I couldn’t call myself a Narre Warren photographer if I didn’t head down to the carnival at Fountain Gate Shopping Centre.
I headed down early to beat the crowds and the long line that was already beginning to form. A few nights earlier, the line was dangerously wrapped around the corner and onto the road. I’m not one to wait in lines if I can avoid it so just before the sun went down and the locals flooded to the temporary amusement park, I paid my entry fee and pulled out my camera.
On this night I shot a combination of film and digital photographs. The ones in this article are all digital because I’m yet to scan my film. My choice of cameras were;
- Bronica SQ-b
- Nikon D4s
Narre Warren Photographer Stories
As I walked through the growing crowds, the interactions between carny-folk and patrons became the focus. Kids on shoulders, ticket sales, groups of teenagers living their best life and me, the local Narre Warren photographer.
I’ve always seen myself as a sort of documentary photographer. Seeing the world and making art from what I see. Not trying to change or manipulate a scene beyond what would normally happen, I bring my Nikon to my eye and watch closely as people, young and old, dance in front of my lens.
My favourite lens for this is my old 28mm f2.8. It came with the Nikon FM I bought some years ago and fast became a solid favourite. It’s all manual; both aperture and focus is done by hand. The best bit is how rough it makes the images and adds a natural dark vignette. It’s also small and doesn’t stand out too much so I can almost hide the size of the Nikon D4s.
Anyway, I’ve gone off on a tangent, sorry. Probably from my strong introvert tendencies, I like to shrink into the shadows & flow through unseen. I like how doing this gets the most natural images, I think.
