Merry Christmas to all!~ Been busy busy busy. Was shooting on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I am working as well today. Yeah. What a bummer. Its Boxing Day…yet I am at work. Well..I got mouths to feed and buying spree to be fulfilled. I hope everyone had a good holidays. Its Nathania 2nd Christmas. This year its more meaningful as she went to the church for the party. Best start them young. Hahaha.

Recently, took a trip to Australia with my wife. Yeah. We left the baby home. I swear I wont do that ever again. Period. We missed the little one so much when we were abroad. Thank God for the iPad, iPhone and Optus Australia. I was never cut off from home and internet. For AUS30 I think we got ourselves a pretty good deal. AUS300 call credits/Unlimited FB and Twitter/500 mb Data lasted through 3 weeks trip. Best! I think I called home 2-3 times a day. Hahaha. One thing about Down Under. There is no such thing as free Wifi (unlike Malaysia where its free at most popular spots) except in the Airports or maybe some places that I didn’t know. Would be great to able to FaceTime with love ones back home. So the Data plan was keeping me very happy as I traveled. If one follows my FB updates you will know.

I tried to do some Street Photography when I was in Melbourne. I love the place. Its pretty ‘multiracial’. You got all sort of mixture of people there. The city is mix of modern and old architecture. Perfect. We walked to the bus stop to catch the bus to the train station. From Murumbeena train station we took the train to the city. I dont know why. But Melbourne has lotsa lotsa lotsa graffiti. I guess it makes the city colorful. It was towards the end of November and Christmas decorations were up during the last week of our stay in Melbourne. Didnt manage to take much pictures. I admit..I sucks at travel photography. Did a couple of street shots. Havent process the other pics yet. Here are some samples.

Uncle David Jones

Quickie

Should I get a Haircut?

Went for a shoot sometime on a Sunday after work. The guys wanted to shoot at the Royal Malaysian Air Force Museum (RMAF). I was kinda interested as I have not been there before. Heard of it alot plenty. Passed by there whenever I use the Seremban Highway. But visiting the place? Never before. It was a Sunday and I dont want to miss quality family time, I decided to bring my wife and baby along. Hehehehe. Armed with a Leica M6, I paired it with a Voighlander 15 mm f4.5 Heliar LTM and Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100. There are no entrance fee. Just need to pass through the army’s checkpoint. Met up with Johan, See Meng, Francis, Edwin, Nick and even Madji at the airfield. First impression is that the airplanes are kinda old. Yes. They are decommissioned aircrafts. Some are already leaking. But nonetheless, they are still an awe to look at. This is the first time I am up close to a helicopter. Amazing stuffs. Little Nathania was kinda cranky and pulled a long face all day long. Mummy dear was having a   hard time to pacify her. Mom took some shots with the Sony NEX 3 while I shot here and there. First time using the 15 mm. Not easy to use an Ultrawide angle lens. The perspectives are a little different from conventional composition. I tried to be as creative as possible. But hey…This is my first time with the lens. The excellent Visual Finder (external) was bright and made composing a lot easier. Finally finished one roll and headed home with the family. The guys went ahead for drinks. I had to head home as I need to prepare the little one for her first swimming experience. Will blog about that later. Anyhow..Fast forward. Decided to develop the film via semi stand development technique. I used R09 developer at 1: 100 dilution. The film was pre washed for about 5 minutes. Temperature used was room temperature (note: Will try to use 20 degree Celsius in future). I only gave 15 inversion before leaving it to stand for one hour (note: Will use one minute of inversion and leave to stand. Will also introduce light swirl at 30 mins interval). Stopped with water and fixed via the normal method. Left to dry. Scanning was done with Canon 4400F scanner ( Sold this scanner yesterday. Not too happy with the scans). Had to fix it a little via Lightroom. Added some black and recovery. Here are the pictures for sharing.

Shadows

The Giant

I Am No 4

Hello! Good day to all. Was surfing www.rangefinderforum.com and I came across an interesting link posted by a fellow forum member, Petronious. He started a project some time ago. For the one whole year he would only shoot with a single camera and film. You can check out his work on his blog www.rollei35andpolypanf.blogspot.com . Of course I was very interested in his project. You see, most photographers would have more than 1 camera in their drybox (if they have one) be it film or digital. Next we have the lenses. All the way from the superwide to the supertele (for those who can afford it la). For my Nikon film system, I know I have from 28 mm all the way to 180 mm covered ( all primes *wicked*). And I know too that I don’t use them often. So I got in touch with Petronious. I asked about the project and how he dev his film. The dev part was interesting too. This is because he is using stand development method. Normal dev technique usually takes about 8-15 mins depending on the type of developer and film used. Stand dev uses small amount of developer and long dev time. Another fellow forum user Tang Yi Ming aka Neoro uses Rodinal 3 ml with 500 ml of water. But his aint a stand dev method coz the process is complete in 13 minutes. Film development is like a cooking class. Different people have different method and recipe. But it all for tryout. I don’t mind experimenting. Here is a recipe from Petronious. Do check it out.Credits to Petronious.

Some words about my stand developing method:

• I use APH09 developer, which has the same formula as Rodinal
• Dilution is 1+100; my tanks are from JOBO with plastic reels (One daylight Tank 2400 for one film, one system 1000 tank for max. five rolls)
• After filling in the developer I invert the tank 15 times and let it stand still for one hour (longer time doesn´t harm the film in my experience)
• I don´t use stop bath, only water after the developing (two water changes with five inversions each)
• Then fixing with Adofix (or similar fixer)
• Washing method: Water in the tank, five inversions; water change, ten inversions; water change 20 inversions; final change, the 40 inversions.
• I take the film from the spool and strip off the water with a paper towel (no pressure, only to get the drops off)
• Then I hang the film for drying

Note: This is by no means my own invention, I only combined some advices from the net; the drying by paper towel is not recommended by many people, but I found that the Polypan doesn´t scratch as quickly as often mentioned.

I think I ll start shooting with one camera and one type of film and prob one type of dev too very soon. Try it out. After a year, review your work and see if there is any improvement.

I think I need to get the camera out of the Dry Box and start shooting something. Hehehe. I got a wedding job tonite. What I meant was, to shoot someone or something. It s time to plan and execute a shoot according to plan. Cant just shoot here and there. Kekekeke. Here is a shot of my cousin Anson Ngiam. Some years ago, he pop-ed up at my place. And at that time, I have this wooden samurai sword bought from Penang. I asked him to pose for me. With the light source (window) from the left, it s perfect lighting. Shot using Nikon FM2n, Nikon 85 mm F2 AIS ( I regret selling this lens) and Fujifilm PRO H 400.