Zoo Flowers
Sunflower in the Sun
Hey there everybody. There’s not too much going on these days. The week before last we had some unseasonably crappy weather which stopped me from taking a short trip to the coast to take some landscape photos, and then I had a tattoo touched up, which kept me sitting at home and avoiding getting sweaty and moving about too much for the better part of a week. Which all means I’ve been bored for about 10 days or so. I haven’t been completely home-bound, I’ve gotten some more street photography done, with a roll of b&w in being processed right now, and about half a roll of Velvia used up.
Aside from that I have a couple of flower photos to post at least. I recently bought a bunch of crappy film, 10 rolls of ISO-200 Kodak ColorPlus, and 10 rolls of ISO-400 Fuji Superia, so I could test out my cameras’ meters and also just play around, experimenting with ideas while not having to worry about wasting a roll of Velvia, which costs about $10 here. I went to the local zoo, which also doubles as a botanical gardens of sorts, and took some macro shots of flowers to test out my meter. These two shots were my favorites. The sunflower pic is cliche as hell, but I like how I caught the blue tones in the background that contrast with the yelllow so well.
Cannonball Flower
Agfa APX
Chinese fortune telling sticks in a shop in Cho Lon
Playing with different kinds of film is fun. Lord knows I don’t really need any new excuses to go out and take more photos, but deciding that I need to test out different types and brands of film has made it easy for me to justify spending my hard earned cash, and helped me feel good about blowing off other responsibilities while I wander around and do my ‘research’. Read more »
Playing With Fuji Provia
Anais Shooting a Game of Checkers
This morning I went for another walk in the Cho Lon area of Saigon, this time with my new buddy Anais. Anais just recently got herself a new Canon 500d with a 50mm f/1.8 lens attached to it, and wanted to play around with her new toy. I set a goal for myself as we set out, which was quite simple: shoot through a roll of Fuji Provia 100F film to test it for colors and skin tones. Read more »
A Walk With Chi
Cho Lon Alley
I took a walk with Chi the other day in the Cho Lon area of Saigon. Chi is my best friend in Vietnam. I always love hanging out with her, and she likes to shoot film like I do now, so we had quite a bit of fun. Cho Lon overlaps district 5 and district 6, and the name means “Big Market” in Vietnamese. It’s what we Western folks refer to as “Chinatown”. It’s interesting for a million different reasons, and there’s a million different things to take pictures of there, however on this day I mostly did portraits of people on the street. Read more »
Starting Over
Old Doorway
I feel, much like the name of this post implies, that I’m almost completely starting over with photography now that I’ve decided to shoot only film. Over the last week I’ve spent a few days wandering around and taking shots almost at random. Not only am I experimenting with color film to see what the differences are in different brands, I’m also getting used to shooting in black and white, and playing around with some fixed focal length lenses that are new to me. Specifically, I’m using a 50mm Nikon f/1.4 AI lens that’s very nice, but also super contrasty and I’m figuring out where and when I can use it effectively. Simply using fixed focal length is a challenge for me as well, as I’m a spoiled little brat who is far too used to his zoom lenses. I’ve got 3 cameras to shoot with now so I can keep different lenses mounted or have various films loaded and ready, however 2 of them are in the shop getting prettied up. That makes it a bit difficult for me to take multiple shots for comparisons, however that will come next week. My mornings are open for a week or so, so I’m praying for good weather early in the day. Read more »
Sick of Digital Photography
Fujifilm Yellow
Yes, it’s true. Digital photography begins to wear thin for me. My beautiful, shiny Nikon D3 with it’s 1 megapixel LCD, it’s massive, crystal clear viewfinder, ultra-fast, ultra-accurate autofocus, blah blah blah… It became boring. Read more »
Back From Alaska
Looking West from Sugar Loaf Mountain
Hey! I’m back! A couple of people were wondering if I had fallen off the edge of the Earth. Well, I didn’t, obviously… but I did go there! For those of you who don’t know, I went back to the United States for a long overdue visit with my family. My grandmother turned 90 years young in August, and the Catlett family had a reunion party to celebrate. Read more »
Panning On A Rainy Day
Flowers In The Wet
The weather in Saigon has been absolute crap. I know, I know, I bitch about the weather on my blog a lot. But what else is a photographer supposed to bitch about? I could complain about moire and jpeg artifacts, but most of you normal people out there wouldn’t know what the hell I’m talking about.
On top of the bad weather, my life has been boring. I haven’t left town since Lao New Year, and I haven’t been shooting stuff I like. No fun. No excitement. Blah.
So, the other day it was pouring rain, and I was staring blankly at my monitor for like the 5000th hour in a row, with some drool rolling down my chin, and I decided that I didn’t care about anything else except going out and getting some FUN shots. And what could be more fun than panning in the rain? Read more »
Who is this guy?
So, to begin things, I guess I should introduce myself to those of you who don’t know who I am, what I do, or why you should be remotely interested in reading what I have to say. So, here goes:
Hi everybody! I’m Jake. I’m an American guy who’s been living in and traveling extensively through Southeast Asia for the past 8 years. My love affair with the region started as a result of a love of the cuisine, a keen interest and ability in foreign languages, and just a general curiosity of places and cultures far removed from my homeland. My second trip to this part of the world started in early 2001, and was meant to be a 6 month extended vacation, sabbatical, party, escape from reality, whatever you want to call it. I’m still here, and have no immediate plans to leave this cozy little corner of the Earth.
Sunburned and happy...
Originally my love affair began with Thailand, but after working in Chiang Mai teaching English for half a year, I was forced to accept that my paltry salary wasn’t going to afford me a decent living. I’d heard that jobs were more plentiful and salaries significantly higher in Saigon, Vietnam, and so I headed there in a final attempt to continue my life in Southeast Asia.