Loaded the camera with a roll of Kentmere 400 black & white film and struggled for some weeks before I managed to finish the roll. I’ve not use this film before … so this is also my test roll (of the film) since I bought them during my last visit to Tokyo. The cam came with a Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 SC lens and I was told that the SC (single coated) lenses will produce more dreamy feel to the photos (sometimes). Hmm.

Honestly … I think it isn’t that bad (using the RF). Maybe it was because of the larger viewfinder/patch that made it eaiser for me. Finally got the roll developed and I’m pretty convinced that I might be able to focus properly if i try (and not go blind).

Fired the shutter before I focused. LOL! Somehow I love this. Guess old habits (of loving blurred photos) die hard!

So do I like the cam? Honestly I quite like it. Hahaha! The focusing might drive me blind someday but so far I like the pretty solid feel of the camera … but … but … I’m pretty broke at the moment. Grrrr!

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Tape up the ‘slot’, leaving only a part of it ‘open’. The opening is where the light will come in (from the front) and expose the film. For this case, only the top part of the film will be exposed. That will be exposure #1.

Load the roll of film and shoot (or rather … spin) until the entire roll is done. Rewind the roll of film, remove it and keep it within reach … ready for the 2nd exposure. Remember to now tape up the ‘slot’ … this time exposing a different part of the film. See the image below of how I did for mine …

Once you are done shooting the 2nd exposure, repeat the same steps (above) but this time … make sure you adjust the tape to cover up the areas where you have already done the first 2 exposures. Hmmm. Am I confusing you yet?

Once you are done with the last exposure, do remember to remove the tapes … in case you get things all screwed up later on when you wanna expose the film the normal way.

* If you accidentally rewind the roll a bit too much … and the film leader has gone into the canister … fear not. If you do not have a film picker on hand, you can try the sticky tape method here.

Sorry if none of the above makes sense because I’m very tired after scanning and stitching some of the photos. Hope with the photos (above), you are able to make some sense outta it all.

So it took me about 2 weeks to finish the roll (since I am always busy with other stuffs and had to reload the roll a couple of times and find time to shoot it) and finally I managed to finish and sent it to the lab during lunch. I bet the guy at the lab was puzzled when he saw the crazy ‘stripes’ on the negatives. Hahaha!

Here are the photos. Please click on these to open up larger versions. I’ve yet to figure out how to embed scrollable larger images in my blog … so this is the only way (I know).

I’ll definitely try doing this again but maybe this time I should try taping up the slot in such a way that the different exposures can overlap (a little) each other.

With this trick, you can now triple the number of exposures you can shoot with a roll of film in the Spinner!

Own a Spinner? Go try this at home (or outside) soon. I’ve some other experiments that I wanna try with the Spinner but I guess it will take a little while before I get to do it.

“SINGAPORE – The parents of a 3-year old boy is considering taking legal action against an online store which sells analogue/toy cameras. The Tokyo-based online store owner, Mr. Mijonju could not be contacted at this moment for comments but it is believed that the boy’s parents are suing Circle Rectangle Shop because the online store has failed to place a ‘Parental Advisory’ logo/label on the website and thus causing possible severe financial damages to the boy’s parents. According to a recent study, Mr. Mijonju’s online videos (found in YouTube under the Mijonju Show channel) contain subliminal messages that affects people of different ages. Many allege that he is also the cause of the rising proverty rate amongst photography enthusiasts around the world. There has also been rumors about a Cam Aid concert being planned but we are not sure if Sir Bob Geldof will be involved. While waiting for further updates about the case, the parents has furnished us a copy of the video evidence that will be used in court. If convicted, Mr. Mijonju will either have to give up cameras in his possession to the boy’s dad or face at least a 10 years jail term.”

The roll has been in the camera for quite a while already and that’s why you will find the random photos are from all over the place. Shopping for durians with Fitzand at the market, fun time slacking at Vivocity, playing at the park and (gulp!) on the way to work. Looking at these … I suddenly wonder if I should try doing a ’3 photo per hour’ kind of project where I shoot whatever I did for the day … with 3 photos in every hour. Hmm. Perhaps I should do that on a weekend or else there’ll be one too many photos of me behind my office desk. Hmm … anyone game for such a project?

While I’m posting this, I have a video being uploaded and I should be able to update my blog again tomorrow morning. It will not be just any normal blog entry … but something pretty serious which will affect my life in the near future. Stay tuned!

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So while waiting for the rolls to be completed, I’m taking some digital snapshots … of course 99.99% of the time … the subject is my little boy Fitzand. We were out the whole day … doing some shopping, getting fat from eating … gulping down a beer or two … getting all wet at the fountain, enjoyed some kiddy rides and such. He missed his afternoon nap and is now sleeping like a baby.

Here are some snapshots taken with my long neglected Sony point and shoot camera.

He was calling his Mommy … telling her our location (she was happily shopping while I babysit the little boss). It was funny when I heard him describing to her … ‘there is a tree here!’, ‘there is a snowman here!’, ‘also a fountain!’. Hahaha! Snowman? Not the real ones of course … but those snowman-lookalike thingie at Vivo City. We were actually ermm … taking a ‘break’ at Brotzeit there.

If all goes well … there should be a couple of rolls ready for the lab by next weekend. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Hey wait! No … I’m not keeping them crossed! I’ll keep them busy pressing the shutter buttons. I’ve yet to even finish the test roll on the Tolne!

So I struck a deal with my ‘model’ and the ‘fee’ was a cute soft bunny that he wanted. Fine. So with the bunny in his hands, I told him to smile at the camera …

Arrrgh!!! I took maybe 5 shots. Now look at these photos above. See something similar in all of them? No … not the bunny! Hahaha! It is his infamous ‘plastic smile’! Hahaha! Not sure when or where he learned that expression from but it was not too long ago that he suddenly gives me that smile whenever I ask him to do so. Hahaha!

Ok … so I tried to change things a little by asking him to open his eyes while smiling …

Hahahaha! Look at this one above!

I’m gonna buy a friend some booze and get her to teach him how to do that ‘plastic smile’ thingie while keeping the eyes open. Hmm … Ruru … are you reading this?

It was getting a little stressful already and I thought maybe it was the (a little) warm weather that’s making him uncomfortable. So I invested a little more … an ice cream for him to cool down …

So after cooling down … did the model perform any better? See for yourselves …

Maybe he got a bit tired and while he was taking a rest … I managed two ‘emo pose’ shots of him … hahaha …

I decided to pack up and maybe move to another location and give it another try …

I knew things couldn’t get any better when he gave me this look (above).

… then he started to pose …

Luckily there were a couple of ‘okay’ shots and my poor shutter didn’t suffer for nothing …

Nevermind the tongue but I love this one (above).

I felt a little cheated at that time because I thought my model was supposed to be giving me some cute and sweet poses and not some Godzilla wannabe ones. We decided to call it a day and walked to the other side of the bridge for some food and drinks and somehow on the way … I got a few bonus poses from him …

The session ended when we finally settled down at Highlander and Fitzand got to do what he loves to do … coloring and drawing …

… and I … ermmm … also got to do what I love to do … gulping down some … icy cold beer!

Soft toy rabbit … $30
Ice cream … $5
Beer … $15 x ____ (not gonna tell you how many I had!)
Sausage platter … $28
Came home and looked at those funny crazy expressions and poses that Fitzand gave me … PRICELESS

Two days ago, we attended a small National Day celebration at the childcare that Fitzand attends. It was all big fun watching the kids performing and of course some dose of headache thrown in … with crying kiddos and a little chaotic scenes sometimes. It is always a big challenge trying to get decent photos or videos in such events because some parents will be so excited that they forgot that there are other people standing/sitting behind them … and out of a sudden … you will find some hands with cameras/handphones stretching out … and blocking the view. Anyway … still I managed some short clips and stitched them in to a little video … only for those who are interested. From the video, I am sure you will realise that maybe Fitzand is better in his Mandarin than me now. Grrr!

Warning : Video contains crying scenes. View in Vimeo for HD.

Sexy in white!

For those living outside Japan, you can get your Classica from the Circle Rectangle Shop. This white Classica is out of stock at the moment it seems but I was told that some new stocks might be arriving soon. Mijonju (from Circle Rectangle) told me that the 30 units he ordered … were sold out in just a couple of days!

Many thanks to Mijonju … who not only helped me get the Classica … but also sent me an instant film holder for the Holga 120. Awesome present! I’ve a couple of packs of FP-100B film and I’m gonna go burn (hopefully not waste) them on the Holga.

In that same parcel were some cute stickers that I bought from Mijonju but he forgot to pass them to me when I was in Tokyo. Hahaha! Luckily it was just some stickers or else I’ll refuse to leave Tokyo then. In the photo below you can also see a colorful cute ‘skin’ for the Olympus E-P1. No … it ain’t for this old man here. A friend ordered it from Mijonju and he shipped it together.

Pssst! Nelly … are we meeting for beer? Else how’d I pass you the sticker?

These stickers (cute eh?) can also be found in Circle Rectangle’s online store.

Gotta go get some rest now because I’ll be attending the National Day 2010 celebration at Fitzand’s childcare center tomorrow morning. Yeah … I’ll be on leave tomorrow and since I’ve promised to bring Fitzand out to play after the celebration … I think it is gonna be a long and tiring day. Hahaha! Can’t wait to see the little clown perform tomorrow. He told me that he’ll be a ‘little soldier’. He is more like a little terrorist at home though.

We slacked at the beach bar … munching some pizzas, chicken wings and … ermm … beer … and waited patiently for the drizzle to stop. Luckily it was okay to be playing at the beach soon and we spent the rest of the day there and crawled home after dinner. As lighting wasn’t good for ‘risky’ cameras like the Spinner or the Tolne, I didn’t get to fire much shots. To cure my itch (for pressing shutter buttons), I just took some snapshots of Fitzand at play.

If only it was beer being dispensed. I’ll be hogging the tap for hours.

That emo look! Must be wondering if he’ll get to play at the beach.

My boss … slacking away and waiting for the rain to stop.

Fitzand and his ‘plastic smile’. Hahaha! Sorry for the cool blue cast on these photos. I somehow love them this way. Not sure why though. Maybe because the Monday blues arrived a little too early.

This next one was taken when we were about to leave. It was really funny. Fitzand didn’t dare get himself wet (at the fountain) because he knew he already had 2 change of clothings. He kept looking at his mommy and asked ‘got clothes? got clothes?’. Hahaha! He was darn worried that he might have to go home naked if he gets his clothes wet again!

* Click on the pic below for a larger sized one …

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It took about 40 minutes to shoot these 140 photos and then another 30 minutes trying to figure out how to make a time lapse video outta it. Here it is … a 4 seconds video that took 40 minutes to shoot.

Just the other day, I borrowed a VistaQuest VQ1015 R2 keychain camera from Cindy when I was at ThirtySix. I did thought of getting one some time ago but wasn’t sure if I will like it because I heard it has that lag like the FDC01. Grrrr! Though I was told that it ain’t that bad (the lag), I still ain’t too used to holding the camera up and wait a few seconds for the shot to be taken. Hahaha! Yeah … old fellas like me ain’t too patient sometimes. I quite like the fact that it uses normal AAA batteries and SD card though. Hmm … This camera has been loaded with the ‘hacked’ firmware and thus it can shoot in black & white and sepia mode … but I haven’t time to try them out.

I only managed one test shot before the camera was ‘KIDnapped’.

Fitzand saw the little camera in my hand and immediately asked for it. Yeah I was worried he’ll drop it and then I’ll be forced to buy it from Cindy! Luckily he’s pretty good at handling these and soon he was walking all around the morning market taking some snapshots. Too bad the lag spoiled many shots because he’ll move away right after pressing the shutter button and the subject he was photographing will definitely be way gone by then. Hahaha! Anyway … a few turned out okay and this next one is my favourite …

As for the next one (below), he stood at this stall for quite a while and thus you can still see the subject (the kettles) in the frame. The stall owner was amused when he saw Fitzand trying very hard to ‘concentrate’ at his photography.

I’m not sure if Fitzand loves this camera because he usually wants those that makes a ‘clack’ or ‘beep’ (the one of the VistaQuest is too soft!) … so I’ll try test him again tomorrow. I might consider getting him one if he likes it and hopefully keep his hands off my other cams (unless I pass them to him).

Since it is already almost dinner time … guess I’ll wake up earlier tomorrow and go take some photos in the park with Fitzand. I did spin a few (long) frames with my Spinner today though. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll drop dead if I don’t get to touch a camera for a weekend.

“What’s so fun about these cameras?”

“Film? Huh? Do people still shoot film?”

“What? Plastic camera? Film camera?”

These are only a few of the questions I got (all these years) from friends who saw me with cameras like the Diana, Holga or some other analogue camera. Some just went ‘Oh cute! What’s that? A Fisheye 2? Ermm … film?’. Often these questions will lead to them asking me why I am so into these stuffs and not the digital ones. I’ll usually start by telling them that I do shoot digital (I ain’t no die hard!) and these toy/plastic/analogue cameras offer some ‘magic’ that the digital ones don’t. Okay … before you (if you are a die hard digital fan) throw rotten eggs at me … let me confess that despite being an IT guy … I hate spending time in front of the computer (which I already spent most of my life at) doing post processing etc.

Since I agreed to contribute an entry or two for the Imprints series in Yesterday.SG (although I ain’t good at writing (or even explaining)) … I’ll try to finish this entry and hope at least you understand a little of what I’m saying. Prior to picking up my 1st Lomo camera, I had been shooting digital and during my 30 over years on earth … I think I only shot less than 3 rolls of film when I was *cough* young … and that was some film compact camera that I had for holiday snapshots.

So why these cameras? Hmm … let’s see …

The first thing that got me interested in such cameras/photography was the fun of double/multi exposures. The randomness and (usually) unexpected results are a joy to look at once you get the rolls back from the lab. It is all about the thrill and excitement of seeing what turns out after the end of the roll and getting it (the film) developed and scanned.

After dumping my Frogeye camera (my first Lomo cam that almost made me give up), I picked up an old Diana (from the 60s) from a friend and took it on a trip to Shanghai without even knowing how to load a roll of 120 film. I came back without even knowing if any of the photos will turn out fine but when I saw the results … it was one of the best days of my life! This one (above) is one of the photos from the roll and (don’t laugh!) I converted it to some sepia-like tone in Photoshop. Yeah … I was that blur … because I didn’t know black & white photos are produced by different film. Do some reading before jumping into this … and don’t end up like me. Hahaha!

There are many ways to experiment with multi exposures and there is no right or wrong way to do it! Let your imagination go wild!

If doing double/multi exposures by yourself gets boring … you can try shooting the first exposure by yourself and then send the roll(s) to a friend to settle the 2nd exposure. These double exposure collaborations are always big fun especially when you can even get some friends in another country to do it with you. You will then have scenes from different places all ‘mixed’ into one.

The colors, the fun!

Next comes the fun of ‘playing’ with different kind of film available. Feeding your cameras with different film makes the whole process even more exciting. Try cross processing (with slide film) and even redscale … or throw in a roll of black & white film sometimes. Even a roll of film will give you some random colors sometimes under different lighting! Different type of film will produce different results when cross processed too. Fun? You bet!

Cross processing adds much punch to the colors!

The blur!!!

Most of these toy/Lomo/plastic cameras produces some very cool dreamy blurred photos. That’s what make me love them more than anything else in the world. Yeah … that’s what made me call my blog (and URL) … fuzzyeyeballs. If you ever wanna pick up a Holga … go pick up a plastic lens version. I’ve tried both the glass and plastic lens version and somehow find the glass lens ones are a little ‘too sharp’ for my liking. Just my personal opinion. The original Holga had had plastic lenses … so why bother going for the glass ones?

What else?

So apart from the Lomo cameras and the Holgas … what other cameras are there to ‘play’ with? There are tons! Tons of them out there. Do a Google on the words ‘toy cameras’ and you’ll find a long list of cameras that might make your wallet hate you for a long time. You can even try making your own pinhole cameras and such. Of course it will take a bit of experimenting and fine tuning but in the end … nothing beats the joy of seeing the results of your own creation.

An instant pinhole camera I made from a wooden box & a Polaroid back.

Instant cameras are super fun analogue cameras too!

There are many other fun formats like panoramic and now … even 360 degrees pano with the Spinner 360!

One of the all time favourite … square format photos!

Ermm … so?

That’s about all. All the reasons why I’m loving this hobby of mine. Well … the last reason is because all these cameras are way cute and pretty! I was once fascinated by big black shiny cameras (aka DSLRs and such) but things changed the moment I touched my first Diana camera.

“But … but … we can always Photoshop the effects!”

But … but … oh nevermind.

“Oh ok. So I’m convinced. Where do I start?”

That’s a pretty common question I got from people. Like digital photography, there isn’t any right answer to that. I usually tell people who ask me that question to look at the different photos taken by different cameras … then decide for themselves. Sometimes I’ll tell them to go for the Lomo LC-A/LC-A+ (or perhaps similar cams like the Cosina CX2) if the have the budget and are seriously thinking of picking up this hobby. Why? That’s because those cameras has built-in metering and thus they should be able to get pretty good results … even on their first roll. That will definitely be a good motivation for them to keep going. I’ve heard of a couple of cases … where people give up trying altogether after their first couple of rolls ended up in the bin because they somehow screwed up gauging exposures on cameras that doesn’t have metering on them. Can’t blame them. I was on the verge of giving up in the begining too … all thanks to the simplicity of moden cameras making everything so simple.

Where to find these cameras?

I was hesitiating about putting up this part of the entry because some might think I’m paid by the shops to do this. Hahaha! Anyway … the first place that most people will go for is of course Lomography’s online store and also eBay. Of course buying from eBay need a bit of extra homework to find out if the price is reasonable. Over here (in Singapore), we are lucky that some people are already bringing in more of these toy/Lomo/plastic cameras in … and not too long ago … we even have a shop dedicated to selling such cameras & film. The shop, ThirtySix … is located at Sunshine Plaza was set up as a result a great reponse to their online store 8StoreyTree. Do check it out and with the help from the nice people there … I’m sure most won’t be able to leave the place without buying a ‘toy’ or two.