Black and white photography

6 Aug 2008 Sunny

I finally went for my black and white photography lesson!
It's a small class of only 4 students and my instructor, Maria is a rather kind and patient lady (hope she'll continue to be that with me for the next 3 lessons haha).

At first I do not understand why the class is so small. But after attending the lesson, I understood. There's a lot of hands-on session and things to do. It's not as simple and easy as I thought.

Tonight, I learnt to extract the exposed film by using the given equipment and use the equipment inside the dark room. But I think one of the most difficult things is to load the film on the roller in the dark room in total darkness! I tried (and only me) and dropped the film onto the floor! haha... luckily it's just a practice (no real film is used) tonight. I guess I have to eat more carrots these few days to improve my night eye sight and practice feeling stuff dark at night...

I also have to memorise the steps to do inside the darkroom especially on the usage of equipment! Maria also told us that in the next lesson we'll hands-on and develop a real roll of film. According to her, we'll also have to make sure the solution used has a temperature of exactly 20 degrees! haha I feel like I'm actually doing lab work and I think it has been 10 years since I enter a lab!

Well... I hope I will continue to keep my passion for black and white photography and not be scared off by the difficult but intriguing lab work! haha... anyway hope I'll be less blur as time goes by... haha...

Little India

In March, for the first time in my entire life, I explored Little India - the colourful ethnic quarter - like a tourist (and actually try to dress up like a tourist too to facilitate my photo-taking!).

I believe, if it's not due to my photo assignment requirements, I'll actually have missed this interesting place till much further notice.

Following the walking trail suggested by Uniquely Singapore, I slowly explored Little India on a normal Tuesday morning, observing the people starting their business and performing their daily chores. I like what I see and for the first time, I viewed Little India in a different light. Not as a very crowded place or just a place where Mustafa is located. But a place where you can smell the scent of spice and flowers and get a feel of the Indian culture. Some pics to share:

Counting down to my next Photography Lesson...

I’m so excited… counting down days to coming Wednesday for my 1st lesson in Black and White Film Photography.

Since young, I’ve always like photography. But it was really a year ago or so that I really decided to choose photography as a hobby and buy the most expensive thing I’ve ever own and buy – my baby DSLR Nikon D40X. I guess I’ve 2 people to thank for this choice. First and foremost, of course is babe who is one of my best friend (and still going to be 30 years later… hee) and partner for my basic photography class in PSS. Without her, I guess I will never take the first step to sign up for the course, or to buy my first DSLR.

The second person surprisingly is actually the scriptwriter for the show 《白袍之恋》.
This is because if he / she never arranged 安以轩 (饰 刘逸宁) in the show to be an avid photographer and takes beautiful black-and-white photos, I believe I’ll not fall head-over-heels with photography. Yes, my preferred is actually black-and-white film photography, instead of the normal colour digital photography.

Why? Because when it comes to taking people, black-and-white appears to withstand transience of time and further highlight their facial expressions.
Because I want to take photos that reflect what I see at that exact moment - photos that reflect my thoughts in that instant.
Because I’m stubborn as I prefer to do things my way?

我喜欢摄影因为我想拍下我生命里的幸福点滴。