December 28, 2012
I’m in Baguio right now, the summer capital of the Philippines. The weather’s great up here in the mountains, crisp, cool, autumn collection weather. I’m armed with three film cameras, an Olympus 35UC, a Ricoh R1 and a Nishika N9000 lenticular.
Film, however, isn’t a medium for instant gratification. For that, I’ve got Instagram. Here are a few of my shots.
Lone Cafe Customer
Want pot?
Casa Corridor
Film Purchase
Camera at Camp John Hay
Chef's Table
Waiting for the rain to stop
December 15, 2011
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
October 30, 2010
So last week I was in China, my wife and I piggybacking on the company trip of the Gallardo & Associates ad agency. Four days in Beijing was the perfect break from this October’s killer schedule at work, and even though most of the time we found ourselves at the mandatory tourist sights, it was still a blast. When traveling with crazy creative people there are hardly any dull moments; even on long boring bus rides you can still find something to do, like taking advantage of people sleeping.
That was shot on the second day, on the road to the Great Wall of China. Here are some photos, taken with a vintage Olympus 35UC rangefinder with Lucky 200 color film:
More photos on my Flickr set Barbarians at the Great Wall.
May 18, 2010
After five weeks in the United States of America, traveling from West Coast to Midwest to East Coast and back to California, enjoying the cold spring weather, I am finally back in sunny, sweltering, seething Manila. We did the whole John Candy – Steve Martin bit, riding Planes, Trains and Automobiles plus a few bus rides thrown in for effect. While I wasn’t able to find and purchase that Stereo Realist camera I’d been pining for (and still do), I was able to pick up three new toys for my camera bag.
Nishika N8000 and N9000
Both cameras are 4-lens lenticular 3D cameras from the Eighties. The N9000 is the newer model. It’s more compact and only has two aperture settings, cloudy and sunny. As far as I can tell it doesn’t really provide any metering and is more the toy of the two. The N8000 has a heftier bulkier build, comes with an additional flash aperture setting, and has a built-in albeit primitive exposure alert. Yes, this is my second N8000, but the first one I had I received in pretty bad shape. Time for that one to retire after a year of faithful service (having shot Lady Gaga, Charley Boorman, Marie Digby and a bunch of local celebs).
Kodak Playsport
The third toy I picked up is the recently-released Kodak Playsport, a compact HD video camera with 5MP still photo capability. It’s Kodak’s answer to the Flip MINO HD, but uses SD cards instead of built-in storage. It can shoot in WVGA, 720p (30/60fps) and 1080p. While the video won’t ever compare with even the lowest-end Sony HD Handycam, it’s still a very useful tool to have when you want to capture more than just still shots. What’s more, it’s waterproof up to 3 meters. I liked this so much I bought three more of these haha! One for my dad, and two bought for friends. At only USD150 (and cheaper if you buy through Amazon), these things are a steal. Just remember to buy extra batteries because the included batteries are shit.
It’ll be a while before I manage to sort out the 36 or 38 rolls of 110 and 135 film I shot during the trip and over 35GB worth of digital photos, so, in the meantime, here’s something I shot using the Playsport.
March 27, 2010
So next week I’ll be flying to the United States for a five week romp around the country with my wife and her family. It will be a welcome escape from work and a chance to catch up with my travel photography (sorry, blog!). We’ll be traveling East to West and back again, lots of ground to cover and plenty of sights to shoot.
I’ve decided to pack light and bring only a few essential cameras over from Manila: my 110 Demekin and Ikimono and an old DSLR. I’m also having a Superheadz Golden Half delivered to my address in San Jose or perhaps the new Holga TIM, care of Nic Nichols of the excellent Fourcornersdark site. But what I’m really excited about is the vintage Stereo Realist I bid on in Ebay.
I’ve wanted a Stereo Realist for years, and this US trip seemed the perfect opportunity to acquire one minus overseas shipping worries. It’s a stereo camera, meaning it shoots two photos simultaneously through its twin lenses. The result is a stereo pair which, with some coaxing, makes for a cool 3D photograph. Consider it a more serious version of my Nishika N8000. Silly me though, I bid on two auctions and might actually win both.
On Monday I’ll be heading off to the Oh Shoot store to pick up enough 110 cartridges to last the trip. I hope Jill still has some in stock.
December 3, 2009
"The Ruins" is an old mansion owned by the Lacsons of Negros Occidental that was razed by USAFFE and guerrilla forces during the second world war to prevent the Japanese from using it as a headquarters.
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I flew to Silay City in the province of Negros Occidental in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. I had managed to book cheap seats and we thought it would be a good chance to visit our godmother, take in the sights and, uhm, binge on the excellent local cuisine.
Now, Silay is known as the “Paris of Negros,” a seat of Visayan culture and art, and has been declared a “museum city.” It has many well-preserved heritage mansions, which used to be where the sugar barons of the island lived, as well as old churches and buildings you can visit.
Along for the trip was my Superheadz Demekin which, sadly, had only a few shots left. The tough thing about 110 film is that it isn’t readily available from your corner photo store anymore. Despite Silay having its feet firmly anchored in old world charm, that didn’t extend to photography supplies.
Here then are the few shots I have on 110, shot in Silay and the adjacent city of Talisay. Next time I visit, I’ll make sure I put in my order for film way in advance.
My bad. I forgot to take down the name of this church.
As my wife often says, my memory is crap. Again, I forgot what this place is called. I took a photo of the sign, but I haven't yet downloaded it to this notebook. The place is wonderfully maintained, though, and is worth the visit, just to see how the sugar barons of the past lived.
The Ruins is currently in a state of meticulously-manicured, restored ruin, a venue for special events or an evening dinner at its cafe.
The place is located in Talisay City, not far from the Pepsi Cola plant. It's just about fifteen minutes' drive from Silay City.
January 23, 2009
On my recent trip to Hong Kong, I was faced with a difficult purchasing choice: to get a Superheadz Demekin (see previous entry) or a Superheadz Golden Half. The Golden Half is an interesting little thing, so named because it shoots 35mm film but at half frame, meaning for a 36 shot roll you get 72. It’s got two aperture settings, f/8 and f/11 as well as a hotshoe for fun strobist action. While I may have bought the Demekin, the Golden Half remains on my must-have camera list.
This means that my favorite pop culture girl has one up on me. Genie Ranada is no stranger to gadgets. She is the lifestyle editor for the tech magazine T3 and is one of the few people I know who’ve been featured on Boingboing.net (no I am not saying why or what for). She has BOTH a Demekin and a Golden Half. She takes great pictures, to boot! Here are some of her Golden Half shots, all taken during the Dec 08 holidays in Laoag, Ilocos Norte in the Philippines. Fuji Provia 100F slide film was used and cross-processed. Enjoy!
angelchurch
bluebeetle
cemeteryblues
cloud9
cross+cherubs
texicano
If you want to see more of Genie’s Golden Half photographs, do visit her multiply site.
Oh, and this is what the Superheadz Golden Half looks like. If you want one of your own, Oh Shoot! sells them, too.
December 22, 2008
When you find yourself alone in a foreign land, working overseas for better pay, it’s often a good time to start a hobby, just to keep the blues away. That’s exactly what reader Fejie F. aka MillionMonks did when he moved to Singapore. He got himself a nice new Holga CFN and joined the local Lomo group www.lomotionsg.com. Here are some of his shots.
This photo "was taken on the Hippo Tour, an open double decker bus that goes around the city carrying tourist. Straight ahead is the Singapore Flyer, the biggest observation wheel in the world. Bigger than the London Eye."
"This is just a bougainvilla in the middle of the Fountain of Wealth, at Suntec City. The four towers in the background are part of a 5-building complex that is designed to look like fingers of a left hand jutting out to the sky. At the palm (middle) is the Fountain of Wealth."
"This shot is an experimental Bulb setting inside a bus traveling at Orchard road."
Any more Singapore Lomographers out there? Do drop me a message and I can post your best Lomo shots.
December 8, 2008
Autumn in Reposo @Canonet Junior
There seems to be no stopping the march of digital camera stormtroopers in their quest for world photo domination. Everyone and his mother has a digital camera of some sort, to be whipped out at the smallest excuse for a photo op. Despite this, however, there remains a glimmer of analog hope, an old-school antithesis to the ones and zeroes that digital photography offers: film cameras. Contrary to popular belief, film is certainly not dead. While it continues to thrive among professionals and hobbyists, whose passion for film rivals that of pro-sport fans, film has found a popular resurgence of sorts among folks who want to shrug off the snobbery of Photography (with a capital P) without succumbing to the beep-beeping siren call of digital. I refer to the allure of toy cameras, Lomos, Holgas, Horizons, pinhole cameras, vintage TLRs, instamatics and other film cameras.
Photos shot on film in general, and shot with toy cameras in particular, are imbued with a certain mystique, an atmospheric quality that digital seems to have difficulty in producing. Part of it is the grain of the film, part of it is the unpredictable nature of these cheap cameras with the film stock – light leaks, soft focus, etc. Maybe it’s the aged patina that film shots have that distinguish them from those off a digital camera. Maybe it’s the imperfections that are so painfully obvious on film shot on toy cameras that contrast greatly with the crisp sharpness of a DSLR. Whatever floats your boat.
Here, then is my tribute to travel photos shot on such cameras. I’ll be posting mine and accepting submissions from readers as well. Let’s begin!
