The kind of typical theme of black-and-white photo of high contrast scene. Agfa Isoly 100 for a short period was my go-to camera for fixed focus point-and-shooting. The black-and-white Agfa APX 100 film was inadequate even at the minimum shutter speed. Thus the subjects appear quite dark off from a distance. In fact, I doubt people discovered those two people on their small phone screens.

Ideally, the sunlight should have shone through the opening (windows?) of the bridge and illuminate the right part of the image. On that day however, the sun was actually shining from a different direction, like 7 o'clock from behind me, so only little sunlight could shine through some off-shot openings.

This photo was taken shortly after I have bought the Isoly 100, back when film and film development were cheap, as in "cheap everywhere", not "cheap in the lab I go with some sort of compromise". At the time I would happyily throw a black-and-white film into a camera with a plastic lens and just snap.

Jimmy bridge is a foot bridge crossing Wai Yip Street in between Kowloon Bay and Ngau Tau Kok. With its unique design and color scheme, many people are attracted to photograph here. For me, it's just right next to my office so I can go in an snap a couple when the light is right or when I was trying to finish a roll.

There are 3 shutter speed for sunny, cloudy and flash. Imagine it kind of a Kodak M35 from the 1980s minus the flash. ISO 100 or below was common back in the days, and I believe this camera is really hungry for light. In an enclosed area like this, it's simply too dark for everything to be recognizably bright.

For a nominal, properly exposed image, a flash should have been used. But for artistics purpose, I cannot imagine a better exposure than what's seen here.

This image was dug up from back in the days when shooting film felt reasonably affordable. Save up a coffee or two then you can get a roll developed and scanned. Now, I think it's 3.5 cups.

昨年は現像料の値上げ，Kodak製品の値上げなどがあいつぎ，フィルムで撮る環境がますます厳しくなった感があります。それでもまだ，フィルムは売られていますし，現像のサービスはおこなわれています。これからもかわらず，撮り続けていきたいものです。
— awane-photo.com from 新・マミヤプレスファンクラブ掲示板 (ver.3)

Some people, unlike me, have a more optimistic view towards film photography in which yes there's a price hike, but you get your film, your development and scans. Get rich, or get clever. Know what you want, stop shooting randomly and hoping good things happen in your life all the time.

Like there's this party camera for party, I also have a hiking camera for hiking. Two, in fact: one is AGAT 18K and another Agfa Optima 1535. Both of these camera are compact and easy to use, fitting well within the 15-second attention span of hiking companions. They'd have gone 3km down the hike if I had to setup and shoot my Moskva-5 on a tripod.

Kodak Vision3 50D, being a daylight balanced filmstock that usually appear flat in the outcome, this time was able to give a vibrant blue and green under the golden-hour sun after some re-touching and curve tuning. If it was dead-white I couldn't have pulled this off.

My friend invited me to hike and shoot at Shing Mun Reservoir. Out of the many choices I brought along the Optimat 1535 and Moskva-5 for shooting. The sunlight was warm and bright throughout the day, and water was calm in the reservoir, making it a perfect day for a shoot. On a random April Sunday we went, waiting at the minibus station for 20m not seeing any sign of the minibus coming, until we have gotten on a taxi. 3x the price and no faster. The minibus arrived at reservoir the same time as our taxi.

I have never hiked past the northern tip of the reservoir. First time we do a loop around the reservior, there was so many to see. Water reflects the trees and the sky clearly, giving a vibrant reflection of the landscape. The well-positioned viewing platform "享逸台" located on the highground somewhat into the reservoir. Off from a distance buildings in Tsuen Wan can be seen, reminding me of the fact that this is a reservoir and if it wasn't for the dams this giant body of water wouldn't have existed.

I get it, there's nothing special about Optima 1535. The lens is Tessar-type Solitar S f/2.8 and that's it. In the same/prior era Japan already had the Olympus Trip 35 and Canon Canonet QL 17 having similar if not wider aperture (as if that's the only deciding factor...) And I get it why people look the price tag and say Optima 1535 "doesn't worth it".

Whenever people question the price of a camera and a purchase decision, confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance punch me in my guts. On one hand, they may have said something logically correct, on another, it's not something I can easily swallow. Being well-informed of the biases the only thing I can do is to resist reacting, even though dismissing the feeling has never been as easy.

"Whatever influencers says is good is good". It seems like a easier thing to join the echo chamber/social club of famous (inflated) gears. But I just can't get myself gladly joining the said club, with most of my gears being non-mainstream.

Voigtlander Bessa R3A is a good gear. Good gears are comfortable to use and just work. Again, this photo was taken with Fujicolor C200, a now "discontinued" film that had received new branding as Fujicolor 200 and is essentially Kodak Gold 200. Local vendors still have stocks around but Taobao sellers have significantly marked up the price already. Local sellers are not as greedy as I have thought, for now. They know, if film price gets more expensive shooting film cannot be afforded by the leisure shooters.

Our hike to 石龍拱 opened a new chapter in my photography. Working with a mindful model and purposefully trying to shoot with explicit posing to model a persona, instead of just shooting cool-looking photo of the person, is a hugely different experience. The persona in this photo, as instructed by me, is to show someone resting and enjoying the quietness an abandoned place. There are in fact noisy visitors appearing every few minutes though.

This shot is definitely overexposed, and post-processing can do little to save the blown out highlights so I simply left them as is. The foreground serves as a frame in the frame that I think is ok. However, the model tried too hard pretending to be at rest it doesn't look like he's resting. This should could be saved by bracketing with a -1/2 or -1 stop exposure compensation.

This photo was posted on IG on April 1st, the April Fool's day with a caption saying I am "done" posting and this'll be the last one. The statement itself was of course jokingly made, yet it's in fact a result of a month's of thinking. In my photography I hate that the weather doesn't turn out well on a weekend; the film doesn't come back quick enough; the scans are bad because the lab doesn't care; and the price tag of shooting.

Many of Vivian Maier's photo had never been public until after her death, yet she kept doing it, not for any social recognition obviously. If I were left with all the film in the world and a functional lab, but all humans are gone, will I still shoot? Yes. I will keep shooting. Now that I am free of my work and family life, I can go anywhere I want, shoot whatever I want (except people…)

Recognition on IG is less of what I want now. The of my photography is in the experience. I like to shoot and see the result. I like to try gears out. I like to share them. I don't mind even if I am shouting loudly into the void with nobody responding.

I could stop posting any time. Now, though, I feel like continuing. Having to post makes me want to keep shooting.

Many photo I like on social media are from people who take photo on their way back home. As the Omicron COVID wave subsides, we are asked to return to office, and again I get to waste 3 hours of my life daily on the commute. Most of the time I sleep it out, as the bus transported my lifeless body back to where I live, there are many nice views to look at, just not too often.

Especially during the summer, when giant clouds creeps in from behind the buildings and mountains and it's sunny most of the time. This photo was taken on my walk to the MTR station. Looking up at the MTR line the sky was calming. Still jealous of people who can take good-looking sunset (we don't get that in the city!), I took this photo on my phone, and it's my monthly personal best starting right that time.

Better if it's on a film camera, I could be brining my AGAT 18K or the upcomign Olympus Pen EE-2 when it arrives.

It's summer again. Many things had happened between the last summer and this. The passing of time feels much faster as an adult, and I am 28, I am old. I haven't achieved anything, the sky still seem out of reach. What if one day, all my dreams had came true, and I have touched the sky, what's left there? Perhaps, an empty shell living a fruitless life, waiting for the time to pass and the inevitable to come. I fear that.

For now, I like looking at the sky, the unreacheable, dreaming about touching the sky, and knowing that my feet wouldn't leave the ground. That is a kind of comfort to embrace.