melissadrummond
Western Australian freelance photographer. Documentary, environmental portraits & photo essays. Digital and analogue. From the desert to the sea.
Ilford Sporti
It’s been a couple of years since I exposed a roll of film in my Ilford Sporti. I recently sent a roll off to Sydney (yes, Sydney – a nearly 7000km round trip from here, but it’s a great lab) for processing, so while I wait for the photos to be returned I thought I’d share some images I took in 2010 and 2011.
The Ilford Sporti is a fairly basic medium format camera made in the former West Germany at the end of the 1950’s. You don’t have to cock the shutter, so it’s a good camera if you want to experiment with multiple exposures and panoramas. I bought mine for $20 off ebay.
New life
Just over a year ago I was fortunate enough to photograph Amy and John’s wedding, after some gentle prodding from Amy when I told her I wasn’t really a wedding photographer.
When Amy asked me if I would take some photos of their newborn baby, Aria, there was no question what my answer would be. It’s a privilege to be able to share in what are, and have been, some of the most significant times in their lives together. Not to mention humbling and flattering, being asked to take photos for them again.
So, to Amy, John and Aria, thank you x
Rainbows and Unicorns*
*OK, it’s someone’s pet alpaca, but rainbows and unicorns sounded better.
Film Swap | Scotland – Australia
These are the photos from a couple of rolls of film that Mandy (a friend from Redbubble) and I swapped, after each exposing a roll and then sending it on, and then exposing again (double exposures). Mandy lives in Gullane on the coast of Scotland, around 30kms (I googled!) from Edinburgh, a complete contrast to the outback city of Kalgoorlie where I live, 600kms from the nearest capital city (Perth) and 400km from the coast.
The photos were taken on 35mm SLRs, mine an old Minolta SRT100 and Mandy’s a Canon AT-1, using Kodak 400 film.
The Drones
Astor Theatre, Perth
April 19th, 2013
Featured in Mess+Noise – April 25th, 2013
Condingup, by the sea
Polaroid Colorpack II Land Camera/Fuji FP100C pack film
Life at 6
(Re-edited from a previous version)
Photo Essay | Quairading
Around the rock,
down to the creek.
Quairading lies in the central Wheatbelt of Western Australia, not quite two hours from Perth, and around a five-hour drive from our home in Kalgoorlie. It’s a sheep and grain town, dotted with granite outcrops and dry, saline wastelands in the Summer that can give way to unending fields of wheat, barley and lupins separated by bright yellow paddocks full of Canola, as long as the rain falls at the right time. When it doesn’t the paddocks are dry and empty, except for the invasion of paddymelons.
Documentary | The Art of Chocolate
I first met Cathy Yuryevich when our daughters were in the same pre-primary class in 2011. Over that year we got to know each other as our kids attended birthday parties and soccer games, not to mention the times spent outside the classroom as we waited for our kids. It was during that year that Cathy completed a chocolatiers’ course – building on confectionery making skills handed down for three generations – and Cocoa Desert was born. Over a year later, her handmade chocolate and confectionery business is thriving. Cathy makes traditional goodies, as well as specialising in native Australian flavours, including quondong, wattle seed, lemon myrtle and gumleaf oil, which are combined with Belgian chocolate.
I had a great afternoon laughing, chatting, and photographing Cathy at work (thanks Cathy!).
melissadrummond 