I got my Voigtlander Bessa R3A on the second day of January 2022, and the first thing I did with the camera was to run it through a roll of Kodak Ektar 100. The only lens that came with the camera was a Voigtlander Nokton 40mm F1.2, smooth and easy to use at aperture priority mode with Bessa R3A's TTL metering.

That day, the challenge was to explore parts of Kowloon that I have never been to while eventually making my way to the lab in Lai Chi Kok. It's actually quite easy, whenever there's a turn, choose the one leading to the most unpredictable destination. Only look at the map for general direction towards the lab, and the rest were decided by fate.

This photo was taken when passing through a road with zero expectation. Even as the shot was taken, I did not expect much because this looks simply like any other cityscape I have taken in the past. Well, the only difference I could tell is the mist-like blue light curtain covering the background.

After having been "mass-producing" photos for posting on Instagram since February 2020, the standard of judging an image and deciding whether to take a shot gradually became "whether it looks good on IG" or "whether something similar had been taken before".

この写真たちを見て、本当に良い写真とは何か、、なんていろいろ考えさせられました。
— イシカワユイ on Note

I have never quite understood how some of my images receive more "likes" than some other ones. Perhaps likes count is not a reliable way to judge a photo, as it oversimplified and uniformized the "pricks" that a spectator feels from a photo.

No idea what makes a good photo still. But no more should I shoot blindly and hoping to score some hits out of pure luck if I want to advance in the art.

On the same photowalk as above to test out the newly acquired Voigtlander Bessa R3A, I took this photo on some small shopping mall full of reminiscence of the last century. Normally, without exploring the city with the strategy to visit only unfamiliar places, I wouldn't have discovered this place.

During the winterly golden hours the sun was shining from a low angle through the fence, casting a long shadow while illuminating the plants on the side of the road, while the ceiling was too casting a shadow to expand the dynamic range of the scene. Pretty much the text-book example of tranquility from an image. In fact, the scene was quite quiet as when I took the shot too. I did not see any shopper in the mall.

Recently I have realized that attempt to score photos from a scene with clear intention and expectation ends rather quickly, as there's usually nothing more interesting than a few shots of a "photo spot" or unusual scene. Instead, going out on a photowalk to an unfamiliar place without clear intention and shooting plan, just walk and not trying to finish the entire roll in haste, usually ends up with a more satisfying experience and better photos.

As I have mentioned in several occasions, I am very pleased with the output of the repaired Ansco Memar. There is something intriguing about operating a fully manual camera without any focusing aid except for a rangefinder card that is often un-used because of the added trouble. Yes, perhaps going by intuition and rely on the latitude of color negative film and stepped-down aperture goes quite a long way by removing the technical distractions, knowing almost exactly how it's gonna go down and how bad it goes at worst.

We finished the hike to Finger Hill in Peng Chau and walked back to town, trying to explore more and for my companion to secure a souvenir for his girlfriend. Fairly tasteful decoration with the old metal gate painted in bright yellow and display of plants outside the shop. Inside it smelled of coffee and papers, as it's a rather small cafe (only one table for 4) which sells souvenir such as books, decorative goods and postcards.

My collection of more advanced cameras all have built-in rangefinder and some even auto-exposure. The shooting experience using these cameras mean adjusting to pinpoint focus on rangefinder and hoping the auto-exposure is doing its job to choose the correct exposure parameters. The time-to-pressing-shutter on these more advanced cameras are actually longer compared to simple camera like the fully manual Ansco Memar.

This may sound surprising, but most of the time re-metering and re-calibrating focusing is quite troublesome I go by guessin the exposure and focus when I shoot on the Ansco Memar. This somehow makes for a more pleasant shooting experience because I only need to compose and fire away the shutter. However, this is different from using a point-and-shoot camera, with the added thrill(?)/uncertainty(?) knowing fully that if I F-ed up the shot it's all on me, and not on the camera.

Like the best#1 photo of this month, this photo features a strong hazy light from the sun on a subject. This time, the big trees with most of its leaves fell off in the winter. Actually, there are some reddish dead leaves hanging from the tips of the branches which looks quite autumny.

I picked this photo to the monthly personal best because of amount of work and intention that went into the photo: converting it to black and white using a red filter, then consciously dodging and burning to emphasizing the hazy sunlight.

I imagine people tend to form a special relationship with their way home because it's the same route they take every day and because they know the way so well, they are able to pick up even the slightest thing extraordinary about their path on a given day. Say today the golden sun ray is puncturing through the clouds, or one day the sky is a clean purple-blue gradient comes nightfall.

The way home is like holding out a pair of arms welcoming us back home, which always has a special place in my heart. With the worsening COVID situation in Hong Kong, it's harder to get this "way back home" moment because I am working from home. Perhaps I should go for a walk, on a fixed course despite working from home, to try scoring some nice shots, or simply just to decompress after a busy day of work.