M4 vs M7 (or what worked and what didn't at Angkor)

[cmogi10]

PS: I exaggerated...just a little.

 

[waileong]

Scanning is the major cost killer, esp if you ask the labs to do hi-res scans. E-6 processing too, but you can save by buying pre-paid mailers.

B&W processing is cheap if you DIY. Darkroom equipment goes for a song these days.

Bulk-roll film is another way to cut costs. I bulk roll my own film.

 

[Simon Larbalestier]

Hey one question also, anyone with experience of traveling with photographic film could also answer, how does it work at the airport when they check your belongings? Do they agree not to put your film through their x rays machines if you have all your rolls in a separate bag that you carry by hand?
Just asking because I went to Westminster Palace recently and they insisted on my stuff to go through their machines, no damage was done though....

I used to travel with film in lead bags but this last few years i dropped this idea i just take the films in a plastic bag and put in the top of my carry on bag. Having just returned from a longish trip with a batch of films, on closer inspection, the ones that seem to have a degree of base fogging is my 120 TX400 but this may be to prior their x-ray exposure and then long storage in fridge in Bangkok..... My TX400 35mm seemed fine.
For faster film 1600 and 3200 i'd insist on hand inspection.

Next time i will try 120 film in lead bags and see if there is any base fogging.
The films scan fine however and i'm scanning them right now.

21 rolls in 8 days isn't much if your shooting several projects at the same time - i went through 65 in about 10 days ended up buying more film from the children at the temples!

Waileong thanks for your comments that Tuol Sleng image was 2001 and Boys in Rain 2002 both with Noctilux @F1.0

wishing all of you a Happy Xmas and all the best for 2008 🙂

 

[peter_n]

The same to you Simon and I'm sure you're happy to be home for the Holidays! Best wishes for 2008. 🙂

 

[visiondr]

You've clearly given this a great deal of thought. It sounds like you had a great time AND took photos. That's great.

A two lens combo would work nicely for me. Maybe a 35 and 75/90 would be the ticket. That's the combination I used to carry all the time (35 'cron IV, and 90 tele elmarit). Both lenses are tiny.

Ron

Thank you for your comments.

I know exactly what you mean. For many years, I didn't want to take up photography precisely because I wanted to enjoy and take in the experience rather than be concerned about photographing the experience (and thereby not enjoying it and letting it wash by).

I wanted to enjoy the beautiful sunset rather than be setting up a tripod and trying to capture it.

Now, my view has changed. I can do both, and I take a lot more time to both enjoy and photograph. This really showed during the trip.

My wife went through the temples much faster than me because she was only looking at the temples. I spent a lot of time looking too, admiring the reliefs, but after enough admiration, I would think hard about capturing it too.

So she often ended up waiting for me at the exits.

One camera, one lens is not impossible. And I'm fairly sure I would come back with good pictures too. As I mentioned, I use my 35/2 IV on my M7 most frequently. Perhaps 60-70% of my shots were 35 mm.

However, I like both colour slides and B&W, and I know I can't capture everything I like with only a 35 mm lens.

It's a conscious choice to carry more, and it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the trip.

For those who really want to travel light, I'd suggest a 2-lens kit. 3E + 90 TE. You can mount one lens on the camera, another on the lens carrier and that gives gives you 4 focal lengths and reasonable low-light capability.

A 35/1.4 can be brought along at night in place of one or the other lens. The only problem with this setup is that you can't have both B&W and colour concurrently. But if you scan your colour negs/slides, converting to B&W in PS is not an issue at all.

 

[sebastel]

waileong,
thanks for sharing your thoughts.
actually, i can agree to most of your findings, so let me add just where i differ a little ... mainly due to the fact, that i go digital.

i recently was on an extended business trip, and since i knew i was for some extremely special maybe once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, i discarded the idea to bring the ricoh GRD only (which is my favourite for light travelling), but instead carried my epson kit (R-D1, zeiss ZM 25, 35, sonnar-c and the CV 15) with a lot of memory cards and spare batteries, the very little gitzo G0012 tripod (i personally dislike monopods), and a 40GB HD drive with integrated card reader.

as for your comments on the M7 - i have learned to pre-meter the light and correct if necessary while using M4 and M6 some years ago, and i noticed by mainly using the auto exposure of the R-D1 these days, that it is really just a matter to be used to it. i should return to my manual practises ... AE makes u lazy, and the results show, AE cannot "understand" the picture you are taking. on the other hand, not to have AE available does not mean to slow down the picture taking process.

as for beholding and picture taking at the same time, i found it extremely helpful to have only one lens with me. no time loss with lens change, and partner is not left waiting ...
my preferred "strolling lens" is the 25mm (equivalent to 38mm on 135 film).
sometimes, i took the combination of 15/35mm with me - especially, when out alone.
the least use got the 50mm, but when i used it, it was essential.

for the batteries, i bought 2 replacements on the spot (fortunately the epson uses not too exotic type) since my spare ones seem to decay. also, i got me more memory cards, as the little HD device is getting more and more unreliable. another case of fading batteries, i guess.

losses: 1 battery charger (forgotten in a hotel room)

lesson learned: have a second look before you check out from your hotel!
(i'll get it back for sure, but while on your trip, you may run out of energy ...)

wins: about 16GB of picture data (raw format)

my best advice: put less effort in equipment, and more effort in seeing. bring only the absolutely necessary gear, and go and take pictures!

cheers, sebastian

 

[waileong]

Pictures from Siem Reap/Angkor

Pictures from Siem Reap/Angkor

It's been a tough few months for me since the Angkor Wat trip. Christmas and Chinese New Year have made me busy and I've had little time for the darkroom. I've also lost my job in Sep 07 and have focused my priority on the job hunt. The subprime thing hasn't helped companies in hiring-- I want to work in a bank and all of them are very cautious. The threat of a US recession has made them even more jittery.

Nevertheless, I hope to be working again soon. For likely lower pay than my last job, but I got to start paying the bills.

I don't scan my negs and so the pictures I post are scanned from the RC or FB prints. The scans typically are not as rich as the actual pix, but hopefully it's enough for me to get the feel of Cambodia across.

Here's the first pic from Angkor. This is a hand-driven bike (note the pedals are meant for the hands to cycle). Why a hand-driven bike? Because Cambodia is the most heavily mined country on Earth, with over 1M mines still uncleared. There are a lot of landmine victims with one or no legs. They still need to get around.

The pic was taken using my 35/2 IV at 5.6 on Pan F+ @ ISO 50. Printed on Ilford MG RC IV at Grade 2 on my Leittz V35 enlarger. To me it's the most delicious picture I've yet printed. The blacks are gorgeous, luminous and dripping and in the print the tones are marvellous. It's almost like those prints I see in Les Mclean's Creative Black and White Photography book.

I assure you not all my prints are like that. I still have a lot of prints which I feel are kind of flat, despite my best efforts. I still don't understand everything so if anyone can tell me how I got such a print, please let me know. All I know is I used my RH Designs analyzer as I do normally, and the tones that dripped from the print just floored me. I would like to know how to do this more often.


PS It would have been nice to have a real rider on the bike, but I guess one can't ask for everything in a pic, not as a tourist.

 

[waileong]

$1 $1

$1 $1

Everywhere you go at Angkor Wat there'll be poor and dishevelled kids shouting "$1, $1" whenever you point a camera at them. Of course, if you give them $$, even more kids will swarm around you. So my wife brought a lot of biscuits and sweets to give to the kids, which is cheaper and just as effective as far as photo taking is concerned.

 

[waileong]

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm is a temple which has been overrun by huge Banyan trees. How huge? See my wife in the pic for scale. I got some of the shadow detail of the hallways in the print, although it doesn't show in the scan.

 

[waileong]

Ta Prohm 2

Ta Prohm 2

Same tree as previous pic, with vertical crop to show the sky. It's HOT in Cambodia!

 

[Simon Larbalestier]

Thanks for posting these images Waileong - I really like the first print of the bike in the leaves, almost surreal in that in most of the temples all the leaves are swept away giving the appearance of well kept park which it is exactly not!. A fresh and unusual view and great to see. I look forward to seeing more.

 

[furcafe]

Agreed. I went on my 1st trip to SE Asia (3 weeks in Thailand + side trip to Siem Reap) about a week or so after waileong & ended up shooting only about 18 rolls of film & 210 digital exposures.

By my lights, 21 rolls in a little over a week, while a decent chunk o' celluloid, is not a lot, let alone a "disturbing" amount. I've never been one to burn film for the hell of it, but I do shoot whatever amount I deem necessary, without a second thought. Better to shoot a roll or two more than actually needed than kicking yourself later for the shots you missed because you either (a) ran out, or (b) were afraid of running out. Of course, planning ahead helps out, whether you're planning to pack ten rolls or fifty.

And, like others here, I'm really looking forward to seeing some of those photos!


- Barrett

 

[waileong]

?

?

Thanks. My prints are far from haunting and glowing like yours. But I'm trying.

Wai Leong
===

Thanks for posting these images Waileong - I really like the first print of the bike in the leaves, almost surreal in that in most of the temples all the leaves are swept away giving the appearance of well kept park which it is exactly not!. A fresh and unusual view and great to see. I look forward to seeing more.

 

[furcafe]

It depends on the country you're traveling through. In the U.S., federal law actually provides the right to have your film hand inspected (not X-rayed), but you must specifically ask for it. I don't know what the law is in other countries, though my understanding is that most don't give you the formal right to have your film hand inspected, but many (e.g., IME, Japan & China, but not UK, France, or Italy) will do so as a matter of courtesy. I put all my high ISO (800 & over, including 400 I plan to push) film, removed from the plastic cans, in a separate zip-loc bag, ask for the hand inspection, then hand the bag to the security personnel. In places that do a hand check, I've seen them take the film out of the bag, do a visual check, perform various "swab"-type explosives tests, then put it back in the bag & return it to me when I get out the other side from the metal detector line.

On my recent trip to Thailand & Cambodia, I only brought slow (ISO 25-100 range) film as I knew I was going to be flying around a lot. In the past, I've had Neopan 1600 X-rayed multiple (@ least 4) times by carry-on scanners without ill effect. I used to use lead bags, but they got to be a PITA. Either security lets your stuff through, in which case they aren't doing their job & you're stuck w/the extra weight, or it simply attracts their attention & you're back to getting hand check (or not) & still getting stuck w/the extra weight. Your film probably gets exposed to more radiation from cosmic rays while flying than from all the carry-on X-rays, anyway.

As you found @ Westminster, the rules @ attractions & buildings on the ground are completely different, & can be even more strict than airports, depending on the (real or perceived) security situation.

Hey one question also, anyone with experience of traveling with photographic film could also answer, how does it work at the airport when they check your belongings? Do they agree not to put your film through their x rays machines if you have all your rolls in a separate bag that you carry by hand?
Just asking because I went to Westminster Palace recently and they insisted on my stuff to go through their machines, no damage was done though....

 

[furcafe]

Ta Prohm was neat. Sadly, we only had about a hour to go through it as it was on the last part of our 3 days in Siem Reap. It was the only time on the whole trip where I wished I had brought a super-wide (CV 15/4.5 would have been easy to bring).

Ta Prohm is a temple which has been overrun by huge Banyan trees. How huge? See my wife in the pic for scale. I got some of the shadow detail of the hallways in the print, although it doesn't show in the scan.

 

[craygc]

Never actually been to Cambodia even after living in the region for 10 years. Sometime in Q2 my company is planning a corporate feel good exercise to build housing [somewhere] in Cambodia over a week/weekend so I am certainly going on that with both 135 & MF in tow...

 

[Simon Larbalestier]

Never actually been to Cambodia even after living in the region for 10 years. Sometime in Q2 my company is planning a corporate feel good exercise to build housing [somewhere] in Cambodia over a week/weekend so I am certainly going on that with both 135 & MF in tow...

I'd visit this year if you can as the increase in tourist traffic is beginning to take its toll on the temples. Areas within them are becoming increasingly roped off, wooden walkways have now become permanent, and the freedom to roam ( and get lost!) , which has always been their charm (especially Ta Promh), is now changing ( see the one way signs now at Angkor Wat) I've been documenting the change since my first trip. The balance between the ever growing jungle and the decay of the temples is delicate at best and perhaps explains the need to make public access easier but it ultimately takes away their charm. For those who plan to visit a trip to Beng Mea Leah about 60km from Siem Reap shows a temple still in the clutches of the jungle. The same thing is now happening to the "floating villages" Kumpong Pluck being a prime example.

 

[waileong]

Ta Som

Ta Som

I like the little boy for scale, but this print is kind of lifeless, although it has a full range of tones (from black to almost pure white in the foreground). I know-- the light was harsh mid-day, not the best. Is there anything I can do to make the print better?

 

[tripod]

I like the little boy for scale, but this print is kind of lifeless, although it has a full range of tones (from black to almost pure white in the foreground). I know-- the light was harsh mid-day, not the best. Is there anything I can do to make the print better?

I would flip the image and print it darker, perhaps with a bit less contrast too.
The reason for flipping is to place the light area of the ground on the left side of the image. Your eye is attracted to the lightest part of the image first, and Westerners prefer to "read" and image like their text: from left to right.

 

[waileong]

Some colour work now

Some colour work now

Again, these are scanned from prints made from my slides, so they'll never have the same amazing tonal range.

First up, a view of Angkor Thom west gate at sunset. This is reached by following a dirt track a mile west of the Bayon, so few people have even heard of it. I got there as the light was already fading.