A Weekend in Ben Tre (part 2)
Ben Tre woman I met coming over a little bridge, Fujifilm Provia 100F
I had convinced myself I was going to wake up at 6:30am and start shooting if the weather was nice, and do some exercise if it wasn’t. I did, in fact wake up in time, stagger to my door, and look out at the grey, hazy morning sky. That’s as far as I got. I happily got back in bed, vaguely hoping for better weather later in the day, and distinctly hoping for my headache to go away. Happy New Year, indeed.
A Weekend in Ben Tre (part 1)
Window on the Vinh Hue police station, shot on Fujifilm Velvia 100F
New Year’s is not my favorite holiday. It never has been. In my experience, New Year’s Eve seems to be this holiday where every idiot under the sun figures they have an excuse to go out and be loud, drunk and obnoxious in celebration of what is really just an arbitrary date which no longer even correlates to the lunar cycle, thanks to the Gregorian calendar. I don’t usually make special plans for NYE, and this year was no exception. I was at home alone, and went to bed about 5 minutes after midnight. Whoopee, it’s 2010, goodnight.
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’.
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 »
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 »