Life is more than a smoke

Title: 往事並不如煙 (Life is more than a smoke)
Camera: Nikon FM2/T
Lens: Nippon Kogaku Japan Nikon 50mm f/1.4 non-AI manual focus
Film: FujiFilm Superia X-TRA 400
Venue: Tai Kwun, Central

I remember this photograph was a quick one. From the moment when I saw the subject to when I pressed the shutter, it perhaps only cost me less than 15 seconds.

I like the composition of the photograph, and the three main colours in background, red wall, black door, and white stone. The woman was most likely on a short smoke break and she was all in white, which matched the overall colours of the photograph very well.

I was lucky to catch this moment. It just felt like “wow, I need to shoot this.” And I did.

Tai Kwun (大館) used to be the Central Police Station, including a detention centre mostly for refugees and dissidents. That was during the time when Hong Kong was under British rule. Nowadays Tai Kwun is a popular cultural and art spot.

People come and go. Buildings witness all the changes of their owners. Is this all about fate? Is life more than a smoke?

Life Beyond One Frame

Camera: Nikon FM2/T
Lens: Nippon Kogaku Japan Nikon 50mm f/1.4 non-AI manual focus
Film: FujiFilm Superia X-TRA 400
Venue: Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

A “frame burn” happens when the starting part of the film is exposed to light, i.e. that happens when you load a new roll of film into a camera, light will expose the first few inches. It actually creates an interesting opportunity to see your first frame of film becomes usually about half image and half (or sometimes 1/4) film artifact.

For every roll of film you load, you have an opportunity to pull off a really cool result for the first frame, and that is also known as the “frame burn” or “burning-first frame” in the industry.

I got this unique frame (yes, the very first frame of my new FujiFilm roll), which shows a 1/4 “frame burn” and the rest of some old local buildings in Causeway Bay, one of the world’s busiest shopping areas where Hong Kong’s SOGO Department Store and Times Square are located.

But there are still many local residents living here, right behind those fancy malls, and their lives are often neglected in the society.

I guess it’s just like the “frame burn”. Things happen always for a reason. You choose to forget to forget, or you just decide to forget it someday.

A Lucky Cat (FujiFilm 400 Review)

Title: Lucky Cat
Camera: Nikon FM2/T
Lens: Nippon Kogaku Japan Nikon 50mm f/1.4 non-AI manual focus
Film: FujiFilm Superia X-TRA 400
Venue: Soho, Hong Kong

This is my first time to try a FujiFilm film. Superia X-TRA 400 is known as an affordable film and ISO 400 also makes it an almost “all weather” film that preforms well in daylight and lowlight.

All film photographers will agree that it’s like 10x more challenging to shoot film at night due to lack of natural light, so a high ISO film will be quite desirable for night photography.

In comparison (this may be my very personal or “biased” view) I feel this FujiFilm film produces a warmer sense than some Kodak films, but there are also a lot of variables so my assessment is not scientific at all.

Perhaps 100 photographers will have 101 views about film.