One thing I love about this set was the numerous amount of interesting stuff. I get to play around shapes, the light, lines, shadows, reflections and textures.

I’m disappointed that a couple of shots I really like didn’t work out well, exposure-wise. I haven’t been doing my “assignment” (light metering) so I’ve been lagging behind.

Medium format has always been a dream. I love my TLR.

It was a very cold Saturday and a good time for a committee meeting, chai tea and red velvet cake.

It was also a good time to bring my Yashica A, loaded with T-Max 100 lying around somewhere. Now that my stock of black and white film is slowly dwindling down because of my project I realized I should have kept track how many I have.

Had a bit of a trouble with the exposure there. Better luck next time.

Also a good time to take photographs because the TLR is quiet and non-assuming. I love it.

I had a fresh roll of Ektar 100 and when the first traces of snow showed up sometime in November, thought it was a great opportunity to shoot and capture winter on film.

I shot within my block–not too far. I was also playing around with exposures knowing that Ektar leans more to the red spectrum. Wondering how the white will turn out. (As you can see here the browns turned a bit reddish blue)

I also scanned these using my new Epson V500! Loving the scanner and it is definitely an awesome investment. For the past couple of years I’ve been bringing my medium format films to the photolab for scanning, which costs a lot and also hinders me to do a lot of medium format (unless there’s a need for me to print them alone). But now I can scan my negatives. Who’s the happy camper?

I think I should be shooting more medium format, don’t you think?

Tat, Pat and I had a small thanksgiving lunch two weeks ago. Also, we went analog.

Tatsuya, our gracious host.

We all brought our medium format cameras! Pat owns the Rollei and Tatsuya owns the Yashica D. Sweet.

I was anxious about the lighting. Yashica-A’s aperture is very limited so I was afraid that majority of my shots will be underexposed. It seemed to have turned out fine. As for my Rollei… Well, let’s say I’m still getting the hang of it.

Pat was gracious enough to pose for me as my model as I play around with light.

It was a good thanksgiving lunch. Just hanging around, talking about life and photography.

If you like taking photos, did you ever ask yourself, “where will my photos take me”?

I’ve been taking pictures mainly as a hobby for a couple of years now, and this thought just crossed my mind fairly recently. At the moment I am wondering what my motivation is. I mean, I do freelance work sometime but to be perfectly honest I don’t really earn anything with those. It’s just enough cash to cover the costs. No profit whatsoever. I spend money processing my film rolls, and photography equipment never lost its space in my pay cheque. I am serious when I say this is an expensive hobby.

Then again, I’m not really taking photos to earn money. I just like taking photos. The photos are not even commercially-driven nor something that the techie photohobbyist will dig. Meaning I don’t use strobes, I don’t use a lot of flash. I don’t even know how to do HDR. I don’t do fashion photography. I have lots of friends who do photography (I refuse to call anyone, even myself, a “photographer”. I reserve that title to those who do it professionally. Anyway…) who usually rave about the newest gear or lenses or some high tech feature and if they try to mention it to me I’ll just give them a blank look and smile. Why? Because even though I have a digital SLR I don’t know what those features are for. I just fiddle around with whatever’s in there and shoot with what my eyes and gut tell me. And probably some technical stuff that I’ve learned from books and from my boyfriend which unfortunately I don’t remember as much as I wanted to.

When I get to pick up some freelance work, I do what my clients want me to do, I do what they want to see. Because I’m paid to do it, right? It does not bother me that much because I don’t do it often. Most of the time I shoot just because. I guess that’s why I use film more often.

Anyway, I’m digressing. I’ve been uploading photos on Lomography and Flickr and I am just really surprised and happy that people around the world get the chance to view my photos and actually like them. Can you imagine how images can transcend places and languages? At the same time I fleet around one gallery after another and get amazed at the vast number of photos and subjects that people take and how beautiful they interpret the surroundings that they live in. No matter how mundane some of their subjects are, the way they take their photos just tugs strings of my heart. They inspire me and that fuels that desire to shoot more.

Which brings me again to that question: where will my photos take me? While I am currently confined in one city, I know that when given a chance, I will step out and explore more places. These places will be new to me, and my cameras will help me interpret the things I will see. I wonder where these photos will bring me; I wonder how many people will like the photos I took — if they will see the same thing when they decide to go to the same place. Perhaps they will interpret it differently; after all, different people have different perspectives in life.

I think this is the reason why I am not much inclined to do a lot of digital, HDR, macro, or any style of photography that I’ve noticed that is prevalent here in North America. Instead I am drawn more towards the way how people in Asia (mostly in East Asia, like Japan, China and South Korea) take their photos. I’ve always wanted to see everyday things in a different light. I’ve always wanted to capture my life as I see it and not with some fancy-fartsy stuff. I guess that’s why I’m so drawn to film. I guess that’s why I love taking people’s photo. I guess that’s why I think I have a place in street photography. I’ve always wanted to take photographs with feelings and not photos that look really “high tech” and “cool”.

With this kind of view about this hobby (and perhaps to some, this art form), I really do hope my photographs will bring me places. I hope that I’ll be able to touch people’s hearts, make them feel, and make them realize how amazing our lives in this world are. With that kind of goal, I am surely going to work hard and strengthen my desire to learn more in order to produce results that I would love and something that people will remember.

I’ve featured some shots taken using my Yashica-A TLR but I didn’t expect this. It exceeded my expectations, actually. And I am happy with the results.

I brought my TLR when I had my portrait session with Jonalee and Edgar and I seriously loved the photos that came out! I am still a bit shaky about shooting between f/11 to f/16 because it’s a bit hard for me to judge which should I use. I had a couple of frames that came out a bit dark but it didn’t ruin the beauty of that frame.

Well, except that there were light leaks as I didn’t properly wind the film. Oh well.

I got some 120-format black and white films and hopefully when the weather turns out better I’ll go out and use it.

SO. I finally ended up testing my Yashica-A. I used an expired Kodak NC 400 which K and I (siya lang pala, he he) purchased last January.

Featuring my sister. It was freezing cold when we shot this, and I was playing with the aperture (I think I was between f/8 to f/11 because it was really sunny outside) and had my shutter speed fixed at 1/100.

Taken with Fuji NPS 160 Pro.

Surprisingly I wrote the introduction about this camera a month ago. The time interval between this and that entry is a coincidence.

So I got the scans for my TLR’s test shots. My amazing boyfriend K took the liberty of using them before sending them to me, so majority of the frames were taken back in Toronto.

The last frame was mine though; boy it’s not a glorifying shot. But whatever.

Can I just say that this camera is I-N-S-A-N-E? I am not doing a decent review of this camera since I haven’t got the chance to use it in one session but damn this camera is crazy!