May throwback

When life is slow and shooting slower, or when life is too fast to shoot, isn’t there an opportunity to look back at the albums ( ie Lightroom folders) for recent or not so recent pictures?

The Sultan Mosque in Kampong Glam

I don’t’ know how you sort your pictures, for me the digital shots end up being sorted in monthly folders (unless there is a very special event and I group them into that folder). I also end up putting the scans of each film roll in a separate subfolder under each monthly one.

Working 24/7

I originally load these images in my working hard drive, but then move them to an externals one always attached to my PC plus a couple of backups. Its not fool proof but it means all my pictures are both at arms reach and reasonably safe. I do not have an off site backup though.

Sentosa Concrete Jungle

That also ensures I can “focus” on the images that are recent (or not so ) and that I have not shared.

Sentosa by night

Well lets say that when shooting gets slow and I need something to share I know where to look at. SO today these are some shots done around Singapore in May 2021, nearly 6 month ago.

Tibetan Buddhist temple in beaty lane

Another time another place says the song. Walking around a few places I liked carrying around the Leica M262 and I think the 35mmSummicron Asph v2.

Bugis

It is getting colder in London and there is some satisfaction looking at pictures from a warmer place.

Waiting for you

Don’t worry I am not turning all sad and nostalgic, I have ordered some Ilford Fixer and some Vitamin C for the next round of Caffenol and even invested in a Thermometer so I can work properly. I have to Washing Soda at the moment but that will come soon.

Advertisement

Soft lock-down day minus 3

For my foreign readers, in these hard times, up to the 3rd of April,  not a lot have changed in Singaporean’s lives. Obvious places of mingling, like bars and discos, had been closed a few weeks back and we were encouraged to work from home when possible and apply social distancing, controls were put at the border and a quarantine system was put in place.

Quarantined Buddha

Things changed Friday when the prime minister announced a “soft lock down”, basically we are going to be on lock-down like a big part of the human kind. Nearly all public places will be closed, but for the soft part, we will still be allowed to walk out.

Panic buy

So Friday saw a moderate panic buy (including massive queues at Victoria Secret, LuluLemon  and Louis Vuitton, more reassuring of the human race people were also queuing in the Japanese library Kinokuniya.

Our Community Center, during free mask distribution

Restaurants will close next Tuesday night, so after what looked like a dreadful Friday night, a lot of places where pretty full, Saturday and Sunday, of course respecting  mandatory social distancing. We also visited some friend’s restaurant Saturday, as we fell the need to support the businesses and share a bit of love and friendship in these hard time.

Wat Ananda Metyarama Thai Buddhist temple

I did not really dig in the details of the soft lock down, but just in case I started the Sunday by a 37 Km ride with my son. And in the afternoon we had a long walk to our Community Center and back to collect our free reusable masks (Thanks guys). These shots were done along the way with the Leica M262 and the Summaron 35mmF3.5 LTM.

Wat Ananda Metyarama Thai Buddhist

First stop, a few clicks down the Community center, was the Wat Ananda Metyarama a Thai Buddhist temple, a very nice Thai temple (surprise !), an at the back are more buildings. Including one for nuns or monks.

The mice

Birds and gods

I don’t know what this building is. A king of shrine, with drying laundry, birds in cages and gods effigies.

Polis

I want to shoot this little police hut for a while (Polis is Police in Malay), geographically  it looks like it was commanding the entrance of the Malaysian enclave that was containing the railway station and the railway tracks up to Malaysia. But I am not 100% sure.

ST MATTHEW’S CHURCH – NEIL ROAD

St Matthew’s Church is now all wrapped up, you can check my post about it here. I cannot really give any information about the new development there.

Social distancing

Shake Shack Mural

Social distancing v2

Or dance steps.

Sri Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple

As part of earlier measures places of worship are now closed, but devotees congregate (in small numbers) in front of temples.

The odd guy

That’s it for today! Keep safe, follow the rules, and read many posts ever after.

ZHOUJIA QINGMING – Part 2

A small follow up to y last post about this celebration

Above is mister Lee Kum Yuen, he is the current master and son of the master who brought this Kung Fu / Lion Dance style in Singapore. There is a very interesting video here https://youtu.be/kZq6iGxfWUo.

I shot a couple of rolls with the Leica M4 and either the Summaron 35mm F2.8 (the one with Goggles) or a Summicron 50mm v5.

Above is the typical Lion Dance troupe transport, a lorry used the rest of the week for hardware work.

Below the troupes gathering before climbing up the slope to the part of the temple where the celebration takes place. (Did I mention if the other post the temple is massive?)

The slope is tough, the sun is hot, and yes they drum up-hill

Below starts the celebration directed by a monk,

below the final parade and one minute drumming of all the troops together.

The color shots are Kodak Portra 400, the black and white are Ultrafine Extreme 400, hand-rolled.

Oh yes if you want to see more, come back soon, I also did  a certain number of digital shots as well.

Little monks in the Thien Mu Pagoda – Hué – Vietnam

 

Little monks in the Thien Mu Pagoda – Hué – Vietnam

 
I realize it’s been a long break; my last post dates back from the end of September! Like many other people I have been busy; nearly two seeks in Vietnam, kid going back to school, seeing friends, walking around with a camera and a bit of work, in a word: life.

So Vietnam was our last destination, we spent 10 days in the the middle and south part between Hué and Ho Chi Minh city aka Saigon. Weather at this time of the year is not great and actually it is the start of the bad season. We had a lot of rain in Hué, but we were quite lucky in other places.

Camera wise I slightly modified my usual kit and brought along the Angenieux 70-210 F3.5 AI lens instead of the Nikkor 80-210 F2.8 AF. The reason is that I wanted a lighter kit that fits in a back-pack I borrowed from a friend. Yes I was again wondering about a new bag bt could not make up my mind so I decided to try a back-pack instead of taking along the Crumpler 8Mio back (which is no longer produced it seems). I could fit in the bag:
– the Hasselblad 500M with an extra back
– the D700
– the 50mmF1.8D
– the 17-35mmF2.8AF
– the Angenieux zoom

There is enough room left for the lonely planet,the light-meter, a couple of films. The rest of the accessories goes in the checked luggage, including spare film.

As we traveled “free and easy” (meaning we did not have our own car and driver all the time) I enjoyed the back-pack very much as it enabled me to carry all my stuff around all the time. On the down side, even if this one (Lowepro 200 something) has a kind of “Sling” feature, it is not as practical as a shoulder bag. So I think I will have more crisis of looking for the perfect bag in the future again.

Oh the picture, this is one of the first of the film shots, these kids are little monks in the Thien Mu Pagoda in Hué. This pagoda is famous for its 7 levels tower, but also for the monk who drove from there to Saigon to set himself in fire in 1963 in protest against the government.