I haven’t updated this photoblog for what seems like an eternity but I am still getting about 20-30 visits per day…must be stray or lost surfers.

Anyways, I just have too many commitments at this stage to manage this space meaningfully. I am still taking photographs and 50mm is still my favourite focal length. In fact I rented a darkroom for a whole week earlier this year in Brisbane and it was awesome. I PRINTED MY OWN NEGATIVES !!!!!! I can’t describe the feeling – magical, mystical, fulfilling, whatever – It was great!

You can find more information about the darkroom I hired here – Blanco Negro – Chris is a great guy and a great teacher. (Chris, if you are reading this, Thank you again!)

Also, my old computer crashed a few months ago and I have a shiny one now. Did not loose and pictures because I have the negs!! However it messed up my workflow a little.  Haven’t made the effort to set up my scanner to my new computer and also, I think the software that came with my scanner might not be compatible with OS Lion. Anyways….. one of these days.

What else………. Adele is a great singer. Period.

Will leave you with some pictures of my gears. Boring I know but it is a PHOTOblog after all

Best to all!!!!

He once said…

often people ask what i am photographing.
it is a hard question to answer and the best i can come up with is
… life today.

Left Burnie Tasmania 0630 hrs.

Reached Melbourne 0730 hrs.
Went to City and back to the airport for,

a 1900 hrs flight to Canberra. Rented a white Mitsubishi Lancer. Overnight in Novotel.
Woke up 0600 hrs, can’t sleep so walked around city with ZI/28mm and MP/50mm
Did some stuff for the rest of the day – waste of time but necessary.
Left Canberra 1710 hrs – checked in my luggage with my films in it…. D’oh!

Reached Brisbane 1835 hrs. Picked up a brown Camry.
One and a half hours drive (stopped at McD’s midway for a Mighty Angus) up north.
Arrived destination – Crowne Plaza Pelican Waters – 2100hrs.

Now, Earl Grey tea, banana bread and updating this blog.

35mm and 50mm are standards. A great percentage of images in the history of photography were taken with either of these two focal lengths.
Naturally, with single focal lengths, you will have your own favourites after awhile.
I started off with 35mm and 50mm. Going back and forth between the two. Both worked well but lately (after about 50 rolls of film), I am beginning to favour 50mm.
With 50mm, it frames what I see very well. I seldom need to make adjustments to my composition.
With 35mm, sometimes too close, sometimes too far. Usually have to tweak my composition a little with a few steps forwards/backwards.

This is where 28mm comes in. Will try this out for my upcoming trip and see if it’ll be a better match with my 50mm.

Here is me with my Leica MP, Tom A Rapidwinder, 50mm PreAsph Summilux, Artisan and Artist ‘Kobe’ Strap.

Have a good weekend.

Television is a stream of underselected images, each of which cancels its predecessor.

Each still photograph is a privileged moment,
turned into a slim object that one can keep and look again.

– On Photography, Susan Sontag -

On photography,
If you can remember, I have been trying a few ISO 100 films lately. Have decided to settle with Ilford FP4+. Great tones with a traditional look/grain when developed with Rodinal. Bought 30 rolls altogether.
Tri-X has, is and will always be great. Got myself 50 rolls to burn.
Have decided to stick with Rodinal as my main developer. Just couldn’t be bothered with mixing powders (Kodak D76 in my case).
An interesting observation, I developed a roll of Tri-X 2 weeks ago with the temperatures of the developer, fixer and wash all standardised to 21 degrees centigrade (previously, I only controlled the temperature of the developer alone).
The result……………… almost no negative curl !!

Also, can’t believe my photo blog is now more than 1 year old.
Been very happy with BlueHost (GREAT service!), WordPress and ProPhoto Blogs – Thumbs up !!

Why 26th of March…… beats me.

Why they still need to get the cabling done when I have houses all around me – some of which has already been there for 20 years – with phone connections……. beats the hell out of me.

So far, I have only been shooting ISO 400 B & W films. Great for general purpose but the trade off , you get rather unpredictable results especially if the contrast of the scene is very high (which, thankfully is not very often for me).
Cambodia was sunny, Egypt was very sunny….. wasn’t too impressed with a few of the shots. 

Thus, I am currently experimenting with some ISO 100 B & W films. But which ones?
I bought 2 rolls of Fuji Acros 100 and 2 rolls of Rollei Retro 100. Currently shooting my first roll of Rollei Retro 100. Can’t wait to finish the roll and see the result. I’ve heard that Rollei Retro 100 and Rodinal yields superb ‘old time’ images.