-
Recent Posts
- Gulshan 3: Weekend Escapes to Thailand
- Another Year, Another Itdyadi
- Our Truly Amazing TV Debut: Behind the Scenes
- Holi in Bangladesh Part 2: the Ruined Roll
- Holi in Bangladesh
- Hashing Out Old Dhaka
- The Blog is Back: First Impressions of Dhaka, Bangladesh
- A Few Words About My Father
- The Sky is NOT Always Blue in California
- “Artisans” documentary series – final (?) episode
Author Archives: Tom (Admin)
Dispatch from Sierra Leone: River Number Two Beach – Part 2
Just sharing a couple of short videos we did at “River Number Two” Beach south of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Overcast day at the beach, what better activity than to fly a quadcopter with GoPro around the beach? We took a … Continue reading
Posted in Sierra Leone
Tagged aerial, beach, Freetown, GoPro, Quadcopter, River Number Two, Sierra Leone, UAV
1 Comment
Dispatch from Sierra Leone: Day at the Beach
This weekend the weather was supposed to be – well, “not as bad.” So we planned a trip to the beach – a great opportunity to unwind a bit after a harrowing few weeks at work. A co-worker and I … Continue reading
Posted in Sierra Leone, Wildlife and Nature
Tagged Freetown, River No. 2 Beach, River Number Two Beach, Sierra Leone
Leave a comment
Found Film: The Smith Family Goes to Florida
For the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at a batch of Kodacolor-X film from the 1960s, generally featuring a family’s special occasions, but for some reason never developed. This week we accompany them as they go to Florida (and … Continue reading
Dispatch From Sierra Leone: Sunset
Awful news from next door in Liberia in articles like this and this. Here in Freetown, we’ve gotten some relief from the rain, and (knocks on wood) the number of new ebola cases per day has slowed considerably. Let’s hope … Continue reading
Breaking Rocks in Sierra Leone
This morning I woke up to a rare non-rainy August morning in Freetown. Saturday! So I grabbed my quadcopter and my camera and headed out to one of the highest-rated local beaches, River No. 2 Beach, where the local community has … Continue reading
Posted in Sierra Leone
Tagged beach, breaking rocks, child labor, Freetown, No. 2 River, Sierra Leone
1 Comment
Found Film Friday: Good Times for the “Smith” Family
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve gotten to know a family (dubbed “Smith” by me) via a pile of undeveloped film from the 1960s which ended up with me. The Smith family was primarily into photographing the kids, but … Continue reading
Posted in Found Film
Tagged airstream, C-22, camping, found film, horses, kodacolor-x
Leave a comment
Dispatch from Sierra Leone: Walking in Freetown
There are two seasons in Sierra Leone: the dry season…and the rainy season. Although there is some rain in the “dry” season, the vast majority of the 3 meters of rain that fall on Freetown during a typical year occur between … Continue reading
Posted in Sierra Leone
Tagged church, Freetown, kids, mosque, Sierra Leone, street photography
Leave a comment
Dispatch from Sierra Leone: Rain and Monkeys
It has been an extremely challenging first week in Sierra Leone. An ebola outbreak – the world’s worst to date – has stretched the country’s already limited medical capacity to the limit. Although the epidemic has been going on since … Continue reading
Found Film: The Smith Family Celebrates Easter
Last week we met the “Smith” family (as I’ve decided to name them), celebrating Christmas in a series of moments captured on Kodacolor-X film – manufactured between 1963 and 1972 – on an unknown camera. This week it appears they’ve … Continue reading
Found Film: The Smith Family Celebrates Christmas
I have no idea who this family is, but now that I have developed a bunch of their pictures, I’ve gotten to know them a bit and it only seems appropriate to give them a name. I’m calling them the … Continue reading
Return to the Dhobi Khana
Don’t like doing laundry? These people earn a living doing laundry the old-fashioned way. At various “dhobi khanas” in India, washing clothes – but more often things like sheets, towels, and occasionally uniforms – is still done by hand at … Continue reading
Posted in Life in India
Tagged aerial video, Chennai, chetpet, dhobi, dhobi ghat, dhobi khana, Quadcopter
4 Comments
Found Film Friday: Brownie Hawkeye
This week’s found film comes from the inside of a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. The Brownie Hawkeye is a camera made in the 1950s. It takes 620 rollfilm, and this camera contained a roll like the one below, which uses a … Continue reading
Vintage Camera Test: Franka Werke Bonafix
A few months ago I picked up this Franka Werke camera for “next to nothing” (20 bucks or so) that appeared from the photos to be in near-mint condition. When it arrived, it looked like it had been stored in … Continue reading
Posted in Vintage cameras
Tagged Bonafix, camera, effigy, evil eye, Franka, fungus, Hindu, procession, vintage, Werke
3 Comments
Found Film Friday: Santa Fe Porsche Show
This week’s roll of found film came to me from “Mike” – a collector of old slides who was giving up on a “found film” hobby, he sent me a half dozen or so rolls and acknowledged there was a … Continue reading
“Found Film Friday” on a Sunday
Since around May, 2013, I have been posting “found film” finds pretty regularly – and for the last 8 months, it has been every Friday like clockwork. This weekend is the first time I missed a Friday, thanks to an … Continue reading
Photowalk: Gritty Black and White
One of my favorite camera/film combinations is a (relatively) cheap Ricoh Kr-5 Super II – at just over 20 years old, one of my newest cameras – and Tri-X black and white film. Lots of people go for “fine grain” … Continue reading
Posted in Photography, general
Tagged architecture, black and white, Chennai, gritty, mosque, thousand lights, tri-x
Leave a comment
Found Film: 1949 Chevy
This week’s roll of “found film” comes from a Kodak Six-16 Brownie Junior, made between 1934 and 1942. From a technology standpoint, it’s virtually indistinguishable from a Brownie Target Six-16, made between 1946 and 1951. Given the pace of technology … Continue reading
Shooting with Expired Film
One of the folks I often get “found film” from accidentally shipped me unused film. Typically people will discover a partially or fully shot roll of film that has been completely forgotten inside an old camera. Sometimes (rarely) the roll … Continue reading
Testing the Kodak Brownie No. 0 Model A
It seems that camera naming conventions have never been simple. The Kodak Brownie No. 0 Model A was manufactured between 1914 and 1935. It was a small cardboard/wood and box camera with a rotary shutter and two reflecting finders. It sold … Continue reading
Posted in Vintage cameras
Leave a comment
Processing Your Own Film
I recently had a query from someone on whether I would teach him how to process his own film. Unfortunately I’ve only been at it for about 9 months, far too short to be in any position to teach on … Continue reading
Posted in film processing
Tagged black and white, C-41, color, film photography, film processing, photo equipment, process
1 Comment
Found Film Friday: New Year’s Road Trip 1994
…and just like that, we go from “class”…to a little bit crass. After weeks of posting historically meaningful post-war photos that were rescued from oblivion, we have a roll of pictures that looks like it was snapped on a three-day … Continue reading
Gypsies in India
We regularly join “photowalks” here in Chennai, and were surprised to hear we were going to visit a “gypsy colony.” A bit of googling informed me that the “Roma” people speak a language closely related to Hindi, and are thought … Continue reading
Posted in film processing, Life in India, Photowalks
Tagged Cross-processing, Gypsy, Narikurava, Narikuravar, Thiruvanmiyur
2 Comments
It’s Jackfruit Season in India!
-Wait, what’s a jackfruit??? You may know, but we didn’t, before we moved to India. And if I had ever encountered one on a tree, I certainly wouldn’t know what to do with it! Take a look at these pictures. … Continue reading
Found Film: Korea, 1946, roll 4 (Homecoming)
This is the fourth and final installment in a series of posts about four rolls of film that were found among items acquired in an estate sale in rural Washington state. To recap what I think I can safely assume … Continue reading
Posted in Found Film
Tagged found film, homecoming, Korea, soldier, USAT Frederick Funston, Washington
7 Comments
Day at the Beach
Marina Beach, Chennai, India
Posted in Life in India
Tagged beach, Chennai, dog, fish, India, Marina Beach, surfing
Leave a comment