Double exposure or multiple exposure is the technique of stacking photos for artistic effects. Depending on how the photos were exposed, it's possible to create unique effect such as adding blossom to the silhouette of someone's head to creatively represent…there's nothing but vegetables in their head. Likewise, if the left and right portion of a photo are separately exposed and then stacked with proper alignment, it can create an illusion of one single photo taken in exactly single moment.

To create this photo, I first setup a tripod, used the internal meter to measure the configuration, then locked the exposure parameters. To take a photo I may have used either the mobile app or self-timer. After two photos were taken, I digitally stacked them, and deleted portions of the upper photo to reveal the image under. If there's no overlaps and without complex lighting that'll cast a long shadow, this effect is quite easy to implement.

In Nov 2019 my company has moved into a new office in Ngau Tau Kok, combining employees in Mong Kok, Sha Tin and Tai Koo office. As part of the moving-in activity the company organized a photo competition of the new building for PR purposes and whatnot. As such I spent a Saturday afternoon an empty office shooting random snaps and creating weird posed photos like this. I did not win any prize in the competition.

Throughout 2021 I had been quite lost, having no idea what kind of photos I want to take or what kind of creative expression attracts me. It further fueled my gear acquisiton syndrome, where I unconsciously, falsely believe that a new film format (Moskav-5) or special camera (Sports 35) would bring me new spark in creativity, and take my photography to the next level.

A new camera may bring new perspective, but not necessarily creativity. After all, a photo is what the photographer sees/imagines in his mind before taking a photo, and the photo will not be anything but what the photographer imagined it to be. In the coming year I aim to be more mindful about what I want from each shot. There are beautiful things hidden out there, and we need to go look for them.

The same goes for this photography blog too. So far the most I have written about is gear. Gear is an integral part to photography yet it's far from being the majorty of the art. Philosophy, techniques, zines, post-processing, and besically what people are doing out there when not reviewing gear, are all big parts of the art. I hope in 2022 more emphasis can be put on the non-gear side of the art, and their impacts to me personally.

In the midst of winterly cold, who doesn't miss the warmth of spring time? And spring hasn't arrive, why not the warmth of a partner on Valentine's day. This photo was taken on AGAT 18K with Kodak UltraMax 400. The combo has proven to be a good mix where color is rendered vibrantly. UltraMax has known to be a colorful film, and the Industar-104 lens on AGAT 18K was able to deliver the light to the film without compromising the color.

One thing that could have gone wrong for this pair is the grain. If you like grain then ok, alright, but AGAT 18K is a half-frame camera while UltraMax 400 has high ISO, both are by nature grainer than the normal full-frame, 100-200 ISO combo. The grains may not show on a small phone screen until one zooms or enlarges the photo for prints. Strangely, I don't find the grain in this shoot very distracting. Perhaps because this shot is so simple, there wasn't much details to be ruined by the lowered resolution of half-frame and the additional grain.

The day was Valentine's day of 2021. I had an half a roll in my AGAT 18K that I wanted to finish, and the trip seemed like a good one. See, a bunch of teens, island, Valentine's day, beach, sunshine, throw in some film photography it'll be a nice soup of vibe done.

AGAT 18K is a very portable camera—no larger than nowadays smartphones and only twice as thick. Aside from the mostly dead family of 110 cameras, the hardly practical Kodak FunSaver Daylight, and stupidly expensive Rollei 35, I can hardly think of a 35mm camera more portable than AGAT 18K. The camera also features uncomplicated exposure settings, being only some weather symbol, you only need to match the weather with the symbols to make an alright exposure.

My journey of film photography have always been with COVID. They pretty much started around the same time (i.e. early 2020, for readers in a distant, better future). If there isn't a good reason to go out socializing or enjoy the outdoor under the shadow of COVID (Hong Kong, for the most part, remained a very safe place versus rest of the world), then I can always use film photowalk as an excuse, and it had done wonders in saving my sanity. The shadow of COVID however remains a constant killer to joy and leisure.

Until the end of the pandemic, we are still all stuck where we are, both physically and mentally, and a vacation won't be a true one. Sorry I have nothing to end this on a lighter note.

For a couple months my friend and I switched our Fuji X lens. Being accustomed to the zoome lens Fujinon XF 18-55mm f2.8, it took some time to get used to the Fujinon XF 23mm f2. Two things I like about the prime lens are (goes without saying) the sharpness and (rather surprising to me) speed. The additional step of zooming to compose is not required. Bascially the only thing to do with a prime lens in photowalk/street setting is deciding to shoot or not to shoot. I could even hold a cup of bubble tea on one hand and shoot with another (even though that mean I am "zooming" with my legs instead). With a zoom lens, the act of repeatedly fumbling with the zoom setting on one hand is very troublesome.

The friend I switched lens with was very intersted in shooting during golden hours, better bang for the bucks, and I can relate. The lighting condition between 4pm and 6pm, aka the "golden hours" is favorable in producing impressive photos versus say mid-day when the sun is strong with photos risk looking flat or with harsh shadows. Yes, there are ways to circumvent, and yes, it's still easier to just do it during golden hours.

This photo is what I deem "your typical golden hour shot". Long shadow, golden hue with high dynamic range that works very well on digital cameras especially with Fuji's film simulation. If my memory is correct the setting for this photo was based on Classic Chrome, giving a muted tone that helps mute the blue sky and green bush, leaving only the yellowish part standing out. The end result is a cinematic shot of two colors: yellow and dark.

If I was skillful enough with post-processing, I would have changed the color combination to yellow and teal/blue so the photo look more cinematic.

While I am unhappy about it, I do agree to the notion that "film is just lazy post-processing" when compared to digital photography (not to mix with the art of film post-processing). The presets/curves people apply to digital photos are analogous (*ahem*) to how different film stocks react to light differently.

I believe that by trying to dig deep into how a photo looks good it grows us as a photographer. Everyone is able to naturally appreciate a photo, but to be able to recreate a good photo, some a more mindful eyes are needed.

There are times when I am out there with nothing but my phone camera. Mostly when I go to work or return from work or simply speak 71.4% of the time because photowalks are for weekends. That's why I was conscious of camera quality when choosing my current phone.

9 out of 10 times I missed to take the photo because I was too sleepy in the morning or too tired in the evening. And this one did get conceived like you or me (*ahem*).

This shot is of a building in front of the gigantic summerly cumulonimbus cloud, as if a hazard is closing in to our livelihood. In the context of 2021, it's more like March 2020. This is of course, a result of lens compression on a tele lens and I am glad my phone has separate wide and tele lenses.

Every season has its signature scene: spring blossom, summer clouds, autumn leaves, and winter snow. Imagine we could find a landscape composition that'd contain all 4 elements over the seasons, it'll be an amazing photo series to make.

Originally, the photo was taken in color. And to enhance the contrast betweent the white cloud and the sky, I converted the photo to black and white with red filter to increase contrast and deepen the sky color. Maybe because I was reading Ansel Adam's book at the time and there's no going back.

I chose this photo as my personal best of the month simply because the cloud enclosing a building is like troubles enclosing me. I found personal connection to this photo and it feels like a great metaphor, such is the punctum which I found in an image not until it was time to write up a caption.