A timelapse video I shot in Aruba. I visited various location around the island always waiting for the perfect day with lots of clouds. I love the surreal vision of clouds rushing by. Please watch it in HD for a better experience. The song was by Moby licensed through mobygratis.com
Photo Projects
I went to a party met some cool people and took some photos. This was actually the second party and I don’t quite recall all the details on how I got there. But the important facts were that A) there was a bathtub full of beer B) a kitchen full of Satay and peanut butter sauce C) friendly folks.
I brought along my Golden Half camera filled with Agfa Vista 400 film. And because it was indoors I brought along a flash which I was firing off camera with the help of some cheap Yongnuo flash triggers. This was my first time experimenting with it and the results weren’t too bad. I really like the fact that such a small camera has hot shoe. So if it’s there, why not use it?
Some of the photos were overexposed due to the 400 film plus non-adjustable flash and closeness of the flash and the blood-alcohol level of all involved parties. The photos were also very grainy which may be due to the expired film or the scanning of the lab I use. Around that time they had gotten new equipment and their scanning wasn’t great. At a later date when I will finally get a scanner will rescan these negs and see whose fault it is. Place your bets now ! Banzai !
On the left you can see the people handholding the flash. People were eager to get their photo taken by this weird small film camera and me handholding the flash.
The important bathtub filled with beer.
The Golden Half is great for just firing of shots at a party , since you get 72 photos from this half-frame monster on a 36 exposure roll. Just make sure your flash can keep up. I was using a cheap $10 holga flash I got on Ebay, so the recycle time was quite slow.
The flash fired back at me on the left.
“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.”
Robert Oppenheimer
This was my second roll of double exposures. You can find my first roll here. It was a random experiment, I didn’t know which frames contained what text. I had better results when I did prepare and wrote which frames I had shot what on, you can see those photos here.
This was a roll of Fuji Superia 200 in my Canon SLR 500 shot around Singapore and the original images found online and shot in the dark on my laptop.
Some time ago I came across this thread in a forum and I recognized the style of photos. I always liked them but I assumed that most of them used $300 ND filters which I didn’t have intention to buy. But seeing good results from a cheap piece of welding glass got me interested. I got a smaller piece of glass first, but it was very prone to light leaks.
I then purchased a much larger one ( able to fit over my 10-22 wide angle) for $6 at the local hardware store and use a reverse fitted lens hood to attach it to my lens with rubber bands. I still get occasional light leaks, especially shooting in bright sunlight so at one point I will buy a cheap filter and glue it to one.
When shooting I use a tripod and a remote shutter release. Two issues to look out for when shooting with a piece of welding glass attached to your lens:
1) Manual Focus. Focus before you attach the piece of glass because it is so dark that once attached you will have a hard time focusing. After focusing I set it to manual focus so it stays in position
2) Manual White Balance. I only recently figured that one out. My welding glass gives me a very greenish tint ( the reason a real ND filter costs a couple of hundred dollars more). But if I set the white balance manually it removes most of the greenish cast and then shooting RAW gives me post processing control to to really take care of the issue.
As you see though in the end my images end up as black and white images because somehow the photos work better in that way for me.
These were the first two photos I took with the welding glass. They were exposed at about 30 seconds at F11. I got up to 2 minutes with F22 but having a camera on a slippery rock with a piece of welding glass attached with rubber bands makes me want to shoot a bit faster. Most images are shot at 45 secs in RAW at f11.
This was the second time I went out with the welding glass. I hadn’t figured out the manual white balance yet so the greenish tint was removed in Photoshop. In the first image you can see the light leak that forms the big circle. I have taped up the edges of the glass but I don’t know if it has really helped. These days I put my lens cleaning cloth on top of the lens and glass when shooting hoping to minimize the light coming through.
My third time experimenting. When shooting with such a high f stop I need to remember to clean my sensor and lens as you can see some of the dirt on my lenses.
And finally my latest experiments. Stationary objects with flowing water around them really makes this technique shine.
Read MoreLast week I was visiting New York City and this gave me the opportunity to create some cinemagraphs. These were taken all over the city whenever we encountered anything interesting.
Cinemagraphs are really interesting because it makes you look at something differently. I don’t just want a strong static composition, but I have to consider the dynamic element and if it will actually add something to the image. The following are far from perfect but a start to a very interesting experiment.
![central-park[3]](http://www.lostaruban.com/wp-content/uploads/central-park3.gif "central-park[3]")
This isn’t supposed to be my Nishika Blog, but I’ve just had so much fun shooting with this plastic camera. I threw on a flash, got some friends together and had some beers. I did realize outside of 1.5 meters ( 6 foot for you yanks) the flash is pretty worthless, I tried some jumping pictures, but the flash couldn’t handle the distance.
Read MoreA few weeks ago on Vesak Day I went out with my Nishika camera and took more shots and tried some jumping pictures this time. They came out quite well. Everything was taken outside as this camera needs quite a bit of light. My friends tried a variety of poses including, the star jump, the walking man, the leveation and the “checking my iphone” float. We also came across a pretty large dinosaur in the middle of some apartment buildings.
I saw Ndroo’s (great Singaporean photography blogger) awesome double exposure photo’s some time back and I wanted to do something similar. I followed his instructions which are found here. But when I was putting up negatives to my laptop screen I was wondering if it wouldn’t be easier to just shoot images on my laptop screen.
Target
I would be able to find more unique picture and have more control. I set up my tripod and went to work. I scoured the internet and found suitable images. I didn’t want images with a lot of detail of small pieces. Very clear two color images with a strong edge. I followed the instructions and shot 1 stop under, but looking at my pictures now I will shoot my next roll at the correct exposure just to make sure the white are non-transparent.
I did have trouble pulling the film back out of the roll. I tried various methods including licking another piece of negative and sliding that in which didn’t work but I did get to taste film chemicals for the first time. I tried cutting small hooks in another film roll which also didn’t work.My last and worst idea was tying a piece of string to the end of film so I could pull it out later, I don’t have to tell you that failed miserably. In the end I had the people at my filmlab pull out the film leader and luckily they didn’t ask why there was a piece of string tied to my film.
I used my Canon EOS 500 SLR and Kodak Tungsten Film. I chose to use my Canon film SLR, because it always positions the film in the same way so they images will always overlap perfectly. The Kodak Tungsten was expired and cross-processed which explains the blueish color shift.
I think this is a really fun and creative project. I hope this inspires you to go out and shoot some, like it inspired me.
Most of the time when I am traveling I photograph my meals like I think a lot of you do. It’s a nice reminder of what the different types of food you had plus for me I can often remember the taste and experience ( good or bad).
This picture below was taken in Sticky Fingers a restaurant operated by Bill Wyman (former Rolling Stones guitarist). It was fate that brought me to this restaurant. While I was walking around Kensington, London for the first time in my life I was listening to the BBC podcast of Adam and Joe ( pretty funny radio duo) and they were discussing Sticky Fingers the restaurant. As I was walking through Kensington and looking into every side street for photo opportunities and I saw Sticky Fingers and knew I had to eat there.
Below is a picture of the first meal I ever had in Tokyo was in Ueno, Ameyoko market. I found this small restaurant hidden underneath a train overpass and it had plastic examples of their food outside so I knew I wouldn’t have any problems ordering food. I went for the Tonkatsu (pork cutlet) and it was the best I have ever had.
It looks interesting to put the two images together.I like seeing what I didnt eat and how much of a mess I did or didn’t make. As I mentioned before I suspect alot of people take pictures of their food, but I wonder how many take a picture when they are done eating. Maybe this is not as pleasant as a full plate of food but I think it can be just as interesting.
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