My sprocket rocket roaming Singapore.
Some long-exposure action probably around 3/4 second. Same as below
Vertical photos in the Rocket can work well. It just doesn’t feel instinctually “right”.
Tag "Singapore"
I felt like sharing some sprocket rocket photos. Very quickly this camera has become my go-to toy camera. It has replaced my Holga for my sprocket needs. I love the sharpness and wide angle view. I love the fact I don’t have to fumble around with tape and foam to get a roll of film in or out. Below shots were made during a Holi celebration in Singapore. Holi is when you put colored powered on other people. Well it is actually way more then that but you gotta google it if you want to know more.
I shot a roll of lomo 100 X-pro in my holga to review that type of film and this new wide lens adapter. I ran out of my usual electrical tape that I use to keep my holga lightleak tight and in one piece. I picked up a new roll of regular black tape and obviously it did a very bad job, in fact it did such a horrible job I wonder if it sneaked in its photon buddies and let them go to town on my film resulting in horrendous orange light leaks all over my pictures.
I could make up a story that this was my artistic intention in order to portray the fragility of perfection and the honesty of failure but that would be a big bowl of shit. So lets get to the review.
The top part is the regular Holga Lens and the bottom image is with the converter. I picked up this converter for $13 on Ebay because I was interested in buying the latest lomo camera: the sprocket rocket.
The main advantage the sprocket rocket has over shooting 35mm in a Holga is its wide angle lens and the ease of forwarding the film without having to deal with counting clicks. I was wondering if this converter would be wide enough to dissuade me from buying the sprocket rocket and stay loyal to my 5 year old Holga. After looking at the results I can honestly say “I don’t know”
It does create a wider image, that is the positive. The bad side is that the normally blurry edges of my Holga images are now even more distorted and vague.
But it is hard to judge this lens just one roll of film which was badly abused by lightleaks. I will have to give this lens another chance before I pass my judgment upon it and then decide if I want to add the sprocket rocket to my collection of cameras.
My girlfriend gave my a bunch of these film she found back at her home. Kodak 200 Gold Korea color negative expired film. I quickly ran through a roll with my SLR and I was surprised at the vibrant color this expired roll was able to give me. The only downside is that this roll is for 27 exposures and at the photolab they charged me for 36.
These were all taken in a place called Bugis. My favorite photolab is located there, so the last few shots of most rolls are taken there. Its a vibrant area with an interesting atmosphere, I like it more than the usual big brand fancy shopping malls in Orchard. Where else can you see a older dude practice caligraphy with his feet while upside down?
The following were taken during a trip to Bejing with my parents. Again the film delivers. This was not expired film, but a fresh roll, straight from the oven.
I love how vibrant the blue of her coat is.
These were taking in the 798 art district in Bejijng. An awesome place to walk around and sicover. I wish every city had a place like this.
Lucky 100 SHD Black and White film all the way from China. Google told me it’s specifically produced in Baoding in the Hebei province. Wiki then told me that those metal balls people move around in one hand that you find in Asian gift in the west are actually originally from Baoding and also carry its name and then twitter told me to shut up 
So moving on, this is a very affordable film (=cheap). It works well, normal exposure, fine tones, not grainy (shouldn’t be since its 100 film).
Nice and cheap, what’s not to like?
The photo’s were shot with my Olympus mju II or Epic Stylus for you ‘mericans or µ2 for you perfectionists out there.
Kodak Ektacolor 160 as 120 film. This is medium format film which I used in my Lubitel 2. I still have issues exposing manually with my Lubitel 2 and this may be reflected in the pictures taken. Overall, more muted colors then I am used to. Also a bit grainy, but this may be due to the scanning of the lab I used. When I settle down and get a scanner, I will rescan these and see what they really look like.
One Singaporean attraction that is severely underrated by locals and tourists is Haw Par Villa. I am often met by laughter when asked what place I would recommend to people visiting Singapore. Uniqueness should be on top of the list of qualities a top attraction should have in order to be considered a must-see.
When people mention other must-do-see things in Singapore it is often the cliche, Orchard Road ( shops and malls that are found everywhere else in the world), Sentosa (passable beaches with overpriced attractions), Chinatown (nothing really unique except I do like the Buddha Relic Tooth temple), Little India (unique only if you’ve never been to India) and I could go on.
Haw Par Villa is a truly unique place. It is Disneyland stripped of its electronics, commercialism, size and entrance fee thrown in a blender with Chinese/Buddhist/Toaist mythology, sprinkled in with a bit of LSD, Opium and wax-less madame Tussauds and a generous serving of Kitsch and voila !: Haw Par Villa.
I am not saying it is a gorgeous place with state of the art facilities but it feels honest and it doesn’t pretend to be anything else. Too many places in Singapore try too hard and instead they feel empty and soulless. Have a stroll around the latest mall at the Marina Bay Sands and see what I mean.
I was intending to write bizarre made up backgrounds on the pictures I took there, but instead discovered the true reason I enjoy Haw Par Villa so much and that is it’s authenticity. Compared to the latest Singaporean attraction which is Universal Studios this place feels so much more unique and worth visiting. Globalization brings many good things but the homogenization of culture is something pretty scary, especially to me coming from a very small island which is influenced daily by outside cultural forces.
Insert joke here about how Playboys and other gentlemen publications are illegal in Singapore and the only way to show bare breasts is to portray mythical creatures like mermaids who happen to be topless, so maybe the business opportunity of a topless mermaid magazine exists.
Off course in the end this is all my opinion and somebody will blow my mind by showing me there are countless of Haw Par Villa-style places in China but in the mean time let me dream and let me be.
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Kodak Tri-X 400, black and white film. Released in the 1940′s and according to the Kodak website “the world’s best selling black and white film”. This is a classic film and hardly in need of a review. So I won’t. Here are my pictures. Taken with a Canon SLR and 50mm. It was incredibly grainy though, I have shot with this film before and this is the first time I got such results.
A 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.
