Dhaka Contact Sheet: Frame 21 to 26

[raytoei@gmail.com]

It was the 2nd day of Bangladesh business trip
(end Feb 2012), I brought one roll of Neopan 400
pushed to 1600, with 36 exposures for 36x24mm
negative, I would have around 72 half-frames
on my Olympus Pen-FT camera, since each
negative on the Pen-F was only 18x24mm.

(in the world of 41 megapixel handphone cameras,
a half-frame negative sounded puny. But since
most folks do no enlarge past 8x10", the
72 negatives on this half-frame camera was
quite attractive, plus if you have ever handled
a pen-f or the ft, it feels like the Leica IIIf in size).

These few fellas are two very nice business partners
with my company. They worked for a telco SI
company and provided ICT services to my customers.​

(to be continued)
​

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

After a morning meeting, it was time to rush back to the hotel
to get ready for the next meeting.

I was in the hotel car, and everywhere else would be these
bicycle-powered rickshaw. They ruled the roads and everybody
had to give way or risk the wrath of rick-shaw drivers and their
colorful language.

The street would be fascinating as usual,
sometimes I'd see oxen driven bullcarts

in the middle of the road, other times
it was not usual to see goats or lambs in
the side street.

The picture above is just one of the many
vendors along the roadside selling
fruits, vegetables and even pieces of meat.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

Bangladesh is one of the last South Asian countries
to experience a recent economic boom, and everywhere
we went, everybody was busy selling, buying or
constructing a home.

In the picture above, these guys are filling up
construction material into sacks, presumably to sell
later on.

Despite the economic boom, Bangladesh is a very
poor country, and lacking in healthcare facilities, electricity
and to compound it, inflation and an erosion
of the currency Taka, has reduced the purchasing power
of imports while raising prices of the local goods.

In the picture above, a bare-bottomed baby is playing
along the pavement while the one-eyed mom chatted
with her friends.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

There is little or no functioning traffic lights.

The next sequence of frames shows how we
ploughed into the next lane by making a right turn.

The highlights of the negatives are blown as the film was
pushed at iso 1600 and the max shutter speed on this 1960s
camera was only 1/500s.

What should have taken a 10min drive turned into an
hour of honking, zig-zagging and brinkmanship.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

This is the view from the 23rd floor of the
Westin Hotel.

Thanks for reading this, My Dhaka Negative frame 21 to 26.

FIN

raytoei

 

[Richard G]

Fascinating: subject, technology and presentation. Thanks.

 

[Nigel Meaby]

Apart from the first two indoor frames, I'm curious as to why you decided to shoot it at 1600 with all that sub-continent light?
Great pictures of scenes typical of the streets of Bangladesh/India.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

Nigel,

i blame frame 7 - 10 for forcing me to choose iso 1600 early on, here are frames 8 and 8a:

 

[Steve M.]

Great shots, and a very economical way to go. I looked at one of my full frame tiffs that had been scanned at 4000 rez, cropped it in half (roughly) in PS, and came up w/ an easy 8x11 at 300 dpi. I find that when printing B&W, 200 dpi is usually fine, so you could conceivably get a 12x16 print from one of those half frame negs. Wow. AND you get up to 72 negs on one roll of film. Not sure what the size limits of darkroom prints would be, and I'm also not sure what the differences in grain would be, if any, between a half frame blow up and a full frame, but this looks promising.

I'd always considered half frame cameras more toys than "real" cameras, but if you can get these print sizes and high quality, it looks very attractive. As does your reason for shooting 1600 ISO.

 

[Nigel Meaby]

Ahh it's all starting to make sense now I'm a sucker for a pretty Flight Attendant. which airline was that?

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

Steve,

i am still learning this half-frame thingy.

i have not tested whether it is good enough to print.

however here is a 100% crop, scanned at 3200dpi on my Epson V600.

http://retro2.ms11.net/bsd-penf-100crop.jpg

Film is Neopan 400
Developer is D-76
Camera is the Pen-FT
Lens is 38/1.8f


raytoei
ps. the orientation is vertical and not horizontal like most SLR cameras.

 

[shadowfox]

Fascinating photos and one of the most creative way to present your travel experience.
I love the inclusion of the film frames and the numbers used as the pace-setter in the narration. It gives a sense of continuity.

I have found out several years ago not to look down at photos from the Pen FT. That is *not* a toy camera. One time I shown a 8x10 print from mine and no one believed me when I told them it was from half of a typical film frame.