Days 2 to 19 (9 to 26 June, 2000)
After the excitement and colour of the Oceania and Day 1 in Australia, the days and weeks that followed were less colourful. Not boring, but looking back through the image archives, nothing stands out that as a must see image. Lots of outback towns as we traveled though Queensland. Good crowds. Lots of smiles and tears of joy. But nothing visually amazing.
Something possessed me on day 18, as the sun set on Innisfail, to play around with the camera and flash. I was probably a bit bored of everything I had been shooting day in and day out. And by good design, or good luck I captured an image that is one of my top 20 from the whole relay. It was shot using a flash and slow sync. The shutter was just 1/5 sec. The result is an artistic take on the motion and movement of both the Torchbearer and the Flame. I only managed to grab 2 frames of this – before the Torchbearer was off up the road and out of sight.
I think I regret not being a bit more arty at other times of the relay, but then I knew newspapers didn’t go for these sort of shots. And if it was an important torchbearer moment I’d basically be throwing the shot away. Still, looking back, I didn’t take as much time as I should have to shoot some alternative stuff like this one.