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Fuji Provia 400 Slidefilm

By: Nestor

24-12-2011

I shot this roll of expired Fuji Provia 400 with the intention of crossprocessing it but thinking back to the heavy green tinted images of those xpro images I decided to develop it as slide film. These were shot in my Olympus mju2 camera. The results were quite underexposed with a tint of blue to them. This was not what I had expected and I wasn’t really impressed with it. It could be due to the fact that the roll was expired and I never refrigerate my film. I did some photo editing on them, but it still wasn’t what I was expecting out of slidefilm.

Singapore Chinatown Beer Lady.

Prosthetics store in Seoul, South Korea

Samgyeopsal in Jejudo South Korea. Grilled pork belly.

Bored at Chinatown Hawker Center

Film Review, Kodak 160 VC

By: Nestor

14-02-2011

Roll of Film Review

The following images were shot with Kodak 160 VC in my trusty Holga modified to create sprocketholes. They were taken in Seoul, South Korea.

Ride at Seoulland in South Korea. This was taken during the winter time and it was very cold, not the best timing to go on fast moving outdoors ride.

Lonesome tree looking overneath a parking lot.

On the roof of Leeum, Samgsung Museum of Art in Itaewon, Seoul. Unfortunately, due to snow and ice this part was inaccessible. This was as close as I could get. These are Spider sculptures created by Maman. I have seen other spiders before in Tokyo, Japan.

See here for the whole list. It would be nice to travel around and photograph them all.

I do not scan my own film. On the left is how I get the scanned negatives from a local film lab here in Singapore. I then post process the images myself. I use curves to establish white point and black points, this normally takes care of the blue look I had on all my images that I shot outside. Maybe due to the snow or snow, but most of my outside images shot in the sun where blueish. The images I should outside without the sun were all underexposed. The Holga doesn’t have manual settings and 160 is not a fast film especially in the winter time where the sun isn’t as bright.

Conclusion

It’s a decent film, but more suitable to use in a camera with more manual controls. I don’t think shooting this film in a Holga is doing it justice.

Seoul Historical Palace Guards

By: Nestor

11-02-2011

Event & Location

Every time I visit Seoul, I make sure to drop by either Gyeongbokgung or Deoksugung. Either I am incredible lucky or the changing of guard ceremony is a mobius strip of marching. Either way I always manage to be in the right place to take pictures of the colorfully dressed guards with the palace in the background. Knowing the ceremony can end at any time, I run around trying to get the best angle and try to scout out the soldier with the best fake beard or most intense expression. Other time, I try to go for a more abstract angle and just photograph the row of marching feet wearing classic Korean footwear. During this, the huge drums are beating, the horns produce sharp melodies which increase my pace as I am seeking the perfect photo (which I am still looking for).

After the guards are replaced they offer photo opportunities for tourists. There is a coordinator helping the events along and is also willing to take a photo if you are a solo traveller. This is the perfect chance to take closer up pictures of the guards. You need to maneuver around a bit to avoid getting other visitors in your shot and background.

One big advantage is that this guard changing ceremony is done by the main gates of these palaces and is outside of the entrance booth, so they are free of charge. The palaces are worth paying for to see the insides though, but if you are running low on time or funds this is great photo opportunity.

The guards are members of the Korean military. There is mandatory two year enrollment into the military by all South Korean males. I don’t know if the job of reenacting a historical guard is a prestigious position. What do you think?

EDIT: Thanks to Lolipop in the comments, I see I was misinformed about the guards being part of the military. Thanks for that.

Film Review: AGFA APX 400 Black and White

By: Nestor

28-01-2011

Roll of Film Review

The following photos were taken in Seoul, South Korea with my Olympus Mju2 aka MjuII aka Epic Stylus.

Conclusion

Pretty good film. It was my first time shooting with APX 400. Relatively little grain. I will pick this up again.

Camera Review Series: The Golden Half

By: Nestor

14-01-2011

Camera Gear Overview

I have always been fascinated with Half Frame Camera’s (cameras that give two vertical images on one frame of film). I always appreciated the increased efficiency of turning a 36 roll of film into 72 exposures. But even more than that is the new perspective of framing and composition of taking two images and creating one new complete image.

A couple of years ago I kept unsuccessfully bidding on the Olympus Pen series and Canon Demi on Ebay. In the end I settled on a Olympus Trip since I loved the esthetics of this camera so much. But this camera was a traditional single frame camera and it wasn’t until I got a Golden Half Camera as a Christmas gift that I had my first half frame camera.

Good and Great things:

This camera is small and light. This is the lightest and smallest camera I own. This one truly is one of those that fits in your pocket.

It has a hot shoe. Most toy cameras don’t have a flash also don’t have a hot shoe. It even works with a

Even though it is a plastic build, it somehow feels pretty solid and also because it is plastic I don’t worry about it too much and let it bang around wherever I carry it to.

Not so great and bad things:

In my experience I needed allot of light, or some very fast film to get good results. But that is to be expected when you are dealing with a camera with a plastic lens and no manual controls.

Because of the lack of the build in flash, one you do throw a flash on it, you have doubled its size and weight.

Like all half frame cameras ( AFAIK, let me know if I am wrong) you don’t know which frame you are shooting on. It is frustrating to take two great contrasting images right after one another and then when you pick up your developed film, they were on two different frames.

Outside of the center the image is pretty soft.

Cartier-Bresson Top Tip:

If you want to make absolutely sure you have two desired subjects on the same frame then you should do the following: Take a picture of one subject first, then take a picture of the second subject and then go back to the first subject. This means you are “wasting” one half frame, but since you have 72 images to take it isn’t that bad, plus you never know that what unexpected paired images give you.

Conclusion:

It’s a nice fun light affordable way to get into half frame photography. But personally I would recommend to go for an Olympus Pen. You would have to pay a little bit more, but end up with a very sexy camera, manual controls and a fast 2.8 lens.

Click here for More Golden Half Pictures !

Other films you can use with this Golden Half camera:

Fuji Sensia Xpro
Kodak 400 Tmax Black and White
Fuji Superia 200
Lomo 800 Color
Kodak 160 VC

— LostAruban

Fuji Provia 400 Slidefilm