Singapore Botanic Gardens in B&W (Part 3)

Here's the continuation to Part 2.

This flower was about 2 cm in diameter, and I was trying to do a macro of it. When lo and behold! A bee landed on it. And so I happily depressed the shutter, only to worry about the possibility of wrong exposures and narrow DOF too late (:



Here it is, without the bee. I think I still need to practice on better macros with my monster.



The famous bandstand. The thing about digitising negatives is that, its so hard to get any shadow or highlight areas in which can be obtained by dodging or burning in the real darkroom. Hence the sky is blown out here, although my print still had cloud details.



Bonsai tree



A couple (?) enjoying time together under the shade of a large tree



Family leaving the gardens



This one's prolly my favourite image from the whole series. Its a frangipani flower, fallen into the bush. The photo's dark, the flower's decomposing... It just speaks out to me.

Singapore Botanic Gardens in B&W (Part 2)

Here's a continuation to the first part here.

It was at the Ginger Path where I ended, and ran to a nearby bench to put in new film before running back to my previous spot where I was kneeling on the grass timing my photo just before a family walked past.

This here's a pretty ginger flower alongside the path.





Then I walked on and spotted this lonesome looking bench against a plain backdrop of leaves. I was happily fiddling with my camera, when this girl came along. She saw me aiming at the bench, and saw that there were other benches, but she sat down on my bench of choice! WHAT LUCK. First I have an angmoh family parking themselves in my photos, making me wait forever for them to leave before taking a photo, and now I have a girl blatantly sitting there. Ah well, life throws you boulders sometimes.



Then off I went in search for a cool drink, being parched from the heat. I found an ice cold Snapple, and a pretty tree with leaves settled on its trunk.



Next stop was the Cactus area.



I cannot emphasise what suffering one goes through, juggling a monster camera, a huge spotmeter, a swinging sling bag, and a bottle of Snapple. Imagine what happens when you need to change the lens. AAAAAHHH. What a fun experience it was (:



Someone told me I could sell postcards upon seeing this photo (: he made my day!



It was a tiny white flower, and behind it was a bench. Where two banglas were sitting. And as it was low on the ground. So I had to figure out how to slant my camera really low on a tripod, bend my body like rainbow and peer at the screen, without letting the banglas catch a glimpse of my leggings-clad butt. Ah well at least it ended up nice enough!

Some random cactuses...



Vandalised ):



And we end with a lonesome bench! (:



Till the next post (:

Singapore Botanic Gardens in B&W

Last Sunday, the old man dropped me off at SBG, at the Bukit Timah exit.

I was to walk to the Nassim exit while he sang karaoke (haha, our old family tradition of weekend karaoke) and then he'd pick me up when I was done shooting.

Sweet! It was the perfect excuse to carry my monster of a TLR, the Mamiya C330, two lenses - 80mm f/2.8 and 55mm f/4.5, tripod, shutter release, and lots of 120mm film.

If you saw a person struggling with and dragging along a weird old school huge camera on a tripod with legs extended and poking everywhere, holding a huge spotmeter in the other hand, that's me!

Anyway, let's cut to the chase.

It was a pain in the ass to shoot flowers in B&W (cos flowers to me are colours) as well as do macro using a very-susceptible-to-parallax-error Twin Lens Reflex camera. But hey, I'm a masochist!

OKAY, moving on. Here's the first shot I did, at the entrance to the carpark.



Needless to say, many cars had to try and avoid an ass sticking up in the air at the roundabout, with a head stuck to the waist level finder of the camera, oblivious to cars. I'd love to upload this really LARGE so you can see how sharp and detailed it is (oh the beauty of using a tripod) but the blog layout is too small unfortunately. This might imply a change is coming. OKAY moving on...



I LOVE this plant. Crazy plant that resembles fireworks. I'd love to shoot it top down to get a circular formulation, but I have no idea how to attempt that with a crazy heavy monster TLR (:



The sense of satisfaction, seeing your huge negatives, so perfectly focused and sharp. I LOVE THE TRIPOD!! Even if it takes me more than 10 minutes just to take a shot sometimes. Okay, most of the time.

Cute little orchid wannabes:



This here's a cute ginger plant that I didn't fancy doing a macro on.



And this is the ONLY shot I didn't like from all three rolls I shot:



I suppose I should have used a narrower DOF to throw the background out of focus... ah well, at least I got the water smooth and silky.



Did I mention how much fun it is to dodge and burn in B&W too? I LOVE the darkroom. But when it is not at hand, digital darkroom's fine too (: Burning the highlights for the photo above sucked though, for the scanner was unable to capture enough details. Will shall have to see what the real darkroom produces (:







Ahh, flare, reminiscent of fungus on a lens ):

And this is the last shot from my first roll, Ilford FP4, at SBG, from the Ginger Path.



Its a prelude to things to come! (:

Till part 2 of SBG.

Sapa, Vietnam

Shot on Agfapan 400, developed in HC-110B.

This was the view from my homestay in Sapa. It wasn't exactly a homestay though given the term. I felt like I was in a cheap hostel in the countryside, contrary to my expectations of sleeping under the same roof as the locals, or even eating dinner at their table squatting on a tiny plastic stool.

Anyway, when I stuck my head out of the hut, the mountainous landscape was misty, and the clouds had completely blocked out the sun. I had always imagined taking a photo like this, photos I had always seen online, with the mountains having no texture but just forming layers in graduated shades against each other. It was a perfect opportunity (: And after development of the film, I was quite surprised to see the light falling into the valley. Whether it was the sun's rays breaking through the clouds, flare, or even a development problem, it sure worked!

Ilford Delta 400

My B&W module classmate. Oversized denim cuffed with canvas lace-ups. Love it!



My sister @ Sakae Sushi. Cherian George was sitting behind her (:



Taken on a beautiful evening walking up the slope to meet Timmy.



Here's Timmy



He looks like a dumpling here



This is his crimson chin. Timmy and the Crimson Chin!





I think its cool that I can see myself in the reflection!

She looked pretty cool in real life





I miss Clementi MRT.



Someone broke out of a carpark

Some snaps from Hanoi trip starts here:

Here's the view from my bed in Hanoi



My roomie who takes forever to wake up (:



British lecturer meets Vietnamese editor



Kai Ru and Miak @ Hoa Sua, where we had a baking course



Hard at work for the Sojourn article



The most fantastic coffee I've had in a long time





Miak at Sapa



Church



It's a crazy commercialised place



Till we get muddy hiking in the scenic hills



and meet cute locals



who tempt you into buying things with their innocent looks



(: