December 15, 2011

The Taste of Tungsten in My Mouth

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Lomography's Color x Tungsten 64

So a couple of weeks ago, I was able to pick up several rolls of Lomography’s Tungsten 64 slide film at the Lomography store in Seoul. While I’d shot slide before, this would be my first time to shoot using film that wasn’t daylight balanced. As the name suggests, Tungsten 64 is film with chemistry that compensates for the yellowish cast of tungsten light. If you’ve played around with a digital camera’s white balance settings, you probably know what this means.

I didn’t really have specific test shots in mind to showcase the quirks of the film under daylight of fluorescent light. I was on vacation, after all, so I just took my normal holiday shots, using a Fujifilm Silvi f/2.8 point-and-shoot.

Flash forward a week. I was back in Manila, waiting for my roll to come back from the lab. The technician hands me the envelope. I open it excitedly and see that the negatives have a green hue to them. Cool. Then I look at the index print: it’s all green, too! I’m thinking, there must be something wrong (but wonderfully wrong) because I expected the shots to come out with a pink hue. Turns out this was the first time the lab had ever come across tungsten film (in a few years at least), and the technicians didn’t know what to make of it. They scanned the negatives as a positive, giving the shots that cool radioactive green glow.

It wasn’t a problem at all. A simple color invert using Photoshop and I’d have the shots as they should have come out, all pinky and rose. That green glow kept nagging my senses, though, and I couldn’t let it go. I just had to use those original scans.

The solution was, to create diptychs that displayed both negative and positive, side by side, to show contrast and to make some clever statements. I know this might be anathema to many film buffs who disdain Photoshop, but I’ve always been a Machiavellian the-end-justifies-the-means kinda guy. If you can do all sorts of old school tricks in a traditional wet darkroom, then you should also be allowed some manipulation using a digital workspace. Just don’t go crazy HDR overboard, ya know what I’m saying?

So, here are the results. Let me know what you think.

Between Two Buses, Between Two Worlds

Crossing Over Dimensions

North Korea, South Korea

This Corner of the Universe

Travelomo omolevarT

Galaxy Express Bus

Travelers of the Multiverse

Bumping into Yourself

Palindrome

 

December 13, 2011

Soda Pop Colors by KOLA

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KOLA Color Filters

I’ve been seeing these or something similar online for the last year or so, and being a Colorsplash fan, I figured I’d get around to buying them soon enough. Soon enough came today as I was doing some Christmas shopping at Fully Booked. I had meant to pick up another Colorsplash flash for a project I’m working on, but they were out of stock.  What they had instead, a new arrival, were these KOLA color filters.

Inside the cute box is a set of eight plastic filters, each one measuring 4cm by 6cm. Unlike the acetate-thin filters you get for the Colorsplash, these KOLAs are thick and sturdy. You string them up with the provided chain, like a set of paint swatches, and they make a comforting clack-clack sound when they hit against each other. KOLAs are designed and manufactured in Thailand.

There are two ways to use them. First, place one (or more) against your camera’s lens, so that the light that enters your lens is tinted with your selected color.Everything in the shot gets the color treatment. Alternatively, you could place the filter over your camera’s flash, for that Colorsplash effect. Only the areas within range of the flash will get painted with a splash of color; everything beyond remains as-is.

You can use KOLAs with most imaging devices, whether they be digital or film, iPhone or Holga. They may be a bit small for some lenses, but I’ve tried them with a 52mm diameter lens and they work just fine.

By the way, KOLA stands for Kolors Of Life Accessories. They don’t seem to have other products, for now at least. But they seem intent to make their own splash in the Colorsplash pond. Check out their website at www.kolastore.com and their Facebook page.

With just a few test shots, I do believe they’ll do a good job, and are thus going into my camera bag. I’ll probably just pick my favorite colors and keep the rest in my camera closet, to keep creative decisions simple, ya know? The price is not bad either; I got my set for about US$14. If you can stand the Christmas traffic, you can get a set from Fully Booked at Bonifacio High Street or online from Kara of Lomo Loco. She delivers.

 

December 9, 2011

Lomo and Behold!

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If you aren’t doing anything tonight, why don’t you pop on down to the cinema lobby of the Trinoma Mall in Quezon City for LOMO AND BEHOLD!, part exhibit opening and part product launch (LOMOKINO! Hello Kitty Fisheye 1! Metal and Pattern La Sardinas!). This is a Team Manila / Lomographic Embassy Manila shindig, of course. So sorry I can’t go myself, but I am sure a lot of the local shooters will be there.

And with very limited LOMOKINO stock available, I expect the thing to be sold out by the end of the night.

Have loads of fun, guys!

 

December 8, 2011

The Mystery of the Gang of Five

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The Gang of Five

After limited success in finding interesting photos from random rolls of exposed yet undeveloped film I find in rummage sales and thrift shops, today, I hit paydirt, the motherlode, the big kahuna. Out of five rolls I recently found and had developed, four rolls have come back with full sets of photographs. The first roll out was an APS-format Fuji Nexia. I was lucky enough to find that my local lab still developed APS and could scan the negs, to boot.

Here are the results:

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Now, don’t you think it would be great if we managed to find any of these folks and show them these time-travel photos? If you have friends in Japan, feel free to send them this article in the hopes that a friend of a friend of a friend starts making connections.

Meanwhile, I’ll be scanning the rest of the photos then posting them asap. Two rolls Fuji color 800 and a Neopan 400.

 

October 4, 2011

Nasugbu in Blue

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I’d been putting off shooting with slide film and having the rolls cross-processed, mainly because slide film is both a) expensive, and b) hard to find, but I was able to score a couple of cheap expired Ektachromes from an online retailer so I ran out of excuses.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, cross-processing (aka XPRO) is a developing technique where the developing agent used for slide film and the developing agent used for negative film are swapped: the most popular being slide film getting processed in C41 instead of E6.* This typically results in photos with deeper color saturation and an off-kilter color balance, depending on the type of film and chemical used, of course.

Here are a few shots I took in Nasugbu, Batangas a few weeks ago.

Marketplace Chess Match

Tricyclola

Sidewalk Shoe Doctor

Jowa before Jesus

Church Child

All shots were taken with a Yashica Electro, I don’t remember if it was the Electro GL or the Electro GS. I’m thinking the GL because I’m not seeing the light leaks that my GS gets.

I must say, I never thought I’d enjoy seeing an unnatural blue cast to my shots, but these are pleasant. Will explore slide film and XPRO further.

*There are other combinations in cross processing, as Wikipedia will tell you.

 

September 28, 2011

Sometimes You Just Get Lucky

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Ricoh R1

Don’t you just love thrift shops and surplus stores? I got this Ricoh R1 from a surplus store I spotted while driving south of Manila. It was on a shelf with some other old instamatics being sold “as-is” and dirt cheap. “Does this work?” I asked the clerk. “We don’t know. That’s why it’s priced that way. We have no batteries for it and no way of testing.”

Think I’d pass up a bet like that? C’mon. You can’t go wrong for (the equivalent of) US$7. I tried to haggle it down further (hah!) but the clerk just smirked at me, “For real?” I forked over the cash.

Went to the nearest mall and found a CR2 battery, which cost about half the price of the camera. That plus a roll of film came out to US$5. Pop the battery in, load the film and pray. Bam! A gift from Amaterasu. Everything worked, except the LCD screen which was a bit wonky. But it got better as the camera’s circuits started remembering how to work. Awe. Some.

Now what is it about the R1 that makes it so special? What makes it stand out from all the other point-and-shoots from the mid-90s?

Forget first that it’s a Ricoh, a camera brand that has established itself as a badge of hipster cool. What’s great about the R1 are its wide angle features. It swaps between two lenses,  depending on your panoramic mode, a 30mm f/3.5 and a 24mm f/8. As was de rigueur during this time (around when Advantix was being touted as the next big thing), camera manufacturers offered “panoramic” shots, which just masked the top and bottom of a frame to give the illusion that your 35mm frame was wider. The Ricoh R1 has the same thing. Which is a good thing, if you like hacking your cameras.

Switching to panoramic mode will deploy top and bottom masks, but some simple grokking and you can prevent that from happening. In panoramic 30mm, this does absolutely nothing (because the end result is exactly the same as normal 4:3 mode. In panoramic 24mm, however, the results will make you grin a panoramic grin.

This Ricoh’s 24mm lens wasn’t designed to be used full-frame. The masks were there to crop out the vignetting and loss of sharpness caused by the quality of the lens. With the masks out of the way, these “imperfections” shine through. You can read more about this, and how to do it yourself, here and here.

Tomorrow I’ll have the first roll back from the lab. I am crossing my fingers and praying once again to the gods of Nippon that they smile upon me, shower me with good shots and all that jazz. Will post shots soon.

Cheers.

 

September 26, 2011

Lomography X Tungsten is Intriguing

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This just in from Lomography dot com. They’ve recently released two new film stocks, the Lomography X Tungsten 35mm and Earl Grey Black & White 120.  Here’s their marketing schtick:

Lomography X Tungsten

Tungsten Tones And X-Pro Powers 35mm/64 ISO

Lomography X Tungsten is a 35mm, 64 ISO color-slide film guaranteed to shock you into excitement with its electrifying personality! Used under the right light conditions, it will wash your photos in blue hues and tones. And things get extra exhilarating when you take X Tungsten over to the parallel universe of cross processing; get ready to experience beautifully vivid colors with that distinct tungsten appeal!

Earl Grey Black & White 120

The Monochrome Earl Is Now Available
in Medium Format! 120/100 ISO

Recently we launched Lomography Earl Grey 35mm and now the Earl has ascended to 120 format too! Lomography Earl Grey 120 is a stunning 100 ISO black and white film, perfect for all your Medium Format Cameras – You’ll get super smooth shots with amazing black, white and grey tones; get yours today!

Now, I already have my favorite B&W film stock, so Earl Grey doesn’t really interest me. I’ll stick to my tried and tested, thank you very much. Lomography X Tungsten. however, is a different case.

Normally I’m not one to mindlessly drink Lomography’s Kool Aid, but X Tungsten is…intriguing. It’s balanced for tungsten light, meaning, the film eliminates the color cast produced by tungsten light upon a subject or scene, say in an indoor shot. If you shoot tungsten-balanced film under different lighting conditions, the colors in your photos take on different qualities.  Shoot tungsten-balanced film outdoors and you’ll get a blue cast in your shadows, for instance. Cross process that and the blues get even deeper.

Now the really intriguing bit for me is the new film’s pricing, US$25.38 per pack of three. Compare that with Fujifilm Fujichrome 64T ISO64 Tungsten-balanced film, priced at US$11.59 per roll, and you’ll see that Lomography’s film comes out cheaper. For a company that is known for its ridiculously overpriced films, that  is a big surprise.

So what’s the catch? Is LXT expired? Is it from some dubious supplier in China? Is there even a catch?

What I definitely would like to know is what film stock is under all of Lomography’s branding. Unlike The Impossible Project, Lomography doesn’t make their own film, so this is for sure a rebadge. If I can identify what the film stock is, then I can get it even cheaper hehe.

I’m not sure when this will hit Team Manila stores here in the Philippines or how much these will cost per box, but hopefully they don’t deviate much from Lomography’s online price. Methinks I’ma gonna try ‘em out.

 

September 23, 2011

Goodbye, Olympus XA

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Give it up for the Olympus XA

Today I say goodbye to my Olympus XA, which, at this moment, is winging its way to its new owner. I rather liked that camera, the smallest rangefinder I’ve come across. Like the Olympus PENs and OMs, the XA (and its siblings the XA1, 2, 3 and 4) was designed by legendary camera designer Yoshihisa Maitani. It was an iconic design in both aesthetic and technological terms that would make it one of the most sought-after film compacts even to this day. While it may have had its share of wear (from a previous owner), the XA was an impressive performer, and gave me some really good shots.

If I liked it so much, why did I sell it? To keep my inventory low, for one. I just have too many cameras lying around and too little time to make my way through each one. Also, the XA was designed for someone with finesse in their fingers. My hands are big clumsy things hah. Perhaps if I find one in mint condition, I can get another one for my collection. But only when I have more shelf space.

For now I think I shall stick to my PENs. At least with those compacts I’m not all thumbs.

Olympus XA gets downright moody

 

September 20, 2011

Found Photography: We’re All Peeping Toms

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When you think about it, enjoying photography is kind of like eavesdropping on a conversation or looking over a stranger’s shoulder to see what he’s reading. It’s through photographs that we gaze at a reality only experienced by the person pressing the shutter button. We see a world we have no right to see, since we weren’t there at that precise place, at that exact time! We are voyeurs, peeping toms, mamboboso.

That Being John Malkovich  feeling, this is mainly why I like reading photography books – collections or portfolios rather than how-tos. It’s also why I like rummaging through old photos in antique stores and why I am always on the lookout for orphaned rolls of exposed film, whether they be undeveloped rolls found in your grandmother’s baul or mystery rolls you find in thrift shops and junk shops.

A couple of weeks ago, while digging through the stuff at my favorite Japanese surplus store, I came across a used Konica C35 EF. The price was right and the camera was in remarkably good condition, but what sealed the deal was my realization that there was still some film inside. The indicator told me five shots had been taken. What could be on those five shots?

I’ve tried my hand with mystery film twice before, with poor results. The first roll, picked up from an antique dealer, came out totally blank. Another roll that came with my Kiev 88 had really bad photos of someone’s leftover spaghetti. I mean, wtf? Maybe the third time’s the charm?

I think so. Here are the results.

Found #1

Found #2

Found #3

Found #4

 

August 17, 2011

Shooting From the Hipstamatic

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20110817-011925.jpg

Finally have an iPhone I can call my own. First app purchase was, of course, Hipstamatic.

Some analog purists might hate me for this, but I’ve always been Machiavellian when it comes to photography. The end justifies the means, the end here being images I can enjoy.

I don’t mind at all that this app simulates what folks like about toy cameras, those low-fi analog mistakes and imperfections like light leaks and vignettes and stuff. My analog cameras will always be there to do exactly that. However, when I feel the need for instant “analog” gratification, then I am glad Hipstamatic is available on tap.

20110817-011810.jpg

I’ll share more of my thoughts on Hipstamatic in a future post. Suffice it to say that I (as a career tech editor) have been waiting for this paradigm shift in digital photography for more than a few years.

20110817-012650.jpg

 

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