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.

Currently listening to: Rocket Summer - Never Knew
Currently feeling: content
Posted by roy on May 8, 2008 at 11:03 PM in Personal, Ramblings, Photography | 10 Comments

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Comment posted on May 9th, 2008 at 12:17 AM
BTW, have you considered moving to Manila?
Comment posted on May 9th, 2008 at 12:25 AM
why manila?
Comment posted on May 9th, 2008 at 01:22 AM
Seems like the face of Tabulas is gradually becoming Filipino...not that there's anything wrong with it. It's just that I oftentimes run into a post that starts out really interesting, and right when it's about to get good, it switches to Tagalog for a few paragraphs, then switches back to English. Like watching a great TV show with intermittent reception. Also kind of reminds me of a parallel with the nation's current situation involving latin immigrants...not that there's anything wrong with that either. :)
Comment posted on May 9th, 2008 at 01:24 AM
you just made me laugh ... the visualization of you reading a blog then getting psised cause of the tatgagaglogogoajogajgogog is pretty funny to me irght now

ok i'm going to bed.

and no i'm not going to manila.

what i will do is make tabulas not suck so it draws back the writers.
Comment posted on May 9th, 2008 at 01:37 AM
Cuz I'm currently rebuilding my "friends" list as i'm seeing very little activity in my expansive "friends" page. I've noticed that a lot of the old guard have left either because (1) they've grown up and stopped blogging or blog very infrequently because that's what happens when you enter the real world...(2) moved somewhere else because they got bored with T or because they can't customize their pages as easily as blogger or wordpress...(3) are Canadian and have been driven away from Tabulas by my anti Canadianisms (Only a handful of them truly get it).
Comment posted on May 9th, 2008 at 12:15 AM
Gone are the days where you needed to know what the frack an F-Stop is. And shooting under 1/30 is emo speed.
Comment posted on May 9th, 2008 at 12:26 AM
why is shooting under 1/30 emo?
Comment posted on May 9th, 2008 at 01:17 AM
it's what someone told me when I showed her how to shoot extended exposures. Said it looked "emo" ... whatever that meant.

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Comment posted on May 9th, 2008 at 01:23 AM
i always get the terminology mixed up. by shooting "under" 1/30, do you mean she's shooting at longer exposures like 1/8??? if so, the emo-ness definitely comes from teh movement and the blurryness. emos love imperfections.
Comment posted on May 9th, 2008 at 01:26 AM
Yup. If I recall correctly, I've always been taught that it was "under",