Archive for November 2007
Penang Hill (25th October 2007)
I got a call late night on the 24th from Andytan that they were having an early morning shoot at Penang hill around 6:15am. He asked he I wanted to join. I said yes as I was bored out of my mind that day.
That day was very hazy as usual since the rainy season seemed to have passed and so the haze came back. I don’t know which is worse, non-stop raining or endless haze.
The picture you see here was taken at the top, and I had used only a nikkor 50mm f/1.8. Tip here, while I don’t like the haze but I decided to use it to my advantage by making it look like it was morning mist (Funny I don’t remember mist smelling like cinder ash) and I position myself still there was 3 layer of hills and I purposely included the trees though I don’t think it helped much but still I like how this one turned out.
Nintendo DS (Crimson black)
Photography ethics
Whenever you take a photo especially of the homeless or those down on their luck, do you feel guilty?
Sometimes I do but most of the time I restraint from taking pictures down on their luck. I once did and got a shock when the guy who pretended to be a cripple leaped up and ran away thinking I was some sort of enforcement officer. Talk about getting better.
In any event, if I cannot resist taking photos of beggars, I would then give them about RM5 for the photo and walk away.
I took this one when I was in Japan waiting outside of Yodobashi at Akihabara waiting for my film to be delivered.
I wanted to get a good picture where everyone was moving except him but I guess I didn’t open the shutter long enough. I took this photo “blind shot” meaning I just point my lens with the focal length which I think would have captured what I wanted (Luckily I got it right) without looking through the viewfinder hence I won’t know what I took until after I’ve taken the shot.
I only took 2 shots, the first one was too blurry while this one was tacked sharp but the shutter wasn’t long enough. When I saw this guy I instantly knew I had to get a black and white shot of it along with what mood I wanted to convey.
When I think about it, I don’t know why I felt bad back then when I took the shots. I still don’t know why, I didn’t break any laws or rules. I didn’t exploit the homeless or the unfortunate.
In any event, lesson I learned here is that I should have opened the shutter long enough to blurred the surrounding environment.
So until then pleasant dreams!
Day 5: Kyoto
14th October 2007
The morning was cold and windy, I would be taking the early morning Shinkasen (Hikari) to Kyoto.
Canoscan 8800F
- Since I decided to get serious with film every since I developed those fortia in Japan, I knew I needed a good scanner to scan them in.
- I had a lot of spare cash to burn on my final day in Japan and this was cheap and GOOD!
I could have gotten the Nikon scanner Coolscan V ED but the voltage was fixed to 100~120V while the canoscan 8800f has a power brick that can be swapped out for another power brick that is compatible with the voltage here (if I can find it so for now I just use a step-down adapter as Malaysian voltage is 220~240V)
Setup was somewhat painless as I had to get all the English drivers and programs (I’m still missing the english version of the scangear driver and that photo editing program which I only have in Japanese but still works as language does not hamper function except when trying to understand it is doing) but once I had it setup, usage was simple.
When you want to scan film,
- First simply mount either the mounted film or strips or film onto the provided film mount.
- Take of the white surface thing on the lid of the scanner.
- Place the mounted film on the scanner glass while making sure it lines up with the provided guide lines.
- Select the scanning option
- Then Scan
- Save the scan images and Viola! your pics are ready!
It’s a bit bulky but I don’t give a rat’s ass! The price is also VERY good about Rm900++ while here in Malaysia it sold for Rm2600++ and that is if you can find it!!!
So far most of the new film pics you see in my flickr account are scanned in using this new baby of mine, while I wouldn’t say the scanner does the slides justice but it’s good enough for my needs.
With that concludes my gear review so until then pleasant dreams~~
