12 Frames Project - A Year's Story

After completing the 36 frame project.  I decided to cook with my photog buddy on another.  This time a much longer term project.  How long?  How abut one whole year? :P

Since both of us has Medium Format cameras.  It will be challenging to shoot only 12 frames for the year.  Each month, we are just limited to one shot!

So we can only see the final result in year 2011.  The title was thought by me actually.  A year's story.  How this 12 frames translates to 2010. 

I hope I can get all 12 frames and I have already thought of the film I am going to use.  It will be slide film again... Provia 400X.  Since I won't be sure whether low light will be involved... I think choosing a higher ISO film will benefit.

Its going to be a tough one to complete.  But it will be fun way to start the year!

So to all readers.  Happy holidays and may your wishes come true!

Fun with Expired Film - Expired Reala 220 on Diana

My master studio closed down 2 months ago and while we were clearing the fridge,  we found some expired rolls of film.  3 of them are actually 220 format!  220 basically is a longer version of 120 roll film.  Double the length actually, so you can get up to 24 exposures if you are shooting 66.  Bored on Wed as it was my off day so I loaded the film into my Diana and went shooting spree.  As there is no backing paper.  I need to cover up the back of my Diana with black tape to prevent light leaks..

Thinking the film was expired and its ISO is 100 (although I like to rate Reala at 50 to bring out the potential of the film).  And also it was an overcast day.  I opened the aperture on the fisheye to max and start shooting in bulb mode.  Some exposures actually last for 1 sec.. So most of the shots actually came out overexposed :(  The funny part is when I send it to develop.  Photohub was a bit shocked to see there is still 220 format film... hahaha.. luckily they accepted the roll but at double price of 120 (since equal to 2 rolls).  I scanned the neg myself as I dun expected much from this roll.

Still, managed to get some interesting shots from the expired film... Especially the panning shots.   You can see more at my facebook album :)

Completed! 36 Frames Project - "It ends with ~y"

If you remember this post.  Its a photography project initiated by me and my photog buddy. 

You can view the results here at my photogallery.  Its actually quite daunting to shoot 36 themes in a month and having to stick to the particular frame.  This is especially true when most of the time I was working and I took my camerea everywhere with me.  Hunting for the next frame.  In the end I nealry wanted to give up as those titles are a bit tough to hit....

And I actually got messed up early.  Crazy frame was an accidental shot by my master Stanley as he was playing with my cam and lens.  Frame 34 and 35 was also mixed up.  I thought "Floppy" came first in 34 but actually it was "Sticky".

Althought I did not really like the final result.  The process was still a fun and challenging exercise..  Plan to do another one... but this time maybe pick an easier theme... kekekeke

Xinhui in Slides....

Brought along a roll of Fuji Sensia and shot girl girl on my last trip.. Here are some of the scanned results.

Films still beats digital over skin tones.. And not to mention the original slides... if only there is a way to display the original slides over the net.... :P

Surise at East Coast

I bought some slide films and want to try them out. Never really seriously shoot slides before but I plan to take a few rolls back to Thailand to get some nice landscapes. So I decided to practice a bit before my trip.

I bought various but decided to try the cheapest. Kodak Elite Chrome. Not really that cheap ($7 per roll leh). I packed my Dynax 7 and my A900 (digital) with 2 lenses. The Zeiss 24-70mm and 135mm. Woke up this morning at 5am and cycled to the "6 pipes" at East Coast Park. Reached there a bit early and it was totally dark. Quite surprised to see there were some people fishing at the other end though as its was a weekday.

Waited and was a bit disappointed with the overcast. I was planning to pack my bags when I noticed the sun breaking the cloudy sky. Immediately took a few test shots with my a900 (slides need to be correctly exposed as its latitude is very thin) and fired away with my film camera on a tripod. Took almost 20 shots on the scene before me (mostly brackets to get the exposure correct). After that while cycling back. Saw some pretty flowers at the roofless garden and shot some closeups with the 135mm.

Finished my roll and went home to rest a bit before hitting out to develop the slides. Bloody $20 for developing and 16 Base scan (and dun even have mounting!). Wat lau. Slides really expensive. Waited until 6pm and was blasted by the results. Just plain gorgeous!! You have to see it to believe it. It seems that the lens really plays a big roll in getting good colours in slides. (My old slides were shot with 28-85mm and the 50mm 1.4). The contrast and sharpness of Zeiss is truly astounding!! Above is just the scan of the slide and it cannot compare to the richness in colour of the original slide.

Expensive, Yes. Will I shoot again? Definitely since now I got the lens to do the correct job! :)