Posts tagged "photos"
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My First Time in Myanmar
Photo taken on Sony Nex-5 in 2012. Around a decade ago the world was a vastly different place. Aung San Suu Kyi had been released and was poised to run her country, finally. The country, so close to mine yet so far apart in so many ways, was opening up. I set out to try to see it before it became another Southeast…
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Hari Gawai, some years ago
One of the things I love about my home region is how it's home to so many unique cultures. Even in countries that I know well, like Malaysia, I never run out of things to do, people to meet or things to learn. In 2007 or so I went to Sarawak, one of the two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo, and lived with a…
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Silhouettes
Most people love the Golden Hour. I also love the moment just before the sun sets where the light changes so quickly you don't know what you're going to get. A photo of temples at Angkor Wat, some time in 2005. Nikon F-601, not sure which film stock. A photo of camels in Jaisalmer, India. 2006. Canon 350D.
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My month so far
A series of unprecedented storms swept us in San Francisco in January and February. Dark clouds and gloomy skies are not your typical fare here. I felt just as gloomy, but also thankful for the rain's impact on California's drought situation. Soon, the sky started becoming bluer and bluer. Sometimes pink too. And now…
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Chinese Bakeries of San Francisco
Photo taken on Leica M3, 50mm Summilux, Ektar 100. Developed and scanned by The Darkroom. When you think of bakeries in San Francisco, perhaps you think of sourdough. Certainly, there are some well known bakeries in the city known for their sourdough, but that's not a style or type of bread I enjoy at all. I don't…
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Black and White: Three Photos Outside
This is one of the photos that made me very glad I had a film camera in my pocket. I was able to jog alongside these friends, who were having so much fun on a Segway tour of San Francisco's Crissy Fields area near the Golden Gate Bridge, and they were very kind to pose for a photo for me. Ever since I got my Olympus…
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Little Saigon, SF
Photo taken on Olympus XA2 on Fuji Superia 400, developed and scanned by Underdog Film Lab. Mention the Tenderloin and a certain type of San Francisco resident will definitely scrunch up their faces. "Homeless people", "poop", "crime"; look behind all of those terms and I believe the fear…
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The Magazine, SF
There's a curious shop on a street I walk past daily, that makes it look like we're in the '60s. It sells vintage magazines and other memorabilia. It also has vintage theatrical programs and erotica. I thought it would be a nice shot to take photo of a retro magazine store with my retro camera. So here's a shot of The…
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Test roll: Nikon L35TWAD
As I previously mentioned, I've had my Nikon L35TWAD for some time but was not able to turn it on until now. I'm glad I managed to do that, because it's been such a joy to use! The idea that you can have two very good lenses: a wide and a telephoto one, in such a tiny package, is wonderful to me. Here's a test shot at…
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Music for the Soul
I was having a horrible day in August 2020, feeling shut in and defeated. There was no Covid-19 vaccine yet, and we had been sheltering in place in our tiny studio apartment for around 6 months by that time. Going out for a walk with my camera was something that helped me find the little joys of life. I hadn't used my…
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Roadtrips and Chicken Rice Balls
In my last year of university I started dating a person who lived 250 miles away from me. It was my first serious relationship, and my last long(ish) distance one. Before we found a living arrangement (that involved me moving to her city), we met sometimes in the middle. Luckily, her country was full of fun towns and…
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Past Life: Sana'a Street Life
Getting to see Sana'a in 2009 was an honor. It was one of my favorite cities: ever. Anywhere. I stayed with a friend and I got to wander around sometimes with him and his family, but sometimes alone. It was the weight of history and the air of what was about to happen: I frequently described Yemen as 'better than a set…
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Street Life: Air Mata Kucing
As a child, my parents would put us on a bus or train to Kuala Lumpur to see friends, visit people, or just have a weekend break. One of my strongest memories of KL: getting out of the overnight train at the old railway station, and strolling to Chinatown (Petaling Street) for breakfast. Air mata kucing (literally…
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The Market in Mae Salong
Mae Salong is one of the most interesting little towns I've ever been to. It is said that many of the town's folks are descended from the southern Kuomintang army during the Chinese civil war. They went south through to Thailand with instructions to wait there in case Generalissimo Chiang wanted to mount a southern…
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Where I Live Now: Near San Francisco's Mission District
In 2018, my wife and I moved to San Francisco. We love the Mission district and try to spend as much time there as we can, especially for groceries and tacos. (La Oaxaqueña is our favorite.) I'm especially interested in the less gentrified bits of it that remain. A few steps away from Valencia Street, there are still…
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One Shot: The Farallones
Sometimes you have a bad photography day where there is no light or poor light, you don't get any of the shots you want because you haven't had coffee, or you just don't know your equipment very well. In this case, I had a borrowed Fujifilm XT-30 and telephoto lenses and.. boy, I did not have fun. I'm still not sure…
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Five Frames: Chinese Gods
Singapore is technically a secular country. A large number of its ethnic Chinese population practices traditional Taoist rituals, though evangelical Christianity is encroaching quickly. As an ethnic Chinese person raised in Christian traditions, I felt surgically removed from these practices and I wanted to document…
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Touching Grass: Taroko Gorge, Taiwan
Taiwan's Taroko Gorge near Hualien is a place of great beauty. I spent a fun day here in 2006 with my family, with my Leica M3 and some black and white film (I am guessing it is Tri-X 400, which would have been what I was using a lot back then). I don't photograph nature or landscapes very much, so am very out of my…
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Well Fed: Two Artisans
As you may know from elsewhere, I love food. I am obsessed with it. I love eating, I love food stories, I love writing about food, I love writing about people who make and eat food. I did that more actively in the past where I wrote a few travel guidebooks and cookbooks, and also published a few articles about Asian…
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What I’m Shooting: Nikon F3HP
I started out in film photography in 2003 using a little Nikon F-601, and to many people (including me) the pinnacle of SLRs in the Nikon world is the F3HP. Built like a tank, this thing will outlive me, I’m sure of it. The mirror slap of an SLR feels a bit anachronistic at this point. I simply haven’t used a camera…
88 posts tagged "photos"