I was nominated by Joyce Peng to do a 7-day self-portrait challenge: 7 days, 7 self-portraits, and 7 nominations to keep this going with other artists/photographers. I invite Kirk Lau to take the time to extend the fun.
I put a small twist to this challenge as well. I will be composing self-portraits through the viewfinders of different cameras.
The last of the challenge, I feature a very special camera. The 1955 Graflex Speed Graphic camera mounted with Kodak 178mm Aero Ektar f2.5 lens. Being large format, the focusing screen is again upside down and reversed left to right. At f2.5, the screen is super bright and you can see the bokeh clearly. Today I am holding my first camera, the Kodak Instamatic X15 which is in 126 format. This is the exact same camera that Dustin Hoffman used in Rain man!
I was nominated by Joyce Peng to do a 7-day self-portrait challenge: 7 days, 7 self-portraits, and 7 nominations to keep this going with other artists/photographers. I invite Pouya Ashtiani to take the time to extend the fun.
I put a small twist to this challenge as well. I will be composing self-portraits through the viewfinders of different cameras.
Today, I am viewing through my Hasselbladski. A company called ARAX used to take Kiev 88 and modify them to Pentacon Six mounts. The selection of Pentacon Six Zeiss lens are vast and quite cheap. Seen through here is a Zeiss Jena 120mm f2.8 lens. The viewfinder is super bright and the split screen makes focusing a breeze. Today I am holding a medium format stereo camera called Sputnik.
Photo taken with Sony RX100II.
Viewing through ARAX (modified Kiev 88 with Pentacon 6 mount) + Zeiss Jena 120mm f2.8 lens.
I was nominated by Joyce Peng to do a 7-day self-portrait challenge: 7 days, 7 self-portraits, and 7 nominations to keep this going with other artists/photographers. I invite Edmond Lok-Yin Wong to take the time to extend the fun.
I put a small twist to this challenge as well. I will be composing self-portraits through the viewfinders of different cameras.
Today, I am viewing through my 2014 Canon 5D Mark III camera with 70-200 f2.8 II lens. In the photo, I am holding a 1970s Mamiya Universal + 50mm f6.3 lens with external viewfinder. Being universal, I can put in a Polaroid or 6×7/6×9 medium format backs.
Photo taken with Sony RX100II.
Viewing through Canon 5D Mark III with 70-200 f2.8 II lens.
I was nominated by Joyce Peng to do a 7-day self-portrait challenge: 7 days, 7 self-portraits, and 7 nominations to keep this going with other artists/photographers. I invite Erik Mathy to take the time to extend the fun.
I put a small twist to this challenge as well. I will be composing self-portraits through the viewfinders of different cameras.
Today, I am viewing through my 1970s Canon QL17 GIII camera. It was the most sold rangefinder with over 1.2 million copies over twenty years. Int this day and age, we will be lucky if a camera last more than 20 months! The viewfinder is super clean and the yellow rangefinder patch is bright and easy to focus. The aperture priority marker on the right is also bright and clear. In the photo, I am holding another legendary rangefinder, the Revue 400SE. Both of these cameras feature super fast and sharp lens.
I was nominated by Joyce Peng to do a 7-day self-portrait challenge: 7 days, 7 self-portraits, and 7 nominations to keep this going with other artists/photographers. I invite Miles Chu to take the time to extend the fun.
I put a small twist to this challenge as well. I will be composing self-portraits through the viewfinders of different cameras.
Today, I am viewing through my 1960s Halina A1 TLR. It is the only TLR that is produced in Hong Kong that I know of. The viewfinder is dark and without split screen, this makes it tough to focus. In the photo, I am holding a Seagull 4A-103 TLR from 1981.
I was nominated by Joyce Peng to do a 7-day self-portrait challenge: 7 days, 7 self-portraits, and 7 nominations to keep this going with other artists/photographers. I invite Frederic Chiu to take the time to extend the fun.
I put a small twist to this challenge as well. I will be composing self-portraits through the viewfinders of different cameras.
Today, I am viewing through my 1968 Polaroid Land 250 camera. The model 250 has a Zeiss-ikon viewfinder made from West Germany. As seen in the photo, the rangefinder is bright and quite easy to focus. The camera that I am holding is a 1972 Polaroid Land 450 camera. It’s basically identical to that of the model 250 except for a timer at the back and the flash adapter.
I was nominated by Joyce Peng to do a 7-day self-portrait challenge: 7 days, 7 self-portraits, and 7 nominations to keep this going with other artists/photographers. I invite Cheung Billy Ka Ming to take the time to extend the fun.
I put a small twist to this challenge as well. I will be composing self-portraits through the viewfinders of different cameras.
Today, I am viewing through my 1921 Kodak 2D 8×10 camera with Goerz Dagor 300mm f6.8 lens. Yes, it’s upside down and reversed from left to right! Beside me is a Burke & James 8×10 Grover with a Fujinon 400mm f8 lens. The year of make of the camera is unknown but these cameras were made from the 1940s-60s.
In light to the tragic events happened last night, it really brings me back to Paris and reminisce the peaceful time I had there a year ago. Late at night, we went to an unmarked beer store on Rue André Gill in the 18th arrondissement. It’s a crowded beer store without any seating. Everyone just grabbed a beer and sat on the streets. There were locals, hanging around discussing current events. A handful of tourists were also there, discussing about their travels.
This is the Paris that I remembered.
Pray for Paris.
Unmarked beer store on Rue André Gill in 18th arrondissementLocals catching up on current events.Group of tourists discussing about their travels.Drinking on the streets.Pray for Paris
A nice afternoon playing around with polaroid cameras over beers with Erik Mathy from Eric’s Darkroom (https://www.facebook.com/groups/846681715412740/)
Thanks for Erik’s amazing shot of me with my Land 450. Shot with Mamiya Universal + 50mm f6.3 lens + FP100c + Yongnuo YN568 flash, scanned with Epson Perfection v700.
Here is a shot of Eric with Sony RX100ii + Yongnuo YN568 flash.
During a recent visit of Henry and Wendy in SF, I invited them to have their portraits done in large format. Setup of the day was my 91-year-old Kodak 2D 8×10 camera with Fujinon A 240mm f9 lens and Kodak Ektascan x-ray film. The strobes, I used two light sources, one direct light above the camera and a reflective light from the left of the subject. The dark background is a big piece of black cloth that is about 2.5 feet behind the subject.
Here is a collage of photo of me in action, courtesy of Henry and Wendy.
Portrait session
The film is developed with Kodak D76 1+1 for 10-12 minutes at 19C with rollers and scanned with Epson Perfection V700. Scanning this time I was faced with a lot of Newton ring issues. I have an AN glass but that only prevented newton rings from one side of the light. I have to scan the negatives with emulsion down on the scanner glass, then I put the AN glass on top of the negative. This way I was able to get rid of most of the newton rings. I guess I probably need another piece of AN glass and hopefully this issue will go away.
The first photo is that of Henry. It was shot at f11, 1/30 sec and turned out quite nicely.
Portrait of Henry
Wendy here featured in the second photo, also shot at f11, 1/30sec. I have asked her to look into the left (her right) reflective light.
Portrait of Wendy
The final shot is of them together, shot at f16 1/4 sec. I had cranked up the strobes to be the highest level. The init negative is dark and about a click off. I need to double up on the flash to get more light next time. I have focused on Wendy’s eyes and even at f16, the depth of field is so narrow that Henry’s eyes were very slightly off focus. I need to add more light sources and try at f22 or even f32 next time for group portraits.
Portrait of Henry and Wendy
Overall another fun shoot that yield some fantastic portraits.
