I find one of the rewards of photography is enabling us to see those invisible things in everyday life.
And by capturing it without the outside world’s clutter.
It emerges, creating more questions rather than answers.
Tag Archives: 35mm
Under The Bridge
I have developed and scanned quite a number of rolls over the last month and have realised a number of things while shooting and reviewing the work.
1. The 40mm focal length of the canonet gets alot of the foreground. Much more care needs to be considered when shooting as the foreground can dominate much of the frame.
2. 35mm focal length will be much harder to use.
3. I would like a separate light meter as my camera lies to me and tells me it cannot expose the scene when it can when I shoot manual by accident. It would be nice to know exposure intuitively.
4. I crop too much during post. I dont like that. Which goes back to number 1.
5. Maybe I am better suited to shoot with a 50mm.
6. I like colour.
7. I think too much when I shoot. The camera is not yet an extension of my eye. Moments appear then disappear. By the time I realise there was something there, its too late.
8. I wish I could direct people.
9. I hope to get use to rejection when I do ask for permission.
10. I dont know my creative process.
11. Frustration is part of it all.
12. I want to shoot more and more.
13. I suck at self editing.
14. I want a Rollei 35 SE
15. I want a leica
Roll 17: Lucky Super 200
Canonet QL17 GIII
Lucky Super 200
Philippines 2013
Photos from a walk about of my home town in the Philippines last year. I was very much drawn to the rawness of the place for photography reasons. But on the flip side felt disappointed and frustrated that no maintenance or cleaning was done by the authorities.
Philippines is supposedly the one of the fastest growing economies in South East Asia this year. How much of that actually goes back to the people who need it the most, would most likely be very minimal.
G.A.S, red dot and Murphy’s law
The excitement of landing my current job and not feeling like a bum after graduation had worn off. The job became just that, a job. How to deal with a sentence of slavery in society. At times I sit at my desk wondering what the hell am I doing. Sadly I think consumerism is given as a faux antidote to keep the wheel spinning. A fleeting moment, until the next product or model is released, planned obsolence. A mere cycle, work, buy, work, buy. Photography became reserved for weekends only and that is if I was lucky. I wanted to shoot during my lunchtimes but lugging a big dslr wasn’t really something I wanted to do. Before I knew it I had come down with a syndrome….. the Gear Acquisition kind, a type of consumerist disease which photography enthusiasts and professionals are easily susceptible to. First I began thinking how a x100s would be great. It’s small, compact an would be perfect for those lunchtime walkabouts plus they fixed the slow autofocus problem of its predecessor. Or maybe even the OMD, its weatherproof plus its cheaper now since the newer EM10 is out. I came across OMD E-M10 posters around the bus stops near work and they state “Olympus cares about your health and happiness”.
Oh what about the new sony A7rs. Full freaking frame! :O Most free days became spent just researching rather than shooting. Going in an endless loop of this camera vs that camera vs that camera. But in the end it became all about that red dot. That damn red dot. Couldn’t get away from it. A camera that “should” last me a life time. Why get something in the meantime when I really wanted that other something and could get if I only waited. I calculated that it will take me around 1.5 years before its acquisition along with a second hand 35mm Cron. A long wait, but I see it as practicing a form of delayed gratification albeit expensive. In the very long mean time why not start shooting film again to pass the wait. And so 6 weeks ago I sent over my first B&W film to get developed and scanned interstate as it was cheaper than my local lab. A way to make the wait for the red dot bearable. Something to look forward at the end working week. Christmas on the mail 😀 Enter Murphy’s Law. Sending film over by mail is pretty scary. If it get’s lost that’s it. Gone forever. It had already been two weeks since my film had been sent over and I started to get worried. I called the lab to check if they sent it already but by some funny happening, my film arrived in the lab’s mail as I spoke to one of the workers. He informs me the easter long weekend must have delayed all the mails. He guaranteed he would start the machine and process it as soon as soon as possible. What a relief it was. As long as they had my roll and they had not sent it back getting lost on the way. I expected it to come the following week but it did not. Decided to call the lab again to inquire and was told they had given it to their dispatch department a week ago. I was told they would ring me back to give me the tracking number for my package. Three days have gone by and still no phone call. I rang again to inquire, and was told once again I would get a call back. But nothing. The following week I ring again but this time I was given the tracking number. I go online and there was no data available for the package. At this point I realised they had just sent my package on that day. Three days later it came. I had been tracking it from work and could not wait to get home and finally see my images. I also get an email from Amazon saying I will be receiving Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb on Street Photography and the Poetic Image book in three weeks time. I thought yes things are finally looking up. I get home and BAM I also get Alex Webb’s Suffering of light. What a book! Insanely good photographs. Light, Shadow, colours, complex layers simply brilliant. I couldn’t believe my luck. The book was suppose to come in July. It finally came down to the film I had been waiting for. I check the film and could see the images came out fine. This roll was actually before my Philippines trip. Shots I took around Sydney Central Station. I should really label the rolls so I know what they are. Now it was time to check the scans on the CD. I inserted it into the Imac and Murphy’s law would once again hold true. It was BLANK! I got a blank cd. Waited more than a month, for a blank CD. No jpgs, no photos, just nothing. Luckily they agreed for a full reimbursement. They asked if I wanted to send it back so that they could scan it for me, to which I said No Thank you. I ended up resorting to DIY low tech scanning of my negatives using an Ipad and a flat bed scanner. You just need to invert the scanned jpg in photoshop. The results are pretty bad as there are lines visible from the ipad screen. Not sure how to get rid of them but it will do for now as I will be getting a Plustek OpticFilm scanner next month. Without further ado here are some of the scanned images.
I dont really get why truckies do this. I first encountered it in Toy Story 3.
Skylight at Central Station in Sydney
Roll 14: Lucky Super 200
Large Mother Mary Statue.. Bad toilet facility
Whilst in Tagaytay we visited a large mother mary statue. It was 4-5 storeys high, a pretty awesome sight. Inside there is a small shrine where people can pray and offer donations. Just stay away from the toilet. They ask for 10pesos for maintenance, which I find ironic as it is a blatant lie. The toilet’s condition is horrendous, there is no light, terribly dirty and smells like you know what.
The development academy of the Philippines is just opposite the large statue. Just a bit of striding street photography 🙂
Bee Farm
We also visited a beautiful bee farm. They sold lots of bee products, from shampoos to vinegar. It was quite a bumpy ride to get there but what was most interesting was that it was two way, one lane road! Luckily we did not encounter anyone half way otherwise it would have been a funny game of chicken.
Bee Houses amongst the greenery.
Bee Homes with chickens 🙂
Employees sorting out the bee products. They spoke a different dialect which I am not familiar with.
Aint no rest for the wicked..
A quick nap for these men parked at Mcdonalds in the Philippines. I found the humidity of the place made me sleepy as soon as I sat or lied down.
Meanwhile job hunt continues aka 9 – 5 zombification of self.
Road Tripping
Reality starts. The holiday is over and now I must find a graduate position in this economy. My trip to the philippines has got me interested in sustainable design as it was literally non existent there. Hoping to land in a firm here which specialises in ESD so I can bring the knowledge back to the Philippines. Lots of unknown up ahead. Terrifying.
Roll 5: Fujifilm Superia 400
Apologies for disappearing. Had some commitments and university things to deal with. Starting to get a backlog of films to be developed lol. Anyways here are some of my selections shooting with this film. Wasn’t overtly happy with what I got. Rushed it too much and had a very amateur/stupid assumption that I bought 36exp when it was infact 24 😦 Missed alot of shots but hey thats how you learn!
Roll 4: Ilford HP5
Received my black and white scans in the mail from Sydney today. A much cheaper alternative than the labs here in Western Australia. This particular roll was special as I went in to shoot street with the code of “shooting only when I really needed to”. This way I didn’t let the pace of the city control how I composed and captured. Although i was out for 8 hours, I only shot 30x. I still had 6 left! Maybe I am just cheap lol Also asked for my first film street portrait on this day. I will post it on the next batch from this roll.
Whilst out I came across Raymond Borzelli in Hyde Park who was recently featured in a short film called “Better than Sinatra” as part of Australia’s Tropfest 2013 contest. It won 2nd from all of the entries. The director wasn’t planning on making it about him but saw that people were entertained by the way he danced whilst he was trying to shoot a scene. He dances for no money, but just the enjoyment of seeing the smiles in other people 🙂 More info about the film at http://tropfest.com/au/2013/02/05/better-than-sinatra/
I am always drawn to small stalls selling magazines or fruits in Sydney. They are probably very much photographed in Cities so I thought I should try and get one under my belt. Lucky the guy didn’t mind.
Film 2: Kodak Portra 800 @ Anish Kapoor Exhibition MCA Sydney
Yesterday I really wanted to try to shoot an art exhibition by Anish Kapoor here in Sydney. I bought myself a roll of Portra 800 at a lab with some interesting results.
Greenish Tinge
Most of my indoor shots had a green tinge which I am not really a fan off. I found the gallery’s white walls had this discoloration I hate touching up film in lightroom but in this case I really didnt like the green look. Is this common? But in the end of the day, nothing beats the soulful look of film 🙂
Oh btw. The exhibition is excellent. If you are in Australia or planning to come here in sydney over the coming months, do check it out. Mind blowing, smile inducing works of art It is on until April too so plenty of time. It cost $20.00 for adult. Well worth it!
Couples admiring “My red Homeland”
A 24 ton corten steel scultpure. It is quite a sight to see. Only a small portion of it is in this frame.
Woman having fun with the reflections.
Film Foray 