Laneway 2014 @ RNA Showgrounds, 31.01.2014: On Film

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Laneway was shot on film in the same fashion as Big Day Out: Kodak Tri-X pushed to ISO 800, and then developed in ID-11. In developing these ones I was surprised to see how many acts I photographed on film given how busy the day was Nine out of 22 acts were given the honour; Adalita, Chvrches, Dick Diver, Earl Sweatshirt, King Krule, Kirin J Callinan, Lorde and Savages. I was obviously really enjoying it as I went through about 2 1/3 films, leaving the rest of the third film to be finished at Soundwave. Again it was a similar scenario, getting the Minolta 5 out of the bag when I was bored of photographing digital and/or knew that I had plenty of digital photos.

Looking at them, I think the ones of acts playing the indoor Zoo Stage and the undercover Carpark Stage came out a lot better than those of the acts playing the main Alexandria Stage. I think the general evenness of the light helped. I often struggle with exposure on the big, outdoor stages as a step back from the bright sunlight on the edge of the stage to the covered part of the stage can often instantly cause something like a three stops change in exposure. Of course it never helps when everyone who plays on a stage also decides to dress in either all-black or all-white in the mid-afternoon sun when you’re trying to perfect an exposure for that moment.

The main disappointment, however, was the photos I took of Lorde, by far and away the day’s best act. Although I only took seven or eight shots, none were much good and it showed that my film camera dislikes smoke machines almost as much as my digital camera. The Savages photos weren’t that great either but they did play in the dark with only back-lighting and the digital photos weren’t up to much either.

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