Saturday, January 25, 2014

Street Photo - On Reading...

On Reading...
Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with cropping + minor tonality adjustment in post.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

The Return of WOCA 120G!


It's been a long time since I last loaded a 120 medium format roll film into my WOCA 120G plastic toy camera, which is similar to my HOLGA 120GN as shown above. The last time I uses my HOLGA was in 2012, which I was taking some shots of an old school playground which had long been demolished. The results from that outing was pretty bad I must admit. I believe it got to do with the overcast weather on that day. Despite of the 2 lighting modes - Cloudy (f/13) and Sunny (f/20), a shutter speed of approximately 1/100 second and a mounted flash light, these plastic toy cameras still require a large amount of sun light to make a proper exposure. With that said, choosing the right film speed is important too. 

I really like these two new models over those other fanciful models, mainly because the lenses are made of glass. The lens on the original Holga 120S (which I used to own one) is plastic. Well you'll see the results from WOCA 120G after the jump.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Penang Street Photo - On Reading...

Old Gentleman On Reading...

During my Penang trip last December, a local friend brought me and my friends to Penang's popular hang-out place for local artists and many expatriates and tourists. The place is called ChinaHouse. 

It's cozy and has good atmospheric decors. We walked through from a pub, which is the back part of ChinaHouse, to the main front cafe, and in between it's this nice quiet garden with red strips of fabric hanging on the surrounding trees and a miniature house placed on the edge of a pond (as shown below).

In the garden, sat an old gentleman who was enjoying his book until we came along and disturbed his peace and pleasure which I believe he found it annoying. He had the whole garden for himself. Anyway, he carried on his reading.

As the saying goes "At the right place at the right time." Everything came into place as the lighting was great and I took a few shots of the quiet wall-mannered gentleman who was so engrossed in his reading that he didn't know I was taking his photographs.



Seagull 205 RF on FujiFilm Neopan 400. Developed on Kodak D76 1:1 for 500 seconds. Scanned on Epson V700 with tonality adjustment and cropping in post.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Penang Street Photo - Kek Lok Si

Kek Lok Si
While visiting the famous Chinese temple in Penang, Kek Lok Si (极乐寺), I was wondering around and in hope there's an interesting subject set against this colorful temple. In my mind's eye, I pre-visualised a monk or nun is sweeping in the yard. Well it turned out that an old civilian man came down from the stairs and started sweeping. Without hesitation, I took a few frames and this is the best shot.

Nikon FM10 on Tamron 17-35mm | Kodak Portra 400 color negative | Developed and scanned at Whampoa Kodak Colour Centre, along Balestier Road. No further color adjustment and cropping in post. Below is a monochrome conversion for a different visual effect. I think the color version works great.


Monday, December 30, 2013

Street Photo - Three Burmese Monks

Three Burmese Monks
Nikon FM10 on 50mm lens, shot on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in Kodak D76 for 405 seconds. Scanned on Epson V700 with minor burning and tonality adjustments in post.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Street Photo - On a Raining Day

On a Raining Day
Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 456 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor tonality adjustment in post.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Street Photo - On Reading...

On Reading...
Nikon FM10 on 50mm lens, shot on Ilford Pan 400. Developed in Kodak D76 for 360 seconds. Scanned on Epson V700 with minor tonality in post.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Penang Street Photo - Lorry Passing Through

Lorry Passing Through
Seagull 205 RF on FujiFilm Neopan 400. Developed on Kodak D76 1:1 for 500 seconds. Scanned on Epson V700 with tonality adjustment in post without crop.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Street Photo - Santa and 4 Little "Christmas Elves"


Santa and 4 Little "Christmas Elves"
Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas everyone! Here's an early Christmas greeting from me with this image of four "Christmas elves" rushing Christmas gifts delivery for Santa Claus. Hope you like this street photo. Merry Christmas to all and a Happy  New Year! May all prosper in 2014!

Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in Kodak D76 1:1 for 456 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with cropping and tonality adjustment in post followed by digitally hand-coloring.



Vivitar PN2011 on Kodak PJ100. Expired color negative was sent to Whampoa Kodak Colour Centre, Balestier Road, for developing and scanning. Minor cropping and tonality adjustment in post with Christmas greeting text super-imposed.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Street Photo - One Way or Another

One Way or Another
Nikon FM10 on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 600 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor tonality adjustment in post.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Guard by the "Bitch" (Beach) - Pun Intended

Guard by the "Bitch" (Beach) - pun intended
Seagull 205 RF on FujiFilm Neopan 400. Developed in Kodak D76 1:1 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with cropping and tonality adjustment in post.

Street Photo - Last Wash at Old Stadium

Last Wash at Old Stadium
Nikon FM10 on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 540 seconds. Scanned on Epson V700 with minor crop and tonality adjustment in post.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Street Photo - Cross Cultures

Cross Cultures
Nikon FM10 on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 540 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor tonality adjustment.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Street Photo -The Girl With The Tiger Bag

The Girl With The Tiger Bag
Nikon D70s on Tamron wide angle lens. Minor adjustments in post without cropping.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Street Photo - 'A' Happiness

'A' Happiness
Nikon D70s on 50mm prime lens. Adjustments on color tones brightness and contrast in post without cropping.



Sunday, November 17, 2013

Street Photo - Bare Foot Dining Very Good!

Bare Foot Dining Very Good
Nikon D70s on Tamron wide angle lens. Monochrome conversion in Photoshop using Silver Efex Pro 2 without cropping.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Street Photo - Swimming Through

Swimming Through
Made with Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400 and developed in 1+1 Kodak D76 for 480 seconds. Negative scanned on Epson V700 with tonal adjustment in post.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

My First Roll of Kodak Portra 400 + One More


In a recent blog, I mentioned about photographing with Kodak Portra 400 and I did my first roll, not on my rangefinder nor swing lens camera, but instead on a plastic toy camera, Vivitar PN2011. A compact point-and;-shoot camera with fixed focal length (aka focus free) of 28mm, wide angle plastic lens and fixed setting of aperture at f-stop 8.0 with fixed shutter speed of 1/125 second.

Make the jump to check out the color images.

Friday, November 1, 2013

Street Photo - Pre-Festive Shopping

Pre-Festive Shopping

Two hours to local Hindu's festival, Deepavali or Diwali, popularly known as the 'festival of light'. I took the above picture last year, with my Nikon D70s on a wide angle lens. Post in Photoshop.

Though it's not the typical colorful photo of the lighting decors along Serangoon Road, I prefer to show case this one with human subjects. Close to daily life activities; more organic

 I hereby wish all my Indian friends a Happy Deepavali Day.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Street Photo - Dodging Coconut

Dodging Coconut
Nikon FM10 with wide angle lens on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1+1 Kodak D76 for 540 seconds. Negative scanned on Epson V700 with cropping and tonal adjustment in post using Photoshop and Silver Efex Pro 2..

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Street Photo - Morning Reading

Morning Reading

This photo was taken yesterday morning while I was having my breakfast at McDonald's Shaw Plaza. This gentleman was sitting right opposite me and totally engrossed in his reading of the papers. The ambient light and the light of the overhead lamps are bright which is good as it creates this great soft light on the subject. I'm lovin' it!

Most of you might think this is just any other mundane and uninteresting photo. Well make the jump and let me explain the whole creative and thinking process behind this picture.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Street Photo - Minion in the Neighborhood

Minion in the Neighborhood
Shot with my Samsung S3. Post and cropped in Snapseed and resized in Photoshop Touch for Instagram upload.

This is my first Instagram post here on my blog site. I've added my Instagram link here on the right hand side panel. If you like to find out more of my Instagram pictures and short video clips, do follow me in Instagram.

Kodak Portra 400


Most of you readers know that I shoot in black and white film exclusively and extensively for my street photography as well as night photography, with Kodak Tri-X 400 and TMAX 400 respectively. I have used them for almost 5 years and I do love these films, especially from Kodak.

Lately I came to know about Kodak's popular professional color negative film, Portra 400. I've read the product reviews and saw images taken by many photographers around the world, and I thought maybe it's time I should shoot color pictures. Well some of my color street photographs were taken digitally with my Nikon D70s. I had shot Agfa Vista 400 color negative film on my Horizon Perfekt panorama camera. Didn't like the colors and image quality.

The latest batch of Portra films are all new mixture of the formerly VC (Vivid Color) and NC (Natural Color) films. As a first time user, I can't say much and so I've yet to load up a roll of Portra 400 into either my Seagull 205 rangefinder camera or Horizon Perfekt. The sales person at Ruby Photo said this new Portra produces rich colours with lesser or no film grain. Yeah will find out for myself soon.

Until then, I will send a couple of rolls to the photo lab for film development and scanning. Will definitely post some good street photos here. So do subscribe to this blog site to get future updates.




All photos are taken with my Samsung S3. Post in Snapseed.

Monday, September 30, 2013

Cheers for Beer! (An Experimental Fun Shot)

Cheers for Beer
My mother went for a cooking event held in City Square Mall yesterday afternoon and in the goodie bag, there are these two mini cans of Asahi Japanese beer. Yes one cannot tell how mini they are from the above picture unless I placed a regular size beer in scale comparison. The mini can measures 3 inches (7.8 cm) height 2 inches (5 cm) diameter. The whole can is in silver tin color which makes it very glossy and reflective.

Well I just thought why not do a simple photo shoot so I did a quick set up with a lighting diagram after the jump.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Street Photo - Daddy's Little Girl

Daddy's Little Girl
Made with Nikon D70s on Tamron wide angle lens. Monochrome conversion in Photoshop using Silver Efex Pro 2.