Archive of photos and words
When I start shooting film a few years ago, never in my wildest dream would have thought that I will be meeting a bunch of like-minded film shooters in my area. Thank you The Duckroom Lab and Kodak for hosting this photo walk.
Johor Bahru Town, 5th November 2022. All photos shown above were taken by me on Olympus OM-10, Kodak Gold 200, except for the last one, credit to my new friend, Alya.
Took these photos back in May, the last staycation before another lockdown. Things have opened up and I still haven’t gotten the chance to travel yet. Getting there with my film SLR. Can’t believe October is coming to an end, time squeezed into every corner of our life. Living with the virus, this is how it is now.
Just discovered I have a roll of film I got developed a few months back then that I have forgotten to share, it was all shot during the last cuti-cuti Malaysia (Holiday in Malaysia) season when the second/third wave of corona have yet to strike. Everywhere was crowded with lots of exciting tourists that had before been caged at home for 4-5 months. It was not a place that was very far away from where I lived so technically we are not actually travelling. I have left out those pictures who included faces in it. Enjoy the view as for now we cannot go anywhere (again).
The disheartening fact from the development of this film roll was that because I took out the battery when I am not using the camera, which was strongly unadvised by the previous owner of this camera yet I still do, I have many blank shots resulted from the constantly putting in out pulling out the battery. Lessons always learned in a hard way.
There was a photo exhibition held around my town last year, I submitted some photos included some shown above. Unfortunately, there were too many great competent and my submission didn’t make it to the wall-hanging, but the organiser, kind is him, printed out all the submission into a postcard size and I am guessing it is free to take as many home with them for whoever visited the exhibition (I am certain about the printed out part, I didn’t visit the exhibition due to my poor health last year) perhaps, now some of the photos I took is lying inside someone’s drawer, that I wouldn’t know. Above photo were the last batch of photo I took on that Vivitar P&S camera before I sold it off.
December is approaching, a year went by just like that. The above photos were taken more than a year ago. We wanted to do this trip before my friend’s labor and that baby just turned 1 yesterday.
Three months in complete locked down and still some places are on partially locked down the minute I am typing. Schools open and closed and reopen and who know what will comes next.
Downtown, Johor Bahru.
I don’t go there very often. Image 4,5,6 was taken at the Artist Sarah Park’s solo show in Senso Cafe & Gallery (I previously wrote about this show, I am still finding a way to cultivate my words and improve my writing), one of the rare places in Johor Bahru is still willing to hold artist’s show. We used to have The Art Festival here every year, but a year or two ago they just decided to stop holding it. We have very little art spirit here.
I might go back to the gallery next month to see a show and chit chat with the gallery owner again.
I finally sold the camera which took the above pictures. It was a birthday gift for myself when I was in my early 20s, I am glad it now has gone to an aspiring photographer’s hand, at least I knew for sure, the camera is again, in a better hand.
Kite Festival at Pasir Gudang (2018/2019)
It was a very hot day and a very crowded festival. At one point, we followed the way and it leads us to a village, we can see a little bit of Pulau Ubin (Singapore) from where we were at (in Malaysia). It’s crazy to think of how a country only a sea away from us is so far away now.
In the office, we are all finally getting back on the schedule again after almost 6 months. Everyone is adapting to the new normal, life still goes on. Getting back to what we used to be doing is not ignoring the entire situation going on outside and live in our own bubble but to learn to carry on regardless of the crazy situation outside. Now I am kind of scared seeing people’s mouths, suddenly everyone could be infectious and could be a threat to us. Invisible enemies are the worst.
The distance between peoples is infinite.
Heavy pictures loaded.
Not only until recently while I am sorting out my archive, I found out that I hadn’t even share the photo that I took on my film camera on this blog before.
This is the first batch from the new develops lab I went to before I will always go to the one in my town, but then since this lab is located in Kuala Lumpur, mailing my rolls over is the only way to get it to develop at their lab. I gotta say the result blows me away, some of the pictures above are straight outta the file while the lab in my town always requires me to do the post-work.
I took these photos on the camera that I currently wanted to sell. I am in contact with a photographer who is keen on buying this. A young, ambitious photographer, I’m delighted every time when my hobby leads me to like-minded people.
A year has passed by, I became friend with some of the people I met from this trip and we still met up regularly.
I originally wrote Things are getting better on my side, how about you? but my thought changed after watching the news and now I am wondering, when will this go away?
Heavy pictures loaded.
I previously had written about this trip but I discovered I still had photos that I hadn’t post or define by me at that time as “bad picture” but my mind has changed over time and since we can’t travel right now the only thing I can do is to repeatedly chew on every bit of my past travel memories plus I just don’t want some images to not see the light and I know in this enormous internet world, there is bound to be a space for these pictures to stay.
This trip was a pretty spontaneous trip as the year has come to an end and we need to use up all of our annual leaves before the year officially end. The friend who went with me hit the bottom of her job at that time, her boss was and still ridiculous but I am glad she has now has found her way to deal with those craps that her then didn’t have. I still remember I texted her in the morning talking about the trivia stuff about the trip, she didn’t reply as her boss doesn’t allow her to use her phone during working hours and in the evening she called me while crying out of frustration she got from work in the evening when I was still at my then-colleague house for a small gathering.
Our stay was closed to the beach and we had a balcony room, unlike other tenants. Every morning we woke up in the daylight and sometimes we woke up and see the boat returned but we never make it to see the sun rises and had only enjoyed the sunset view one time. We went to the rooftop bar for a drink one night and one of the waiters from Turkey looks exactly like my then-colleague, we happily chatted and I somehow wish I can travel and work around the world too. And one night my friend and I parted at the beach and I lost her and I was harassed by a man who said he know my friend’s location, of course, I didn’t go with him.
I went to places I previously didn’t go and eat at some rare, remote but delicious restaurant I otherwise wouldn’t go if I didn’t go with this friend. My friend is a person who likes to take adventure when possible and wouldn’t hesitate to take a new challenge and as contrast, I am a person who will think thoroughly before taking any action. Sometimes, I just wish I were someone courageous.
This is a series of my throwback photos collections taken by my film camera, heavy picture loaded.
It was my second time to bring my Olympus OM-10 film camera on a trip. At that time, I was still not familiar with the whole mechanism of a fully manual film camera, a lot of the photos are either out of focus or overexposed, my heart sunk when I got the developed rolls back. I didn’t expect the result to be great but at the very least not to be too terrible, but it was just what it was.
I’ve never written about this trip on this blog (perhaps I did write on another site, I moved around quite a lot). When you grew up, it’s hard for friends to gather in all people showed up, we almost did for the trip, but another friend was sent out to the region last minute.
We arrived in this place in heavy rain, the road to our accommodation didn’t have a single roof shield (it was meant to be not to have a shield as this is in a jungle) Luckily, no one got sick.
We were fortunate as we and another family were the only 2 groups of guests on that day, we were given a large hut. The houses were made by bamboo so at night when the weather gets chilly, the bamboo will shrink and made creak voices which frightens me, I got scared not because of ghosts or intruders hidden in the jungle, but because of the monkey. We got some clear boxes in the house to put our belongings and bags inside, when you left the room you need to put the lids on, sealed it and turn the boxes upside down just in case the monkey barged in.
The dinner place was on top of the hill. Dinner was a stew with mixed vegetables, yummy and healthy to even until these days I still remember the taste, we used charcoal powder to clean our plates afterward. The sky has completely darkened when it’s time for us to get back to our huts, we were all careful to not slip or steps on frogs.
The next day, we went on hiking along with the guide and another group of guests. The road was slippery because of the rain the day before. The tour was guided by the girl in the above picture, she was from the US, I forgot her name but at that time she was a volunteer for the place and have just finished her uni in Malaysia. We climbed trees, swing with rattan from the tree, caught giant ants who didn’t bite, climbed over the dead big tree trunk cover with moss. Got ourselves covered with mud but happy, play staring games with monkeys on that sunny day. We left the place in the afternoon.
It was fun, we kept talking about going back but we never did for the past years. Perhaps, someday in the future.
I filmed a video review of this camera I got a while ago on Carousell with 55 ringgit but then because I didn’t write the script in advance, I ended up stuttered a lot. I got a lot to say but don’t know which to say first just like I have done with my Spontaneity photobook video.
Konica Mini is a free focus camera, it didn’t have buttons at the back at all, as when for the flash to fire is not on your call but by the negative ISO response to the respective environment you were in when you took a shot, kind of amazing to me.
The body has its weight unlike other point and shoot camera I used to own, those were lights and plastic feel. However, the film counter on my camera is broken though, so I have to rely on my memory to remember how many shots I have taken on that very roll of negative.
I took a roll of test shot on AGFA 400. I am quite taken aback by the inability to control the shutter by myself on this camera, I didn’t know it beforehand or else my decision would have changed. From the previous owner sweet reminder, he told me not to take out the battery when the negative is inside obviously I didn’t but it did drain out my battery so I have to change it somehow and actually, whether or not to take off the battery doesn’t really affect the photo at all.
It took me five months to finish this 36 shot, it’s not like I did not bring my camera around and on the contrary, I am always bringing my camera with me. I also had a lot of camera-shy friends I can tell every time they scurried away when I pointed the camera towards them 😦 and also a camera on my hand makes me became hyper self-conscious, the fear of I might get calling out because I took someone photo without their permission scared me every time this might also be the reason why I can’t ever become a professional photographer 🙂
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