I got the opportunity to develop one of my films from Fiji today. It was by accident that I had loaded a roll of Ilford Pan400 into the camera, planning to shoot colour for the whole holiday, but it made its way into my case somehow, and since Ricoh GR1’s pre-load the film before shooting, it was easier to just go with it than swap it out for colour (my colour films have been sent off for developing).

Anyway, today’s image was shot in a rainforest area several hours south from Nadi in Fiji. We were taking a trip to an inland waterfall after visiting one of the local villages seeking permission to enter. Some tourists ride up rather than walk, and I came across such a group on my return to the village. Unfortunately this horse was not in the best of moods today and had caused some issues on the trip up (I would too if I had to carry people through a muddy forest in the hot midday heat). Using my GR1 I got as close as I felt secure (it looks further away with a 28mm lens) and captured the horse and his guide calming him.

In post production using Gimp, I adjusted the levels a little, but otherwise left it as scanned. Considering the brightness, even undercover of the canopy, I was happy with the result the 400asa film gave me.