Document and Decay

Hello friends, apologies for the lack of activity.
School and several personal projects are consuming most of my time.
With the semester coming to a close, this little weblog will see much more activity!

However, I am happy to say that I am still shooting plenty of film, more than I can afford actually.
These days it is most medium-format, switching between a Hasselblad 503cw and a Mamiya 7ii.
Also, ever since I re-discovered slides, it is really hard to go back to print film again.

At this junction, it is strange to look back at my journey with new revelations in mind.
At the beginning, the very idea and look of film entranced me, I loved everything.
Very quickly though, I found my niche in rangefinders and bnw film, and was wholly consumed by it.
I shot bnw almost exclusively, developing and printing my own works.

And then I decided to give slides another go and the depth and elusively lustrous quality they possessed consumed it.
Do not get me wrong, I still love what a good black and white image can do.
But colours, my god, colours - they are beautiful to behold!
No wonder Van Gogh was so enamored by colour that at one point he even ate his paint to satiate his fix for chrome-yellow.

Shooting MF is a very different experience compared to a rangefinder and 35mm film.
It requires a different approach and a different mind-set, which is very refreshing to say the very least.
Being a self-professed rangefinder supporter, I always thought I would one day buy myself a Leica.
However, I came to the realisation that it is rather redundant.
If I am seeking that extra 3% of ‘quality’ that a Leica system can bring, I am really much better off investing in a medium format of larger.

Well, that’s enough of my meandering ramblings.
I wanted to document my position at this particular junction, so that I can refer back to it half a year down the road.
 
In the meantime, do feel free to check out my sporadic updates on Flickr.

Also, if any of you reading this are fans of Happy Socks, here is a 15% discount code that you can use:
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Last weekend, I joined the large-format (L.F) film guys for an outing to Keong Saik Street, Singapore.

I feel that shooting 4” by 5” (or larger) is the truest expression of love for the medium.
When it comes to L.F, there is startling absence of shortcuts and automation.
Shooting L.F constitutes a willingness to dive into the deep-end and to embrace the medium’s many limitations.
Not only do they have to lug these beasts around, there is also the issue of importing almost everything from the film to the chemicals.
Self-developing is a necessity, as nobody in Singapore commercially caters to 4” by 5” developing anymore.
Some of them are also doing their own L.F, E6 processing - of which I am contemplating of delving into myself.

This outing coincides with my introduction to luminaries such as Stephen Shore, Naoya Hatakeyama and Jeff Chien.
These large-format photographers have such an alluring body of work that is really opening my eyes to new possibilities.
The nature of shooting large-format is markedly different from shooting with a rangefinder on the streets.
It is slower, requires an ample amount of preparation and is infinitely more technical.
As such, the process of shooting becomes more studied and methodical rather than spontaneous.
The resulting images are beautifully studied representation of contextual space and details.

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Mister Zguy with his Chamonix view-camera, photographed by Jackson.

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Composing on a 4” by 5” is an experience in itself.

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Mister Zguy with his ingenious DIY 6” by 17” panoramic camera!

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Some shots of the fellows at work by Thomas and Jonathan.

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A geeky group-shot on a large-format by Jonathan to round things off.

A recent project that I am handling revolves heavily around the idea of religiosity versus spirituality.
I found myself greatly intrigued by the prospect of delineating religion from spirituality.
Religion, as it turns out, appears to border more on being a social phenomenon than a conduit to spirituality.
It pertains largely to the attendance at formal rites and adhering to a set of beliefs, doctrine, law and practices.
All of which are then linked to the creation and governance of the universe.

Spirituality is the ability to contemplate the purpose of our existence and to delay our gratification.
It is the ability to plan ways to better ourselves and to consider long-term consequences of our actions.
It is the spirit that enhances our capacity to make moral decisions.
It is a multidimensional human complex that can be viewed in relation to one’s relationship to self and to others.

Most importantly, an individual’s spirituality may or may not include organized religion.
For now, that makes sense to me and I am inclined to subscribe to the aforementioned notion.

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(Hasselblad 503cw / Portra 400)

Konica Hexar RF with Voigtländer 35mm Color-Skopa P Type II

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Today I shall indulge in some geeky gear-talk.

What Focal Length:
The choice of focal length is highly subjective, and there are innumerable discussions on the ideal length.
While it is good to weigh the opinions of your contemporaries, they cannot decide for you.

At the end of the day it really depends on what type of person/photographer you are.

The 35mm:
Personally, the 35mm is my favourite.
The 35 is wide enough to allow me some context to tell a story.
It is also wide enough for the occasional landscapes that I shoot.

When shooting people, I have to push in closer to my subject.
It forces me engage them, and each time I do so I feel like I have gained something.
When done right, a portrait with the 35 gives a more dramatic perspective as compared to a 50mm or longer.

When shooting a scene, I have enter the personal space of my subjects.
They may not acknowledge me - but I am there, I was there!
I have to be a participant, which is thrilling, rewarding and quite a visceral experience.

The 50mm:
The 50mm is always nice, and some folks swear by it.
As you already know, the 50 is a roughly what the eye sees - cover one eye and look around -
That should be approximately what the 50 sees.

From my experience with the 50, I feel that it makes you more of an observer.
As the 50 is longer and tighter, there is a distinct exercise in selection.
You observe and you isolate, and you work from a relatively further distance.
Finally, if bokeh matters to you - a 50 at the same f-stop will yield more bokeh than the 35.

<35mm:
With a 15, or a 21, the frame will be able to capture a lot - many even too much.
I am not confident of keeping everything in check to avoid having an overly cluttered scene.

Also, I will need to go in way too close for my own comfort as well as my subject’s.
Lastly, even though bokeh is not my utmost priority, I duly appreciate its usefulness and celebrate its beauty.
With anything wider than 35, I would be hard-pressed to get much bokeh even when wide-open.

>50mm:
I do not recommend anything longer than a 50mm for street-photography in general.
Of course, there are folks who use it very successfully.
Photography is my hobby and I aim to derive pleasure from it.
A great portion of the said pleasure comes from the process of shooting.
As such, the overall experience is as important, if not more, then the end-result.

Shooting with a telephoto just feels too detached and too boring.
Furthermore, a telephoto shot with its compressed background and perspective just looks odd to me.
As always, your mileage may vary.

Final Thoughts:
Naturally, all lengths have their merits.
As cliched as it may sound, it really is just a matter of finding the right tool for the task.
Between the 35 and the 50 - both have a different way of telling a story.

You just have to shoot more and decide if you lean more towards being a participant or an observer.

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Rangefinder 35mm Lenses:
One of the reasons for me being a rangefinder convert is the choice and quality of lenses.
Some digging on the internet will yield official charts and what have you touting the optical superiority of RF lenses.
Personally, I trust my eyes - rangefinder lenses just look better and sharper to me.

Also, they are really small, compact and light.
This may seem trivial, but trust me that it matters in the long-run.
My Color-Skopa is so tiny that I can keep the vented-hood on permanently and I do not even need a lens-cap.
And it still does not jut out more than 5cm from the body.

Here are some of more popular 35mm lenses in both the M-Mount and LTM-Mount.
We conducted a little shoot-out, and below are results from the ‘Bokeh Test’.
Basically, these are side-by-side comparisons of the various lenses shot wide-open.
Please note that it is purely for entertainment, and that wide-open varies for the different lenses.

Here is a link to the original test: HERE
It is more comprehensive and includes tests for distortion, center and corner sharpness.

There would a next installation which will include a 35’Cron Asph, Summaron as well as some Nikkors.

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Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi

The lake itself is really nothing spectacular, imagine one of Singapore’s little reservoirs with a quaint temple planted in the middle.
Its perimeter is littered with park-benches and willowy trees, and all you need is about 30 minutes to circumambulate the entire lake.

The main attraction, for me at least, were the folks around the lake and their fascinating myriad of activities.

In the wee hours of the morning, before the sun rises and the work day begins is when the area goes into an exercise frenzy.

In one corner you would see the men lifting primitive-looking stone-weights with grunts and gusto within their open-air gym.
You would come across old men performing unbelievable feats of calisthenics; doing sky-high leg kicks or repeatedly banging their heads against the benches.

The older ladies would be moving through a set of tai-chi movements, or lining up to massage each others back.
Further down are some middle-age ladies twisting their hips so vigorously that I just had to look away.

By night fall, young lovers would have filled the benches, looking some measure of privacy among the low-hanging branches.
Streets vendors would lay out their mats on the ground for their patrons to sit upon and have a snack by the lake.

Their fondness for this seemingly lackluster lake is apparent, I guess its more symbolic than scenic, also the lake is smack in the center of Hanoi.
Lastly, it is probably the one single quiet spot in whole of hectic Hanoi.

If you are ever in Hanoi, spend some time at the lake. Try to get there before sunrise - you are bound to be awed!

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