Classic motorcycle racing came to Phillip Island again in January. Being a sucker for old aircooled four stroke noise I had to be there. I thought if the racers were game to race on period machines then I should record some of the day with period camera equipment. Yes I took a Pentax K1000 with me and some print film and snapped away. the processing costs of C41 film is getting out of hand but to obtain that retro look in photos it can't be beaten. This image of Levi Day on the ex Bill Horsman Honda CB72/77 special was scanned as a greyscale from a colour negative. The image wasn't super sharp, being panned and a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second, but the blurry areas take on that old grainy look. The only thing spoiling the retro look was the modern helmet and leathers. I have seen other photographers on flickr trying to get that retro black and white look but they have started with a digital camera and done a bit of Photoshop to rough it up, but it still looks sharp and gleaming. If you look at old published photos of motor racing they contain a lot of grain and look rough. I think I only got halfway there. Now I have plenty of slides from prior classic motor race meetings so maybe I'll try the same technique with those.
The Island Classic is still one of my favourite days out, wide open spaces, sea breezes, and thunderous gonad rumbling machine noise.
Next month it is the cars' turn to revive yesteryear at the island, and I will be there. Perhaps I should dress in period as well this year.
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