I was surprised to see this photo in the Flickr pool because not only is it film, but medium format film at that. Furthermore, I was psyched to read that Patrick developed the film himself in his bathroom. Beyond the format, I was pleased by the warm colors in this shot as well as the geometry in the ground, the framing of the rider and timing of the trick.
“This is Erwin Muench doing a toothpick over grind. We shot the photo straight after some troubles with the police.. We crunched some new curbs in the city center, and an old couple saw that, they made photos of us – we were a group of 10 riders -…it escalated. It was seriously but no one was hurt.
The police caught us in the Schweizergarten – a garden with some ponds near a military museum – but they let us go after it was revealed that booth sides not acted properly…
So after all that, the general desire was to chill at a pond. Every pond has catwalks on water level with low handrails. The break turned into a session. Erwin did the tooth over first try, so I asked him to do it again for my Kiev 88 – he agreed – so I began to search for a suitable perspective. With a Kodak Portra 160 in the back of my Kiev and the plan to catch as much as possible from the handrail and the water reflections, plus the choice between a normal (80mm)- and a fisheye (30mm) lens; the only thing that makes sense is a snapshot from above. Fortunately there was a viewing platform in front of the catwalk. I went up, looked through the viewfinder and it was perfect. I made a light metering, agreed with Erwin a spot and adjusted the cam. It took two tries, than it was done.
Back home I developed the film in my bathroom and scanned it.
Kiev 88
80mm/2,8
Kodak Portra 160
Developement Kit: Tetenal Colortec C-41”
Check out Patrick’s blog about the BMX scene in Vienna– Wiener Gretzn.
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Push It A Stop 