Category Archives: Wedding Shoot

Photo booth

Another successful photo booth gig.  Thanks for Richard Lau for helping out with all the printing during Matthew and Jessica’s wedding.  Two remote triggered flashes on one direct and one reflective umbrellas.  Trigger system fully yongnuo (YN622 remotes + YN565II flashes).  Shot using Canon 5D3 with 24-105mm f4 lens.  Photos printed on two Canon CP720 and one Canon CP900 printers.

lovely!
lovely!
super classic!
super classic!
wtf
wtf
hm...
hm…

First Shot at Stand Development

A recent discussion with Kirk Lau with the boiling water temperature of our taps converged on the topic of stand development.  Basically stand development involves throwing away everything that I have learned so far about film processing.  Stand development is simply develop your film in diluted developer and after initial agitation, leave it to develop for (almost) infinite time.  You rely on the amount of chemical to natural develop your film, rather through agitation.

I still have six rolls of Tri-X 400 that I snapped in Japan back in June that still need to be developed.  I haven’t done so not because I am lazy but recently in the development with HC110 dilution H, the grain size appears to be large.  I suspect the culprit is the water temperature.  Both the tap water in Hong Kong and Shanghai measured to be well above 28C.  Even though I have compensated that with less development time but the grain size seems larger than before.  I am holding onto these rolls until I figure out what’s wrong.

I attended Herbert and Elaine’s wedding ceremony recently and prepared to shoot the event with my Canon QL17, my Canolite D flash and a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400.  The idea of stand development came back to me after the shoot and I figured I will give it a shot.  I developed the Kodak Tri-X with Kodak HC110 (1:100) dilution.  I did initial agitation of front, back, left, right, each 10 times, then gave the tank a good tap on the ground to avoid any possible bubbles.  I then left it to develop in 25C room temperature for 60 mins, followed by a 5 mins water bath.  Then I fixed it in Kodak Rapid Fix for 4.5 mins before rinsed in water again and wrapped it up with Kodak Photoflo.

The result was mostly successful.  The film developed fine except again for the large grain size.  I blame it on the tap water temperature again.  I need to put in ice and prepare the developer and rinse water to be around 20C next time! Nevertheless, the shots at the wedding ceremony was super loto and turned out super classic!  Totally reminded me of the ones in the dusty wedding albums of my parents.

Super classic!
Super loto, super classic!

Polaroid Land 250 + FP3000b + Wedding = Lotophotos

A little while back, I attended Dennis’ and Rachel’s wedding.  As usual, I planned to shoot some lotophotos with my vintage equipment.

In my bag was a Canon QL17 + Canolite D flash + Ilford XP2 film, Canon Powershot S90, Mamiya Universal + 127mm F4.7 lens + Polaroid back with FP3000b and a overhauled Polaroid Land 250 (I just fixed this and wanted to test it out) + Portrait Lens kit.

My Mamiya Universal had not seen light for a while and I figured will be the perfect camera to shoot during the ceremony.  Manual exposure, F4.7 lens, nice shutter release and hand grip, everything ready.  Just before the bridal party started the march in, I took the Universal for a test shot at the groom’s family.  Weight lifting the 15 pound machine, I clicked the shutter.  I hear no “click” sound, crap.  I knew somehow the shutter didn’t go off and somehow it was stuck.  I dashed back to my seat, pulled the film out and just as I suspected, it was completely black.

Frantically, as the bridal party started to march in, I took the film pack out of the Mamiya Universal and inserted it in the Polaroid Land 250.  I did not have my dark bag with me nor did I had time to waste.  By taking the pack of film out like this, I openly exposed one shot.  I pulled the dead shot from the Polaroid Land 250 and it was ready to go.  Life is good again.

The church was well-lit and the FP3000b film was good enough for hand held shots.  Here are the lotophotos taken with the Polaroid Land 250 that day.

Even with ISO 3000 film, action shots were proven difficult with the wide opened f8.8 aperture.  Both of the following shots were slightly blurred but exhibited strong sense of movement.

Action Shot 1
Action Shot 1

This shot I particularly liked the flower bell bokeh.

Action Shot 2
Action Shot 2

Semi-still shots were acceptable, given the couple weren’t moving too much.

Semi Still Shots 2
Semi Still Shots 1
Semi Still Shots 1
Semi Still Shots 2

With still shots, this is when the Polaroid Land 250 performed the best.  These cameras were made for still shots and the resulting photos were all super sharp.  The following shot was taken with a tripod and a modified Polaroid self timer #192.  I will post another blog featuring this timer and why it has to be modified in the near future.

Still Shot 1
Still Shot 1

Family photos are among my favorites and below is a lotophoto that I took of Dennis’ family.  Always loved to see some people with their eyes closed.  With film, this was the way it was.  You won’t be able to see the result until you develop it, long after the event.  With that mentality, I didn’t even bother taking another shot with my Polaroid.

Family Lotophotos
Lotophoto of Dennis’ Family

I attached the portrait lens kit with the following two lovely shots.  Here is Joseph, the best man and the groom.

Joseph and Dennis
Joseph and Dennis looking sharp

The last and certainly my favorite shot of the day.  I was delighted to capture the genuinely happy couple in this photo.

Happy Bride and Groom!
Happy Bride and Groom!

The shoot was proven successful.  It’s amazing what you can achieve with simply a pack of film and an old camera.  The overhauled Polaroid Land 250’s exposure was dead on.  Particularly the last shot, totally reminded me of the 2R sized photos of my parents of their wedding day that are still in their wallets.  With the Polaroid Land 250, a camera that was made in the mid 1960s, even after almost half a century later, continues to capture the special moments for the reason of its first existence.  Looking at the eight shots I made, reminded me of my parents’ lotophotos of their wedding day and the dusty albums that I loved going through when I was a child.  I hope one day, the children of the happily wedded couple will enjoy them the same way as I did with the ones of my parents.