Congee Wong is a 15-minute walk from K’s place. We ended up taking the bus though since it was raining.

It is a clean Chinese restaurant. If you’ve been to several restaurants you know what I’m talking about.

K and his family.

Food! Food was awesome, especially the Congee.

I take that back. This was the highlight of the food fiesta (everything’s good actually).

Some photos taken using K’s Olympus mju II (Stylus Epic). I didn’t get the chance to shoot a lot when the leaves were still yellow in the city (I did, but the weather was bad) so I was glad that I did when I went to Toronto.

Day 4 was jam-packed. I didn’t go out on Monday the 24th mainly because K had work again, so I stayed home, chilled with his parents. I also made a local dessert which didn’t work as well as it’s supposed to because of… circumstances.

Anyway, busy day ahead. The concrete says it all.

I love Toronto’s subway stations. I might change my mind once I visit New York or Tokyo but regardless Toronto’s subway system is close to my heart.

Shooting from the hip. Yep.

I love trains. They combine the elements of travel, movement and speed and make it all romantic and not boring.

We had a very quick, inexpensive but filling lunch at Ginger and then headed to our first destination.

Yes, more trains.

—–

Second to my “romantic” mode of transportation has to be the train cars.

Yonge is very photogenic.

Details! Patterns! This time I’m breathing the city and observing what’s around me.

We went to Distillery District. Probably a very photographed place in the city.

I find the whole place to be warm and romantic.

We walked around and sure enough people around there take a lot of photos.

Chasing pigeons. He he.

I don’t understand this. I find this figure to be out of place.

It was raining hard when we left the Distillery. I still insisted to go to Harbourfront for some shots.

It was raining but it’s all worth it. Thanks for your patience, K.

K and I went for dinner with our friend C. Marsche is awesome, despite the long wait for my pizza.

My Day 2 is a laid-back day. K has a work shift that day so the game plan was for me to go for dinner with his friends. I met the gang the day before.

It was my first time to commute alone from K’s new place to the train station so I got a bunch of instructions from K and K’s mom.

Also, it was my Colorsplash’s maiden voyage with me. K got a unit for $14.00! Sweet.

I arrived at the station safely.

I met up with S at the Sheppard station (and accidentally elbowed her because I am clumsy). We both arrived at Bathurst station and waited for M.

We walked around Bathurst, Toronto’s Koreatown (or a section of it, at least). We had dinner at Guu, a Japanese Izakaya format restaurant/tapas bar.

A, the glorious city sunset. I hardly see this, and I love it.

Dinner at Guu with M, S, and E. The food and experience were awesome. Also, a good time to get to know K’s friends. I had a lovely time.

We then hung out at Paldo Gangsan since M’s brother R wanted to go for dinner and drinks. Soju overload. We then visited a Korean grocery, walked more and called it a night.

So, where to start? I went on holidays to end off my October. K and I booked my ticket, and on October 22nd off I went to Toronto.

This also happens to be my last flight inside this airport building because Winnipeg got a new airport building. How’s that for an experience.

Also, the machine ate my $1 so I can’t take an ID photo.

Morning flights are fast. I think I spent more time waiting inside the airport as supposed to the actual flight. Next thing I know I was already at Pearson’s.

The luggages took longer than I expected, thus Kelvin and I missed our planned Zombie Walk shoot for the day. We ended up just having take-out lunch at his home, rested and went outside for dinner and drinks with his friends.

This guy, together with his companions are skateboarding inside the subway/bus station. I suppose that they know that it’s not allowed. I got this photo, without him knowing maybe because, a.) I’m a ninja or b.) he was too pre-occupied. One of them is correct.

November 1, 2011 – Pardon me if I’m going to be wordy today (instead of having a photo-intensive entry, just what this site is for) because I just had this “lightbulb moment.” Call it an epiphany if you like.

I’m in the middle of scanning my 3rd roll of film (out of the 9 rolls I used up when I went on my holidays) while typing this. I just have to say: I love photography.

I dare you to do this, even for a short period of time: Forget about the gadgets, the specs, the minute details that occupy some photohobbyists’ attention. Statements such as This brand is good. Get this unit because the viewfinder is awesome. This camera replaces my bulky dSLR. Mirrorless is the way to go. I want to step away from that, at least today (I already accepted the fact that there’s no way I can avoid those people or these kinds of conversation). Focus on the act of taking a photograph. The whole process of it.

Today I sit here in front of my computer, waiting for my negatives to scan, and I have this amazing feeling, this indescribable joy I feel upon seeing my photos showing up on the screen. This is also the equal amount of happiness I feel when I process my own films or when I print my own photos. I felt the same feeling of contentment and excitement when I had my first exhibit. Maybe on a smaller scale, I feel this way when I use my instant cameras. Then I remember the joy I felt when I saw things with my eyes and took the photo. How exciting, how fulfilling was that? I maybe not be making any sense right now and words are just coming out of my head as I am typing this–hastily recording them because I want to keep a log of things I think and feel.

I know that photography serves a different purpose to everyone, hence I believe that this is a very flexible medium. Amidst the number of gadgets one can choose from and actually use, one should not forget what purpose photography serves to them.

For me, I have photography because I refuse to forget what I see, what I feel, what I think, what I experience.

I think this is what matters.

DECEMBER 17, 2010 – After a year or so of planning it, I have finally bought some photographic chemicals so that I can start processing my black and white negatives at home. Thank you to Photo Central for the awesome assistance that you have provided yesterday especially that I had concerns about temperature during the developing process.

As you can see I’ve used Ilford chemicals. Aside from the tank and reels I had some empty bottles (and I hope that as I go along I will recycle my Ilford bottles by using them as storage containers for my used chemicals) and containers, a towel, scissors, my iTouch as a timer and a bottle opener to open the film canister. I took a hanger and some clothespin to hang the negatives dry. I did not buy a Photoflo because the guy at the store said it’s an optional item.

The process worked for the most part but my hardware failed me. I was concerned that the plastic reel that I bought will not fit the the stainless steel tank that I had. But I was advised that reels are now standardized so the diameter should be the same. But when I was about to load the reel in the tank… It didn’t fit!

I had to use a stainless steel reel that I have (and I definitely don’t like) which resulted in damaging around 7-9 frames out of 36. The film was damaged because it wasn’t properly loaded so the chemical did not evenly spread throughout the film. I had to apologize to K because it was his Delta 400.

In my defense, it is really difficult to load a film using stainless steel reel. I think the area where you roll the film isn’t just wide or tall enough to accommodate the film so it gets stuck somewhere, damaging the sprockets and makes me unable to roll it properly.

Anyway, majority of the frames turned out well. The only thing is that I can’t tell whether K was off with some of his exposures, or that I was off (or over) with my developing time. I had to make adjustments with my developing time mainly due to the room and water temperature. Anyway, these are the ones that I liked, and credit to K for the really nice photos.

On an unrelated note, I had this discussion with K about how he shoots better with film than when he uses a digital camera. It seems like he just has a flair with the former. He said maybe because the shots are more well thought-off. Which is why I use digital only when I have work or if I need the photos right away.

DECEMBER 8, 2010 – I actually had this entry posted at my Lomography blog, but I thought I should share it here as well. I had to re-write some parts of the entry because of run-on sentences and wtf-where-did-this-sentence-come-from? stuff. Ha ha. Anyway enjoy!

If I look back and how I got into photography in general, I’d say I was about 6-8 years old. I remember my family owns a Polaroid Supercolor 635 (I have it, and it still works) and just like the thought that Barbie grows her own hair even if I cut her bangs, I had this impression that the camera won’t run out of film. But as we all know, film cameras run out of frames, and when my parents found out I wasted a pack of Polaroid, I was clearly in trouble.

I once again stumbled on film photography when I joined my university’s photography club, a couple of months before I finish my bachelor’s. Most of the people there use film to take their photos. In addition to my “re-exposure” to film photography, one of my dearest friends back in the Philippines, Aaron R. (lomohome – kazarareta) was clearly into lomography at that time. I saw some of the photos he took and it reminded me how I used to take photos (on film) when I was a child; and how I documented my high school life through a series of color-negative films (hey, back in 2002 we still use Solid Gold films!). Like any curious person, I went to the internet and researched about Lomography. That’s where it all started!

Unlike some people who discovered the movement and later on dumped it to return (or perhaps completely abandon it) to digital photography, lomography has become a part of my journey as a person who likes to take photos. I am not ashamed to say that I use both digital and analog cameras, because both forms serve similar and yet different purposes for me. Some people puzzled because I still use film. A lot of times I find that bringing a cute instant camera such as Fujifilm Instax Mini 7 is useful, not only because I get to take pictures and see them right away without the aid of a digital camera, but also bringing nice contraptions like a film camera sparks interests from people around me. Call it a good conversation starter, but it works, and I think it’s good.

I am pretty sure that a lot of lomography enthusiasts will be sharing a lot of their personal stories and experiences on how they come upon lomography. Whatever or however those stories have come about I think the most important part of discovering it is the ability to find a new way to see the world through your lens and be able to share it to people wherever they are.

DECEMBER 2, 2010 – On se retrouve sous le ciel.

Photos in this entry were taken by our friend Darmaine.

The Lomography Gallery Store – Toronto
536 Queen Street West
Toronto, CA M5V 2B5
(It’s within the vicinity of the Much Music building)

As mentioned in my previous entry, one of the highlights of my visit to Toronto is to see the Lomography Gallery Store. It’s the first LSI store in Canada (if you exclude some camera shops and Urban Outfitters branches) that sell Lomography cameras and other items. It just opened on November 5th, so I was really excited to see how it looks.

It was quiet when we arrived there, not a lot of customers for the night. Just me, my boyfriend and a couple of friends.

One of our friends is not too keen in photography, but me and my boyfriend and our friend D are. My eyes widened because finally I saw the cameras that I like! I personally liked the Horizon and Diana F+ and Mini. I was a bit disappointed with the LC-A+ because it felt really light compared to my LC-A. Oh well.

I love the store design and setup, especially the lomowall. I wonder if those were taken by Canadian Lomographers. Hmmm.

I was a bit uhm, should I say disappointed? with the service. I was actually expecting really enthusiastic salespersons but that wasn’t the case when I went there. The person was helpful though, but to my surprise, when they were supposed to get the camera that I wanted to buy, the salesperson said, “that camera with that 4 lenses”. The statement was entirely correct, but I would expect that s/he know what the product’s name is!

Oh, I’m just being picky. It was an OK experience overall. Hopefully when I visit the town again I’ll happen to attend a workshop or a photowalk.