Back to the monkey god temple

Quality Lion dance that afternoon

Birthdays have the habit of coming back every year, so for the third time I think I find myself at the TIONG BAHRU QI TIAN GONG temple in the area of Singapore called Tiong Bahru for the birthday of the temple. One of my friends reminded me of the event and I was super happy it was at a time where I could attend.

This is a Taoist temple, a popular faith in Singapore among the Chinese population. I still don’t know much about the Taoist faith and practice, so i won’t try to explain it here. The spirits and gods have  a great place in the faith and they are honored through offerings like Chinese Opera, joss paper bonfires, ..

The celebration involved lions dances, a dragon dance troop, musicians, as above and below. Singaporeans say that Taoist are noisy. I think I have some old shots of the gentleman below.

The person that looks to be the man in charge posing with the lions and some banners.

Meanwhile across the street, the porters of the gods sedan chairs are taking some rest.

I shot 2 rolls of Tri-x (one above, one below this paragraph), one roll or Provia 400H (in between) and hundreds of digital pictures using the magic combo, Leica M6 for film and the M262 for digital; for lenses I brought the 50 cron, mostly on the M6, the 35cron mostly the M262 then. I also brought along the 90mm Elmarit for a few digital portraits.

At that moment the gods starts to be carried in 3 sedan chairs to the place where the bonfire will be lit.

Below some of the carriers of the three sedan chairs.

I don’t know if they are really heavy but the guys are relaying each others regularly.

This write up is about the film shots and should be called “You are all my favorites”. It found very difficult to select between the shots. I have included the shots of the two Tri-x rolls, I will do another small article about the Provia roll which has its own story.

We now arrived at the field where the bonfire will be lit, a small crowed is gathered. Led the the Taoist priests.

One of the gods chair with the idol in the middle.

 

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The first film with the LOMO KonstruKtor.

So I finally finished assembling the LOMO Konstructor last week end. I loaded it with a roll of Ilford Pan 400 ISO, my favorite low end film and went for a Sunday stroll with the family around Singapore.

The camera is fun, light, small. Cracking is not obvious so I had a few overlapping frames “lomo style”. It looks like 1 to 10 meters is the ideal range to take shots, as further out the lack of sharpness shows and lacks of interest. Framing is a bit random, an I did not manage to take a vertical shot. Finally the shutter is a bit difficult to press, causing frequent camera shake.

Asahi

 

 

 

 

Asahi beer pump on club street, shot in the shades, probably one meter distance. My favorite shot.

 

This is a bit unfair to shot Lomography so close to the bin, but…

 

Mrs B. in the sun

 

I think this picture of my son is also quite good, a bit of frame overlap on the left, enough detailed on the center. Hey I’m a lomographer.

 

 

 

Singapore B Side: more card board recycling in a small alley in Chinatown. More frame overlap to the right this time.

 

Oops the lomographer lomographed. Even wife and children can use the Konstructor. With an aperture of F10 you really need ISO 400; maybe a bit overexposed in broad daylight but perfect as soon as there are a bit of shadows and not enough inside. Probably a bit of camera shake is involved here as well.

“Potatoo Head”a new place in Keong Saik road, in Chinatown, another example of the gentrification of the area where a new “trendy”place replaces the old corner coffee shop. The lack of sharpness really shows heere

Camera:Lomo Konstruktor, 50mm F10

Film: Ilford PAN 400 ISO

The uncle he is a painter – Singapore

 

 

 

 

This old folk was renovation some mural paintings along Keing Saik road near chinatown.

 

 

All shots with the Leica IIIc with the Jupiter 12 35mm f2.8; I used the Ilford Pan 400ISO.

Still 4 or 5 shots going wrong on the film, but the rest is ok, but in short the Leica is not 100 operational.

The Jupiter is not bad after all but it back focuses a bit, it is definitely embarrassing of closer shots.

I just bought a Helios viewfinder for 35,85 and 135 mm so there will be more exploration of the Jupiter but also the Canon 135mm soon.