One thing from shooting film positives that will never be replicated by digital will be the sheer surprise of examining abandoned slides. Finding myself in need for a distraction a few nights ago, I dusted off my lightbox and slide collection from my trip to 2002 Korea/Vietnam trip. (Apologies to long-time readers who tire me of writing about this subject time and time again).

The trip being the first time I was shooting on flim, I remember my fears - was I shooting correctly? Would the pictures  come back exposed? How was my composition?

Roll after roll I diligently shot, labelled and stored away in a Ziploc bag. My original plan was take take all 60-odd rolls and develop them at once in the States ... but I couldn't resist the temptation to re-imagine what I had already seen.

So I took them down to the local Korean slide development shop and got all the slides developed.

I remember the joy, as I huddled over the lightbox that night, perusing my giant collection of slides. By golly, these were mine! I could remember what I was thinking, what I was feeling, and the little stories that associated each photo.

I don't know if you remember, but in 2002, digital cameras were not widespread. Flickr didn't exist; easy photo-sharing sites were a rarity. This made photogalleries from amateurs rare.

I remember excitedly scanning all my positives and putting together a photo gallery that I could post on the web. And boy, was I proud of it.

. . .

Six years later, I still like to look over the slides from time to time to reminisce. That trip was the last time I can remember being unburdened with responsibilities; I was just a kid with a camera who wanted to see something different. Now I've grown for the better, and it makes me see other things in the exact same exposures. Maybe it's the years that make me appreciate the little details I missed first time around.

Check the salaryman on the left. He put aside his responsibilities for a night and partied with the kids. And it was totally cool and nobody judged him for it.