Gosh, it’s crazy to think how much easier climbing photography is these days with digital cameras – even if some elements remain unchanged. This image was taken in June 1996, I remember that because my girlfriend organised a surprise birthday party for me whilst I was out setting up the “photo frame” apparatus for this shoot. I designed the A-frame, and had it fabricated out of aluminium, to enable me to get out from the cliff to get unique angles like this. This was the first time I’d used it.
So back then you’d have to shoot on Fuji film, rated at 40 ISO, to really get any colour into the shot. Because the film was so slow, you’d have to shoot in sunlight to get an aperture and fast enough shutter speed combination for a sharp shot. And you’d have to shoot close to dawn or sunset, or shoot in winter, for the saturated colours to really come through…. As I said, this shot was taken in June (which is mid-winter here) and from the shadow you can see it was late afternoon because the other consideration here was that the sun had to be low in the sky, so that there was no shadow from the photo frame above.
The other limitation was lenses. This was shot on a 20mm, the widest lens that I had which didn’t result in crazy curvature (like a fisheye). These days 14mm is a luxury I now take for granted.
So there was a fair bit to juggle here. Maybe not my most memorable shot but one that marks a step in my evolution as a climbing photographer, gave me valuable experience, plus nicely captures a couple of climbing legends from the day.
The climber is Nick Sutter with Greg Moore on belay. The route is Oranges Poranges (24) at Hanging Rock, in the Blue Mountains, Australia.
