5 frames of Fujifilm 400 with a Nikon F100 and a 24-85mm zoom on a very long drive

I drove 2,655 Km in 4 days. I went to the remotest place I’ve been in Australia. A three hour drive from the nearest town of any consequence, Port Augusta (population about 13,500). And the last 150Km were on a rutted and very dusty red dirt road.

Yes it was a long drive, and just to see an event: the Dry Lakes Racing Association’s Speed Week on Lake Gairdner in South Australia, one of three salt lakes in the world that are big enough and get dry enough to run motor vehicle speed tests. How fast can people go given a 10Km straight line? 301 MPH!, but I’m saving that story & its images for another post.

This one is about the first day of the two it took to get there.

My buddy David who was coming had to cancel at the last minute, so with a couple of packs of Haribo, a stack of podcasts, and a loooong playlist, I hit the open road on my own.

North eastern Victoria, that I travelled through on the first day, is grain growing country – rapeseed, wheat, oats, canola – and every town has a grain silo next to the railway. About a dozen years ago, someone came up with the idea of decorating the silos to attract visitors that otherwise probably wouldn’t have slowed down as they passed through. And the Silo Art Trail was born. The trail wasn’t exactly on my way, but what’s a good road trip without a few diversions?

The town of Sealake (nowhere near the ocean) is adjacent to Lake Tyrrell, another salt lake, just this one isn’t big or dry enough to drive on at 480kph. Fantastic scenery – like being on a flat expanse of snow, but it was 35ºC – and of course, the now obligatory Instagramable sign. How will you remember where you’ve been if you forget to add the location to your post?

There were lots of interesting little towns along the way, most of which seem to be just clinging to life. A few that may have needed some life support.

Fujifilm 400 probably wouldn’t be my first choice for landscapes & scenery but, to be honest, I had a few rolls in the fridge, and I’m trying to use up what I have rather than buying ‘new’ film all the time. I’m not an expired film guy, so what’s the point of keeping film if you’re not going to use it?

I’m a huge fan of my F100 – great metering, good autofocus (although it would be nice to have more than 5 focusing points), and all the adjustments I want are easy to access. It operates as well, and as easily, as a modern digital camera. And the 24 – 85mm f/2.8 – 4 zoom is a bit of a Swiss Army Knife (probably a reasonable description for all zooms). Maybe not the perfect tool, but it works in most circumstances. I knew I was going to want a variety of focal lengths, and I didn’t want to be switching lenses all the time, especially in the environments I expected to be in – lots of dust. Plus a polarising filter, because the sky’s colour needs to be tweaked in camera rather than at the desk.

A simple enough setup, but it did the job well.

Post script: I read an excellent post recently by Johnny Martyr on camera collecting where he said “if you’re going to take a photo of your film camera and talk about how great film cameras and film are, you ought to at least take the photo with a film camera” … I’ve changed the feature image at the top of the post, instead of one made on a digital camera, this one was created on a Nikkormat EL with a Nikon 55mm macro lens and Flick Film’s Elektra 100

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