Year: 2014
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Guindy National Park
Smack in the middle of Chennai is a 2.8 square-kilometer national park – one of India’s smallest – which is an extension of the Tamil Nadu Governor’s residence. Along its fringes can be found the Snake Park, which I’ve posted about previously, and the Childrens’ Park, which on most days is filled with uniformed schoolchildren…
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Found Film Twofer: At the Beach and On the Farm
Not long ago, I bought a roll of Kodak Verichrome Pan 127 film that had been found inside an old Beacon II, a bakelite camera manufactured between 1947 and 1955 by Whitehouse Products in Brooklyn. The seller threw in half a roll of black and white 35mm film – which he thought might have come…
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At the Fair – Chennai Style
There’s a place in north-central Chennai where they set up the local “fair.” Called the “Island Grounds”, it’s the site of the 40th Tourism and Trade Fair. To be honest, we skipped most of the trade fair itself, but found the traditional rides-and-games-and-unhealthy-food part of the fair to be quite interesting, both from a cultural…
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Testing the Agfa Silette Rapid F
When I’m considering vintage cameras for purchase, I specifically look for cameras that still appear to work, and for which film can still be acquired somehow. Then, periodically, I grab a couple and test them out. This week, it’s the Agfa Silette Rapid F. This is actually one of the first cameras I acquired; when…
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Documenting the Dhobis
British soldiers may know the terms “doing your dhobi” (laundry) and “dhobi dust” (detergent) – but they may not be aware of these terms’ origins. A photographer friend recently spent several hours negotiating, on behalf of a small group of photographers, entry into a local “dhobi khana” or “dhobi ghat” – i.e. a community where…
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Found Film Friday: Fungus
It’s “Found Film Friday!” This week’s roll is a bit different from most weeks. This week’s roll seems to have been stored in conditions that allowed some sort of mildew or fungus to grow on the film. This was not obvious in the development process, but when you look at the scanned photos, you can…
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Check Out my Entries for the B&H Wilderness Photo Contest!
B&H Photo (I really should own stock in that company, as much money as I send them) is hosting a Wilderness Photo Competition – and the grand prize(s) are safari trips to Namibia and Botswana. Yes, I’m sending mainly wildlife photos from Namibia – the irony is not lost on me. It wouldn’t do me…
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The Best Chowkidar in the Universe
Way back in 2007, on one of my earliest tours in Afghanistan, I was responsible for writing these weekly situation reports, and I recall there was an open source report being published in the UK that I would regularly rely on as a source, because the author was able to get more detailed information on…
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Short Film: Kinabatangan
I’ve been talking a lot about photography and vintage cameras on this blog, but originally this was all about video editing and production. This is the first “real” video I’ve done in some time – a short documentary film as opposed to some hastily thrown together clips. It’s based on our trip to the Malaysian…
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Found Film Friday: An Airman in Syracuse
It’s “Found Film Friday” again! When I share a roll of film that has been found and rescued from oblivion. No one has seen these photos before – not the people who took them, not the people on them. And now you get to see them… Before I go into this week’s roll, I wonder…
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A Story Behind Every Picture
They say every picture is worth 1,000 words. In the best case, a good picture tells a story. Sometimes the picture itself is the story. This is one of the cool things about photography. Take the photo below, for instance. Not a very good picture – out of focus, not well-framed, and the subject…
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Found Film Friday: Clyde, Texas
In my continuing, admittedly odd, quest to rescue other peoples’ forgotten, undeveloped film from oblivion, I recently acquired a Kodak Brownie Starflash, advertised on eBay as still containing a roll of unprocessed film inside. I received the camera, still in its original box. It was manufactured between 1957 and 1965. You get a lot of…
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Two Towers, Two Cameras, Two Views on Photography
Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Towers make interesting photographic subjects – not because they are the tallest twin buildings in the world, but because of their shape and the textures and patterns on the outside of the building. At night, they are lit in such a way that these shapes and patterns are even more emphasized. So during…
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Greeting the New Year in Kuala Lumpur
Yes, I’m two weeks late. But it’s been a busy two weeks! We recently took our first trip to Malaysia, and wanted it to be a mix of big-city-Kuala-Lumpur / shopping, and seeing monkeys and apes in Borneo. Something for everyone. So New Year’s Eve, smack in the middle of the week-long trip, was spent…
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Mylapore’s Annual Kolam Contest
When I first arrived in southern India, I blogged about the “kolams” made by millions of women in India every day. So it turns out this is also a competitive sport of sorts! Over the last four days, the Mylapore Festival has been ongoing, and one of its main attractions has been the kolam contest. [side…
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Found Film Friday: Trip to Germany
This week’s “found film” is a roll of 35mm film that came with 5 other rolls via an eBay seller who was unwilling or unable to offer any details concerning the film’s origin. Only one of the six rolls yielded any images at all, and they all had an orange tint to them and had…