the Atkins film challenge

Ari and I drove up to Adelaide for the Akins Film Challenge on Friday, 13th February. We were driving in from the outer suburbs of Adelaide and were caught up in the peak hour commuter traffic along Goodwood Rd. The challenge starts at 9.15 am when you are handed a 120 roll of Fuji Velvia 100F film (now discontinued due to their withdrawing from the film business).

The rules of the challenge are: you have around 3 hours to expose the 12 exposures; it needs to be returned to Atkins by 1pm; Atkins processes the film; and you return the lab at 4pm to select your best picture. Atkins then undertakes to scan the transparency over the next few weeks, you make minor adjustments in post processing, then return it to Atkins in a week or so, who they then mount it for an exhibition in their foyer of the lab.

The general idea behind the film challenge is that the photography is done in Adelaide’s summer heat and in the harsh, glaring summer light. So it challenges the myth of only taking photos in good light. This time round the day was very hot but overcast and the light was very flat. Ari and I hung around in the car parks in the east end of Rundle Street, and I made a number of digital snaps whilst making the photos for the film challenge:

urban reflections
urban reflections

It was hot even in the car parks. After three hours work I was exhausted. I collapsed upon returning to the lab to hand in the film for processing. I recovered whilst having my lunch at the lab, then returned to the Sturt St townhouse to touch up the walls that had been damaged by the furniture removalists. It was the day of the settlement on Sturt St. The townhouse had been stripped and was awaiting the tenants.

inner city apartment
inner city apartment

I returned to the lab at 4pm, quickly selected the best picture with help from others, picked up some food at the Central Market, then drove back to Adelaide so as to help walk the dogs around Encounter Bay at 6pm. That was a ten hour trip. That is what a photoshoot in Adelaide’s CBD will involve in the future. It’s a major exercise compared to the poodlewalk snaps along the coast at Victor Harbor that are snapped on the early morning and late afternoon walks.