this group of aboriginals, playing didgeridoo along with disco beats.

The fish market is packed with Chinese tourists.

Men’s biz : a trendy barber in one of the galleries in central Sydney.