Sunday, January 8, 2012

The Impending Death of The Great Yellow Father

Associated Press
The last few days have been depressing in a personal sort of way. I had to buy out the shares of my colleague due to his inabilities to perform in the assigned job scope. I turned on facebook, only to see a link that informed me Kodak is going bankrupted. Funny thing was, I ordered 60 rolls of Arista Premium(Rebranded Tri-x) in 135, 5 rolls of Portra in 120 2 weeks back. I was planning to perform my personal documentary work with black and white film---Tri-x to be exact.

I went to sleep after hearing the gong sounding Kodak's eventual death. I woke up feeling like a good friend died, even though great companies like Ilford and Fujifilm are still producing them films. The fact is: Fujifilm discontinued some old favorites in various formats. That to me, is another nail in the coffin for film.

I still bought 2 Minolta XD11, Mamiya Sekor 80mm f2.8, Rokkor MD 28mm f2.8 and a Gossen luna-pro f lightmeter off keh.com a few hours ago. I hesitated for a minute before closing my eyes and hitting the submit button for a grand total of $500++. That's dirt cheap. I would never had been able to afford so many cameras with just $500 in the past. Even as the users of film dwindles, I'm making a come-back with my personal work---stuff that matters to me, I'll record it on silver.

I'll be using film for as long as I can find it and as if the cost isn't exorbitant. Until then, they can only pry my Kodak from my cold dead fingers.

For now, it's about time to experiment with more Ilford HP5+ and find a replacement for HC-110---just in case Kodak isn't coming back.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Just Need a Spot to Rest Me Damn Legs

I looked for a spot to do some reading on my phone after a heavy dinner. It read 9PM on my wrist watch. I got engrossed in reading some photography feeds, all the while looking down. From the top---where my peripheral vision ends, a pair of black leather shoes covered by navy blue pants entered the frame.

I looked up, there stood a police man and his partner, a police woman off to my far right.

"Can I check your ID, Sir?"

Sure, why not? I fish my wallet out and promptly produced my ID and passed it to him without much fuss.

He looked it over for a couple of seconds before radioing in to HQ to verify that I wasn't wanted. After a minute or so, there's no reply from HQ, his partner asked: "Who are you waiting for?"

I hesitated for a moment before replying: "Just reading."

They looked at me like I had something sticking out of my nose, nodded and looked away.

Not that I minded them checking my ID, maybe there's a double homicide or a repeat flasher at the spot I was sitting. Just little befuddled that they assumed I was waiting for someone, well, I might like being alone---reading.

Time to harass the dog and check on the development of my film.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

We miss the good things in front of us

I was browsing through some photography blogs and stumbled upon a great wedding/documentary photographer. To cut a long story really short, I have been looking for a cheap rangefinder for the last 24 hours---forgoing what little time I have for sleep.

Then it hit me like a truck. I already have a camera. Actually, more like 4. All the time I spent looking for that elusive perfect camera so that I make shoot b/w pictures of pretty ladies on the streets, road signs and pebbles---passing them off as MY ART, I could be out with my trusty SRT101 or F80 making images that really speak to me.

The gear can wait. Time to burn more film.
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Sunday, January 1, 2012

Black and White #002: Dance, Dance, Dance

Orchard Road - beautiful Christmas lights
"Dance, Dance, Dance" Minolta X-300s, 50mm f1.4, Tri-X@3200.
This was taken before Christmas in Singapore, at a busy road crossing of Orchard road. There were scores of Christmas shoppers waiting to cross the road. Cars with their ultra-bright headlights. They seemed like they were dancing. Lights and Shadows been done to death, but I still love the effect. It felt like everyone was doing their own little dance in perfect synchronisation.

Sometimes, you just have to forget what the critics say and shoot the your streets however it makes you feel.

As 2011 winds down and 2012 arrives, global recession might just be round the corner; we just have to take a look at the fellow country men we love, the streets we photographed a million times; and realise that life goes on. We can make things better if we just look around and care a little more.