The garden
21 February 2025I’m trying to ease myself back into this writing business with very low expectations. I don’t necessarily think of myself as a writer - nor a photographer, for that matter - and I have no idea who my audience is, or if I have one. I’m just here, taking up space and hoping nobody minds.
My last post here wasn’t one I planned. It was an entirely justifiable rant about the casual disrespect shown to those of us who are mentally ill, whatever that even means nowadays, but it was nothing that hasn’t been better written elsewhere. I only wrote it because I was seething at something that happened to me in the workplace and I needed to get some frustrations out. I can’t rule out the possibility of me writing about this or any other subject in future, but sharing photos I’ve taken in the faint hope someone will see them is my usual line of work. So with that said, here’s a post about some photos.
Melbourne’s callous rental market finally showed us some mercy and we moved house last week, leaving our temporary home with family in Hurstbridge on the semi-rural fringes of town. We’re delighted to have our own space again, but before we left I wanted to make sure I wasted at least one roll of film in the backyard.
These shots were taken on Ilford XP2, a black and white film which is processed in colour chemistry, meaning high street camera shops can work with it. I didn’t know this when I bought it - HP5 is my usual stock, but this was the only black and white film left in the shop - but it was nice to get my scans back in two days for a change, instead of two weeks I’m used to. I’m in the middle of gathering the things I need to process and scan black and white film at home, which may or may not end up solving that problem.
The camera I used here was a Pentax Espio AF Zoom, a plastic little point-and-shoot from the early ‘90s, I think, with a 35-70mm lens. I’d picked it up from a eBay seller nearby earlier that day for $80, which for reference is about the same as two rolls of Portra 800 here in Australia. Most of my film work to date has been taken on SLRs and I’ve dabbled with rangefinders, but I’d been after something smaller for a while and this camera’s grown on me quickly - it’s so small and easy to use, and I personally think the results are pretty solid.
Anyway, enough rambling - here are the shots, I hope you like them.