I used to rock climb
a lot when i was young and single. I’ve
travelled all over doing it – France, Spain and even Switzerland. As soon as i started going out with the fine
lady who is now my wife though i kind of got out the habit. It’s probably been about 2 years now since i
properly climbed and most of my strength has gone and great expansion has taken
place on my midsection.
I went out a few
weeks ago with the lovely Gavin Grey for a trip to a crag i hadn’t been to
before called Thorn Crag – he wanted to climb and i wanted to shoot him doing
it. I decided to pack all my climbing
gear and have a go at some easier stuff to see how it felt. A short drive north led us to a tiny rural
village where we unpacked the car and started the 40 minute walk up the hill to
the boulders. Despite many hours spent
in the gym lately i was still shattered about 10 minutes in, but then again i
was carrying my bouldering mat (a large mattress like device which is good for
landing on when you fall off rocks), my bag full of climbing gear AND my camera
bag loaded with my Bronica system!
It was absolutely
worth it though – the place was deserted and there was no sign of anything
man-made. You couldn’t even hear
traffic. It was so pleasant to be out
with a good friend in the middle of nowhere.
We started climbing and shooting, Gav sending a V6 pretty sharpish and
me happily shooting away. A little later
we moved round to a beautiful V5 route called Elemental. After getting some shots of Gav on it i
decided to pull on and have a go. I nearly
did it on my first try – i just dropped the last move as i didn’t grab the hold
right. I sent it on my next go – i was so chuffed!! The rest of the day was spent with Gav on a
V7 called Mothership Reconnection – fortunately he managed to top it out on his
very last go!
As i headed home i couldn’t
wait to get the film developed. I had
shot both colour (Portra 160nc) and black and white (HP5+). I could do the HP5+ as soon as i got home as
i had the chemicals and so when i got home that’s what i did. Well, kind of. As most will know 120 film has backing paper
on it. Now i am going to tell you all the
secret to developing black and white 120 film.
Listening carefully? When putting
the film on your developing tank reel in your changing bag don’t ever pull the
film out instead of the backing paper. I
was furious – an entire roll lost!! Livid was an understatement! Eventually i calmed down, but even now im
still gutted that i lost all those shots.
A few days later i ordered some C41 chemicals and developed my colour
roll and i was really chuffed that this picture came out exactly how i wanted
it to:
I guess we live and learn...
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