I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this roll of film but I was pleasantly surprised and I think I’ll continue enjoying rolls of film through these cameras, especially the CLE.

Model: Rosie
Hair/Makeup: Sarah Thong Makeup Artist

During the shoot with the bridal party I took Matt & Bec to get some shots of just the two of them. Besides the digital shots I pulled out the Rolleiflex and shot a roll of Kodak TRI-X black and white film. I got the roll back from the lab this week and this is how they turned out.

The 35mm isn’t quite as sharp as the Rolleiflex medium format but still comes out not too bad. I think I’ll need to overexpose for the shadows by another stop or so to bring more out of the shadows. The black and white film is definitely not as forgiving as colour.

I’ve still got 2 rolls of unprocessed Fuji Pro 400H that I used in the Minolta CLE and the Minolta TC-1 so it will be interesting to see how they turn out in cameras that are only 30 years old compared to the Leica (54 years) and Rolleifex (40 years).

Kentmere ISO400

Kodak T-Max 400

This version was an automatic with tiptronic shifting. The car may not be that powerful (2.0 lt boxer engine producing 147kw) but it certainly sounds nice and still has a bit of fun to it. Steering is very sharp and crisp while the ride is quite smooth. It is a pretty fun car and I can see why both Toyota and Subaru have waiting lists months long.

I grabbed the X100 and took a couple of snaps. The X100s reviews are starting to come out now (read Zack Arias and David Hobby’s review). I love the X100 despite the peculiar autofocus so this is quite tempting.

Not deterred, I used another roll of film and got it processed from Film Frenzy who also run Brisbane Camera Hire which I’ve hired some camera gear in the past. The crew there are friendly, knowledgable and also share the passion for photography. I dropped off this roll of 120 film as well as some Ilford Kentmere and Kodak T-MAX. I should get those back tomorrow.

As I was there, I picked up a couple of more rolls of 120 film and if one of those purchases happened to be Fuji again then I just happened to win a copy of 10X100. A book commissioned by Fujifilm Australia where 10 Australian photographers were given the Fuji X100 to take 10 photographs. The X100 is a favourite of mine and I’m looking forward to the X100s which is hitting shores now.

I’m still working out how to get exceptionally great ‘Brenizer’ shots but it’s a fun experience and I’m enjoying it so far.

We went to the hospital around 11am and got checked in after a bit of a wait. The good news was that Lee was doing well, very calm, relaxed and was already 8cm dilated which impressed the midwife because she thought we might have to have been sent home. She thought Lee may not have reached the 6cm dilation required to stay at the hospital.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much progress over the next few hours. Around 2:45pm the Doctor suggested to  break the waters to try to trigger dilation to 10cm. Around 4pm or so it was suggested that we go for Syntocine which is a oxytocin synthetic drug which would increase the intensity of the contractions. This meant that the contractions started to become quite a bit painful for Lee. This also meant that she had to have an epidural to reduce the pain. Her contractions were coupling which meant that she would receive one contraction and then almost immediately after another would start.

We had planned for a natural birth without drugs but it seemed like we didn’t have much of a choice given the situation. The only saving grace was that baby has been good this whole time and not stressed. She had remained at 8cm dilation for over 9 hours.

We had gone from planning for a natural and drug-free birth to having a Caesarian Section birth. We were all a bit disappointed especially Lee about the situation since we had put ourselves in a good frame of mind for a natural birth. Even the midwives and doctors wanted to see a natural birth given how calm and controlled Lee had been during the process.

We found out after the Caesarian that baby had got his head a bit stuck in the wrong position and not tucked in which meant the signals to the cervix to further dilate were not happening but her body was contracting and trying to push baby out. There was nothing that we could have done either during pregnancy or during labour to have changed the situation we were in. What was important however was that we had both a healthy mum and bub in the end and that is what happened!

Bub was born at 10:23pm almost 22 hours after Lee started her regular contractions. He was 2.87kg at birth and 49cm in length. We had fantastic support from the staff at Logan Hospital, from the midwives who were with us throughout the day to the doctors, anesthetists and surgeons that performed the Caesarian section.

We haven’t settled upon a name yet (though the anesthetist was showing me a list of names not to choose based on what he had seen at this hospital) but Alexander is very much a forerunner at this stage. We’ll also have to choose a Chinese name for him too.

Alexander, of the Greek name Alexandros meaning ‘to defend’ or protect of which the most famous being Alexander the Great. We think he’ll be able to do that for his younger siblings in due time but for now, it is up to the both of us to protect him.