one year

it was about a year ago when i took a photograph of all the cameras i had then owned (and borrowed). last year saw my very first foray into film photography via lomography. while i still maintained digital as my main medium in which i take photographs, the love and curiosity for film photography grew ever so exponentially within me.

fast forward today, i now own seven cameras. the Contax T2 being the absolute catalyst in my pursuit for film photography nirvana. it may not seem like a lot of new cameras in the lapse of one year, but shuffling between cameras always kills me softly inside because there is always this doubt of whether this or that camera would take a better picture of that scenery and many other trivial matters that really shouldn't bother a photographer. what i've learned from shuffling between cameras is to accept that the best camera is the one you are currently using - be it a digital SLR, a point and shoot film camera, or even your cellphone.

in the end, the best camera i had available for me to photograph all my other cameras was my cellphone. honestly, without it i wouldn't have been able to take this photograph.

amidst all the flurry of new cameras, i feel like i should give myself (and especially my wallet) a break from all these new toys and focus on what is truly the most important aspect of owning a camera - the photographs. i'm planning to undertake yet another 365 project in 2012 (which wouldn't be called project 365, but rather project 366), and with seven cameras for me to peruse, it'll be quite a varied project provided i don't repeat myself. it feels like i've worn out all my ideas with last year's project 365, but i'm more than willing to undertake this project once again. i'm not expecting to do light years better than the first project, though. just the thought of taking photos itself gives me some motivation, and maybe an excuse to see places or do things i would've never done.

I Do

congratulations to Fabian and Angeline who have been officially wedded last Saturday in PJEFC by Pastor Lim. may the couple be showered with happiness, good health, and above all, a lot of fun times scaling crazy hills and trekking the deepest tropical forests they can get their hiking boots onto!

Angeline and Fabian

a little pre-wedding engagement photo shoot with one of my oldest friend, Angeline, and her fiancé, Fabian at Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. perfect weather, fantastic lighting, and awesome company! best wishes to the couple!

Canon EOS 500 N w/ Helios 44-2 2/58 & Meopta Flexaret VII w/ Belar 80/3.5; Klick Max 200 & Kodak Ektacolor Pro 160

Recent Digitals

this is pretty much the last time i shoot with these built-in frames.

the prison formerly known as "Pudu"

i had always wanted to take a closer look at the Pudu prison in KL, not from inside a moving car that drives pass the prison walls, but from at least two or three feet away from the prison walls itself. i think it was last year when a bunch of lomography enthusiasts staged a kind of "demonstration" to prevent the tearing down of the old prison by pasting photos and such on the prison walls. nonetheless, the demolition still happened, despite protests from the public to turn the prison into a national heritage site.

a little over a year later, the prison is still standing - its outer wall adorned with graffiti, messages, and such. i'm not sure why its taking the government so long to tear down the building - maybe some kind of legislation is underway to preserve the prison as a national heritage site. but whatever the reason pertaining to the complex still standing at its present location, it was a must to at least encounter this iconic structure that every KL-ite recognizes.

initially, CM and i only expected to take some pictures of the outer wall and all the graffiti adorning them. there certainly wasn't any way in and in all honesty, i assumed that the prison was currently all locked up and nobody was allowed in. that was until some worker opened the prison main gate from inside and invited us into the prison to have a look around and take some pictures. skeptical, but nonetheless excited, we took up their "offer".

stepping into the prison was akin to my experience at the Tuol Sleng genocide museum and the Choeung Ek Killing Field in Phnom Penh. it felt somber and quiet, but the biggest difference between the two locations in Phnom Penh and the Pudu prison is the overwhelming sensation of discomfort i felt as i walked past the prison cells and dark hallways in Pudu. at least in Phnom Penh, the locations were open to the public, but Pudu in itself was deserted (having being locked away from public visits) and walking the prison complex with no one around was "eerie", for a lack of better ways to describe it.

the prison cells were dark, dank, and generally uninviting - the graffiti and scribbles that adorn the walls within the cells were somewhat beautiful, yet sad and depressing. i couldn't quite bring myself to enter any other cells anymore after stepping into the first one and taking a look at some of the scribbles. the greenery encroaches the prison complex, there was a lot of junk chucked inside random cells, and there was even a mattress in one of the cells, which brings me to wonder how could anybody sleep here at night. maybe he's an atheist.

after looking through most of the cells on the ground floor and generally feeling some kind of ominous sensation of not being welcomed here, we decided it was time to leave. we headed to the main gate where we entered from and lo and behold, the gate was chained up and padlocked. i expected something like this to happen the minute i stepped into the prison complex, and for some reason we were pretty much calm and didn't get too worked up with the padlocked gate. we went looking around for the workers who had let us in earlier - CM and i going separate ways to look for them.

it was only a few minutes after splitting up when CM call out to me and said the workers were approaching the main gate in a huge tractor.

it would've been so much more interesting had the workers rammed through the main gates with their tractor, or better yet, if they hadn't shown up at all. in a very anti-climactic manner, they unlocked the main gate and we were well on our way out to make like sardines in the various public transportations out of KL.

take a picture

there are times i wish i had taken up photography earlier, but at least now i'm trying to make up for all the pictures i was unable to take years ago.

on another note, these pictures don't look very cross-processed at all.

four separate afternoons

i kill giants

Meopta Flexaret VII

i had completely forgotten to write up an entry about my latest camera which i had received a couple of weeks back. it feels like forever since i've wanted to dabble in medium format. the Holga 120N was a great head start in understanding the wonders of the square format, yet it left me cold knowing that what i have been craving for was an actual TLR camera.

Meopta's Flexaret VII is nowhere near the Rolleiflex i have always dreamed of owning, but the camera in itself is a great introduction to the wonders of TLR cameras. earlier on i had strongly considered the Pentacon Six TL, but unfortunately the camera was a little bit over my budget, and truth be told it wasn't really a TLR.

the Flexaret VII comes equipped with a Meopta Belar 3.5/80 lens, which takes great pictures, to say the least. i personally had some trouble dealing with the parallax errors of TLRs. shots where i consciously make the effort to "correct" the errors aren't as nicely composed as shots i had forgotten to compensate for parallax errors. i suppose the errors aren't too extreme to begin with. the camera is a wonderful piece of precise machinery, and it is a joy to operate, starting from the loading of the film, to the crack of the shutter. that loud clanking sound when the shutter is clicked always yields satisfaction.

my test roll yielded some exciting results, and i certainly cannot wait to use this camera again in the near future, provided there are things to shoot and the monsoon season doesn't hamper with my walkabouts. plus the handling of a TLR is completely different than regular 35mm cameras, which makes using this camera even more interesting and fun.

(un)luckily for me, the camera also comes with the original hard leather bag that totally has that antique smell i absolutely cannot agree with.