Kuang Si Falls

*Kuang Si Falls*
Fuji XT3

I’m a sucker for waterfalls, and it’s become a point of contention with my family since I’ll spend so much time trying to get the perfect shot on my tripod that they don’t get to spend time with me. This time, in the gorgeous Kuang Si Falls near Luang Prabang, I adopted a half-way strategy that has worked well: instead of using the tripod, in most instances I used the lens’ stabilization to shoot at around 1/15s. In my experience, with rushing water that’s what delivers the most pleasing yet natural looking results. And family saw more of me and was pleased as well. This huge waterfall park is by far the most impressive I’ve seen yet, and if you go to Laos I strongly recommend not missing out on it!

Broken Shack

*Broken Shack*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Rollei RPX25

I had initially loaded the RPX25 upon arriving at Nuuksio national park with the idea that there’s be plenty of lakes and therefore I could do long exposures over water to my heart’s content. Turned out finding the paths to the lakes was trickier than I thought, and I ended up doing only a few shots over water, and not very good ones at that due to the overcast, textureless sky. But while exploring I stumbled upon this run down cabin in the woods which (I felt) made for a perfect black and white subject.

Cabin in the North

*Cabin in the North*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Rollei RPX25

For my first ever attempt at shooting RPX25 I didn’t make it easy on myself: in the midst of the Nuuksio forest on an overcast day, and accounting for reciprocity failure, I often had exposure times of 30-45 seconds. As a consequence the results were hit and miss. But when they hit, it was amazing. The level of fine detail that this film retains is just amazing. This one is my favourite shot, an abandoned cabin in the woods.

Dogtown

*Dogtown*
Ricoh GR1 + Kodak T-Max 400

Sai Kung is a seaside town North-East of Hong-Kong Island. For some reason, either there’s a lot of dog owners there, or dog owners converge there at the same time I go there. Either way, I intend to go back to do a series of nothing but dogs and dog owners. This is one of them. Interestingly, while many people aren’t too happy about being photographed in the street, if you show interest in the dog, they agree readily!

 

Waiting for the MTR

*Waiting for the MTR*
Ricoh GR1 + JCH400

You know this annoying feeling when you’re going to drop film at the lab and the one roll in your camera has only a couple of shots left ? I tend to shoot anything, and it’s virtually always crap. Well, not this time! This is one of those rolls. I think it was even shot in the Lai Chi Kok station where Camera Film Photo is located!

Sham Shui Po Life

*Sham Shui Po Life*
Ricoh GR1 + Ilford FP4+

Sham Shui Po is an area of Kowloon that feels like it has still retained much of the Hong Kong life of old. It’s busy all times of day (and night, I suspect) with street vendors of all sorts buzzing around. These guys were just setting up, I have no idea what they were selling, but it’s such a typical scene that I thought I would share it.

The Narrows


*The Narrows*
Ricoh GR1 + JCH400

One of the things that feels to me to be uniquely Hong-Kong is the narrow passages that connect the streets. Sometimes they are wide enough for small street markets to live there, but sometimes they’re just so narrow that their only function seems to be as a refuge for smokers.

Framed!

*Framed!*
Ricoh GR1 + JCH400

The light in Hong Kong can be very harsh, and JCH400 is a great film but very contrasty. So some might argue that the above shot is too contrasty with some blown highlights. And yet to me this is what Hong Kong on a bright day looks like. The woman in the temple door is just a great bonus.

Prickly

*Prickly*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford FP4+
Model : N.

One of the things I noticed during the second session of double exposures of this Flora project was that when the flora textures were brightly lit the balance between texture and skin doesn’t work. But as always with rules, occasionally breaking them works. Not that this was deliberate ;-)

Leafy Gaze

*Leafy Gaze*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford FP4+
Model: Romain

This one is a textbook example of how the grading in shadow density drives the appearance of the texture. Something, I suspect that would be very hard to emulate digitally. This is why I love this process so much.