This Pair of Photos Are One Year Old

Which says a lot about my tardiness.

Or maybe it’s just a personal choice as I believe photos age like fine wine.

Mega Lightsticks | LC-A+ RL | Lomography RedScale

Peasants Party | LC-A+ RL | Lomography RedScale
Wishing all a happy 2014 with precious fireworks that I’ve been saving for a whole year. You’re welcome.

LomoTravels: Revival Venice Day 2 / Of Torcello, Burano and St. Mark’s Square

The alarm went off. Eyes opened. First thing out of bed was to ruffle the curtain drapes and peer out the window.

Still raining.

Dammit.

Nevertheless, we decided to push on with our plan to visit the neighboring islands Torcello and Burano. Who knows, maybe by the time we reached, the weather would have improved.

After an hour of traveling which involved transferring from one vaporetta to another, we finally reached the shores of Torcello. At this time, the rain was falling even more heavily. And the winds. The piercing winds!!

Compounding the depressing weather was the virtually empty streets as local vendors were all holed up at home while tourists that were as hardcore/foolish as us were far and few.

#1 Barren | LC-A+ RL | Fuji Neopan SS | BUY IT!
Nearing the center of the island with the Church of Santa Fosca in sight.

LomoTravels: Reliving Rome Day 2 / Tourist 1 Pickpocket 0

Happiness is waking up to the smell of fresh toast and an assortment of bread, ham, yogurt and juices.

Enlightenment is realizing that oranges are not only orange in color but red too. Yes, it’s true and they are called blood oranges!

Knowledge +1!

#1 Blood Orange | LC-A+ RL | Lomo Redscale 100 | BUY IT!
On the way to the Metro to get to our 1st destination.

LomoTravels: Reliving Rome Day 1 / Of Fountains, Obelisks and Pillars

Anddd that’s one off the bucket list, my first foray into the European continent.

Woohoooo!!!

Sorry, I still get a bit high while reminiscing about it. So, I’m gonna ride out the high with a series of day by day posts.

First off, to Rome!

#1 Street | LC-A+ RL | Voigtlander Vchrome 100 DX
Just another day in the streets of Rome.

LomoTravels: Gorging Ourselves in Ipoh + Penang

A trip made possible by our dear friend, Darwin who as a proud Ipohian (or Ipohnese?) finally got the chance to show us the glory of his hometown. Actually, we just nagged him into submission and tagged along on one of his trips back home.

#1 Cavemen (and Women) | LC-A+ RL | Lomography RedScale
Presenting the traveling party sans me.

Ten Courts of Hell

Here is the 2nd round of photos taken at Haw Par Villa, specifically at one of their main attraction, the Ten Courts of Hell. According to Chinese mythology, those who have sinned (such as cheating, lying, murder, etc.) during their lifetime, will be judged in the courts of hell and punished according to the gravity of their sins.

And boy, those punishments are creatively gruesome, making it the perfect foil for parents to warn their kids about the consequences of bad behavior. And yes I grew up with all these stories, which most of the other Chinese kids did too, living in fear of getting thrown into the deep frying wok in our afterlife.

All pictures were taken on the Lomo Redscale 100 film using the LC-A+ RL.

Oh Nicholl

As the dust settles after a potentially game-changing day for Singapore, it is time for our lives to resume normalcy. Personally it opened my eyes to a whole load of things. A better understanding of the history of Singapore and the people who strove doggedly in the pursuit of their beliefs. Well, I better stop right here before this turns into a political ranting or preaching. Let’s make way for my outdated photos taken around Nicholl Highway MRT. (Why am I not surprised if somebody starts a Facebook page called “Let’s rename Nicholl Highway to Nicole Seah Highway <3”)

What was I doing there? I was actually on my way to Stadium MRT to collect my computer from Acer Service Centre. I must have said this before but I feel the need to say this again.

Do. Not. Ever. Buy. Acer.

I hardly ever take the Circle Line, let alone alight at any of the stops along it. So I decided to alight and check out CC5 out. Photos were taken mostly with Superheadz UWS on Lomo Redscale film with a dash of Diana Mini on Kodak ISO 400 expired negative. Note that the quality of pics are not so fantastic as explained in my previous post. For the redscale pics, I had to flip some of them horizontally to show the correct orientation.

#1 Here I am. CC5. Call me a recluse/hermit/sua gu. It’s my 1st time here.

#2Interesting building which I have no idea what it was. That is until I checked the Internet. For those as ignorant as me, this is The Concourse. Repeat after me. Con-cou-rse.

#3 Next up. This genius of a device displaying how many parking spaces are available around the vicinity.

#4 The station is right next to Kallang Basin. I seem to recall seeing those prominent condos in the backdrop from way back in Secondary school. Oh yea and I remember having to put up Army Half marathon signboards around the park. Sai gang FTW.

#5 Lucas Di Grassi who? Ermm I’m guessing F1 driver… urmmm Brazilian… and… ermm.. male. Sorry this is the best I can do.

#6 Ready, get set, go!

#7 Home stretch

# 8 Not very such what architecture structure this is. Seems to be part of MBS.. Looks like a snail shell in real life though. Maybe to complement the upcoming Gardens by the Bay.

#9 The customary flyer shot. I took a few but this is my fave. Just got a feel to it.

Pretty fun experience overall. A quiet afternoon spent making new discoveries. Too bad for the film quality. Going down to Triple D tomorrow to develop more films. Hopefully I’ll get to update sooner rather than later.

Last but not least Happy Mother’s Day to all wonderful mothers out there.

And no. This is not a thinly veiled attempt to hit on any MILFs.

Day Out at Barrage

I know what you guys are thinking. “Barrage?? Not AGAIN?!”

Oh come onnn. Marina Barrage is one of the nicer places we have in Singapore. All credit goes to PAP!! You guys have my vote! Pls let us have priority in upgrading! (Pardon the digression, I don’t wanna be left behind when everyone is offering their opinion about the political situation.)

Anywayyyyy, back to the Barrage. Nobody seems tired of it. It’s always packed with people flying kites, taking their wedding pictures and what not. This time round, we were there for a picnic!!

#1 What’s a picnic without glorious food. That we had no shortage of. Lasagna, shepherd’s pie and of cos the mad awesome egg mayo (which was unfortunately not caught in action here)

#2 With their powers combined… Kiteflyers unite!

#3 Check out binbin with her wind-swept hair. Stylo-milo.

#4 It’s my turn!! Love this pic. With the kites littered all over the background. Obviously I passed some of my mad skillz to binbin.

#5 Time for our trademark self shot! ❤

#6 Oh that’s not us (We rather die than be caught decked out in that outfit…) Anyhoo sweet random couple FTW.

#7 AHHHH run for your lives!! It’s an invasion of kites!! Seriously, I probably should start a business selling kites over there.

#8 Sky explodes. 8 kites found dead. 19 missing.

#9 The sun sets, marking the end of a fun filled day. 😀

On a sidenote, I used an expired (for 5 years) Kodak negative ISO 400 film (contributed by uncle David) on the Diana Mini and a Lomo redscale on the Superheadz UWS. Those framed by the black borders (namely #1, 2, 3 and 6) was taken with the Mini. Those red tinted ones are taken on the UWS.

I was pretty psyched up about getting these pictures back as I believed I got some real jems in them. However, those taken with the expired films have tiny white spots all over them. The redscale ones were no better, with plenty of white spots, fuzziness and some streaks of light. Sadness.

After consulting the photoshop uncle, it is suggested that it might be because the expired film had already degraded or the speed of the film. This is because the faster the film, the grainier the picture will be. But I’ve taken shots with ISO 400 films before. Didn’t turned out that grainy. Hmm..

As for the redscale, it might have something to do with the film. Redscale is an unorthodox way of shooting which probably gained popularity along with lomography. The film is exposed on the wrong side by winding in the film upside down into an empty canister. This will result in the pictures being reflected vertically. Due to some technical reasons (that you will be better off reading from Wiki ), the film will need to be taken at slightly overexposed conditions to obtain the correct exposure when developed.

The things you learn from shooting. I may be wrong in my explanation or anything. Feel free to provide any pointers or advice.

Well, at the end of the day, I’ve come to terms with the unintended effects of the end result. I suppose this is what Lomography is all about. Celebrating imperfection.

Kickass Krabi 3: Best of the Rest

Hi kids, this post marks the last of my Kickass Krabi series. Hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did. As the title suggests, the pictures will chronicle some of the other stuffs we got up to in Ao Nang. The nightlife, beaches and other parts of town we tried exploring. On foot.

So obviously we didn’t get too far. Come dinner time we will usually walk along the stretches of (mostly Western) restaurants and settle down when our stomach starts growling. As with most touristy places, there were plenty of touts clambering for your attention.

 

#1 This is how we got this picture. Smartass tout spotted my Diana Mini and appeared to be intrigued by it. Proceeded to ask me what it is and looked incredulous when told it was a camera. Asked to see it and duly persuaded us to pose for the camera. Then came the sales pitch, which I declined by saying we’ve eaten. Promised to be back to try it some other time. Obviously I didn’t. Thai food were more of our thang.

 

#2 In our treacherous (did I mention the zombie-movie-type-hordes-of-touts?) trek in search of good Thai food, I took time out to use bulb mode on the Mini to capture some light streaks. Can’t remember how long I held the shutter opened though… Damn.

 

#3 The holy grail. Authentic Thai street food. Noodle soup FTW. The owners were so warm and kind. Made the experience all the more awesome.

 

#4 Dessert was chocolate banana pancake. Nothing much to shout about although we saw plenty of people with pancakes in hand. Kinda like a thinner and crispier roti prata.

 

#5 We tried fish spa for the 1st time ever. Mainly because it was relatively cheaper as compared to the exorbitant prices they are charging back home. From my expression, it’s safe to conclude I am and will never be an avid fan of fish spas. I may have also pissed off the owner by dissuading onlooking bystanders not to try it. Uh-oh.

 

#6 We had some spare time left on the last day. So we tried exploring other parts of Ao Nang in the day. Here is an awesome backdrop of the island/hill/mountain.

 

#7 God bless the poor chap tasked to sort out the cables.

 

#8 A couple shares a quiet moment at the beach.

 

#9 Little red stranded boat

 

#10 Let’s ride off into the sunset.

(Actually it’s just the redscale effect. The sun was nowhere near setting.)

With that let’s all bid farewell to Krabi. Till next time! (I really ought to be sleeping hence the swift conclusion)

Red Date

My 1st experience with a Lomo Redscale Negative. This was on the Superheadz UWS (which is on the verge of breakdown, damn me and my clumsy ways) again. Nuff said, let’s jump straight into the pictures!

#1 Loving the pensive, super cereal look. Cerealiously.

#2 Still have no idea which one of us is this and who took this shot. Love the colour nonetheless.

 

#3 Instant favourite. There is just something about those empty benches.

 

#4 You know you just wanna jump right in. Go on. Do it.

 

#5 Let’s ride off into the sunset

 

#6 The perfect way to wind down the weekend (:

 

That’s about the best of the bunch from my virgin redscale roll. Some were slightly underexposed but it’s part and parcel of experimenting. It works really well in bright sunlight and has a richer burst of red compared to the Velvia 100. More like an orange burst. You get the idea.

Okay that’s the end of my post for all you regular readers out there. Go click on the address bar and go check out some food/porn/games, whatever is your poison. Or you can buy my stuff.  The below concerns none of you except for my special reader. No s. Move along now.

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Shoo! Why are you still here?

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Best candid shot ever!

Have fun and don’t miss me too much! Cya in a week’s time 😀

And if you are not the intended viewer of this picture, I suppose this is a just reward for your persistence. Congratulations.