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I’ve been watching a lot of new movies recently. Last week I went back in time to 1989 and what has to be a classic fun movie. Forget the average imdb score, this is one time where it really doesn’t reflect the quality of the movie.

Tom Hanks stars in this comedy (he cut his teeth on comedies) about a suburban cul-de-sac where a new family, the Klopeks, have moved in. Strange noises in the middle of the night accompanied by flashes of light and unusually odd behaviour are the norm for the Klopeks whose front yard dies shortly after they move in and no one sees them leaving or entering their home for a month. The quiet cul-de-sac littered with interesting characters who are more than curious is all of a sudden marred by a black sheep. When a neighbour disappears suspicion turns our suburbanites into a comedic lynch mob of sorts. A recipe for hilarity.

The Burbs imdb

Last Saturday I woke up to a wet morning, perfect for indoor activities such as nude darts complete with clothed streakers, Spring cleaning in Autumn, or developing your first roll of film. I chose the darts but after 10 minutes of searching for them I gave in and decided to develop a roll.

I shot a 24 roll of HP5 on a Canon QL17. I hadn’t tested the camera before nor the film so it was all going to be a trial and likely to end in error. After a fair bit of reading I settled on what I thought was a reasonable method and off I went. To my surprise images came out!

A friend linked me to a new product by Adobe this morning. It’s a web flash based image editing and gallary script by Adobe called Adobe Photoshop Express. Currently it’s in Beta but you can sign up and check it all out. The target user is not your hardcore photographer but rather the casual user that doesn’t want to use or can’t afford Photoshop and wants the basics in photo editing. Your common Facebook, Myspace or Bebo user comes to mind.

Check it out here:

https://www.photoshop.com

My account here:

https://two40.photoshop.com

I’m a keen street photographer. I find it exciting to steal a moment off an unsuspecting subject. When you don’t know you are being photographed you give me an honest representation of who you are. I’m doing you a favour by capturing an honest image.

Sadly, not everyone will agree with that last sentence and some will even furiously disagree and call you a prick. I met one such person yesterday. I was doing my thing taking pictures when a middle aged man saw me and took it upon himself to rescue my subject from an unholy act of having his picture taken.

He first asked me what I was doing and before I could answer he angrily demanded to know if I had asked permission to take the photo. I politely told him that it’s not a commercial work and that I didn’t need to ask permission. At this stage he had too much invested in the confrontation and as I walked away he ended it by shouting out ‘prick’ to me.

This isn’t by any means a really bad encounter but one that gets you thinking. Us photographers often receive strange looks and one can only imagine what they think of us as we snap away in public.

If you are a regular street photographer it might pay to research and know your rights in your local state. Here is a comprehensive resource for New South Wales photographers, an old SMH article, and a general information sheet on privacy law. It might be worth printing some of these fact sheets to give to police officers, concerned strangers and maybe use it to block the rare fist as it’s about to hit you in the face.

After searching around for a local place with reasonable prices to develop my traditional b&w film I realised it really is a dead service. Only a handful of places in Sydney, a city of millions, can do it for you and it’s certainly not cheap. Prices range from $8 for a direct drop off to $12 for a delivery service at your local photographic store (if they offer it). This is for developing negatives only.

It made sense to buy my own gear to develop my film. After the first couple of dozen rolls this gear will have paid for itself. But it’s more than just the money. I think there will be a closer relationship with the photos you develop.

Can’t wait to destroy a few rolls and eventually learn how to develop properly.