We returned back from the National Champs at the beginning of March, with the first day back on deck marking the official build-up to the Olympic Games. From here until Tokyo, Sam Webster, Sam Dakin, Ethan Mitchell, Ellesse Andrews and myself began training independent of the remainder of the team. With every passing day, we became ever more aware of the magnitude of what was ahead, though given our long-term absence from international competition, talk of further postponement, cancellation, or our own Olympic Committee refusing to send a team amidst concerns of health for the team - we didn't quite come to terms that the games were going to happen.
None the less, as we drew closer, more talk came around how people planned to fill their time in the 14-day Managed Isolation Quarantine. Our coach, René, suggested to focus on ways to exercise the mind, smart advice given the emotional and physical fatigue often inclusive at the close of an Olympic Campaign.
At this point i'd settled on making a book for my friends and family, from photos i'd taken in Japan. I'd chosen to take a small point-and-shoot, so the photos could be taken discretely, but also with absolute ease. Going from poorly-lit accomodation, into 35 degree sunny Japanese summer days, into a fluorescent velodrome, I chose a robustish film in Kodak Portra 400 - forgoing some finer grain and crisper images for a bit more reliability. Only issue being that to send my film to a lab, i'd have to hold onto it for the full MIQ period, then get it sent off, wait for it to come back, and begin making a book from there.
I changed tack - having a hand in making this book at every step of the way, aligned far more with my approach to making things, than offloading the heavy lifting to others. I decided on developing the film myself, and scanning it, and then designing it into a book, all while I was in MIQ.
This decision posed some issues - colour film is substantially more volatile to develop, requiring a wider array of solutions, and temperature-controlled baths to keep each of the developing chemicals at a stable temp.
I swapped out Portra for Ilford HP5, another 400 speed film, but Black and White. I like black and white for the reason everyone else does - it draws attention to textures, contrasts, people, emotions, as opposed to colour taking centre stage. This change solved my temperature controlling issue, though I still had the issue to overcome of ordering chemicals into a hotel room. Thanksfully, Cinestill make a nifty instant-coffee-esque chemical mix, which bundles both a developer and stopper into one mix. I was now confident in my approach; I'd have enough developing kit here to work through the film, had the chemical to develop the film, had purchased 10 rolls of HP5, and would send my scanner down along with the remainder of my gear to meet me in MIQ.