Ryokan Photoshoot Contest

Yeap. That’s the iconic Penang Bridge. We were in Penang over the weekend. As mentioned in our previous blog, we were one of the sponsors of Ryokan’s Shoot and Win photography contest.



We stayed at Ryokan of course. They were gracious enough to set us up in their Luxury Suite which came with attached bath and satellite tv.



It’s a very nice place to stay. Clean, comfortable and the staffs were friendly and helpful.

We left KL in the wee hours of the morning to head up to Penang to gorge ourselves with the wonderful Penang hawker food. I had to confess, I had 4 breakfast that morning. :)



Jason got to bring out his newly acquired monster camera….



… while Winnie was compiling the photo entries…



It’s a Mamiya RB67 medium format camera. And it’s not easy to carry around as it’s a rather heavy behemoth!



Getting back to the contest, it’s a free and easy contest with participants submitting their best shots for 3 categories.

There were 5 of us as the judges.



Jason, John, Sean, Karen and Mark.



Very fun people they are.. :)



The judging process. Simple. We wrapped up and was served delicious coffee from the hostel. A good thing as I was extremely sleepy as I up since 4am.

The next morning is the announcement of winners an prize giving ceremony.



…. where I was cornered into giving a speech. :S



… but it was all good.. I was given the honour of presenting one of the prizes to the winners :)



It was also Ryokan Chick Hostel’s first birthday!

And so we had a little makan makan. It’s a very lovely atmosphere there at the hostel. Everyone seems to be very friendly. The staff is friendly, the other guests were friendly as well. We found ourselves talking about each other’s diverse cultures and enjoying the cake and other dishes laid out for us.



And lastly.. the judges with the winners of the photo contest..

The Tank.....

As mention by John, currently the FOS team has got bitten by the film bug. I must admit that I was the worst of the 2 that was bitten badly. Every since the film frenzy I have been searching for films, where to get, process and scan them out. What I felt was that it was back to basics in film photography. It makes me think of how and what I wanted to shoot.

Then just last week I really wanted a Medium Format(MF) film camera. John asked "Why want venture into MF Camera?" Honestly I have been always fascinated with MF cameras example Hasselblad, Contax, Mamiya, Kiev and many more. So the search for a reasonable and pristine unit is in progress and to my luck I have found what I wanted. It was a Mamiya Rb67 proSD, the last upgraded model in it generation since 1970. This BEAST was the work horse of many professional fashion photographers including famous ones.

Here are some of the pictures of the camera.

Why I mention camera as a TANK or a BEAST is because this camera really is big and heavy and weights a ton (2.5kg to be exact hahaha )


This is how it look and compose your picture using this Waist View Finder

Extracting the Film Leader

As some of you may already know, Jason and I just ventured back into film. And after such a long long hiatus from film, and to cut the story short, I accidentally rewound the film all the way into the canister, including the film leader :S



I did not want to waste a perfectly good and unused roll of film. But to use it again, I would need to get the film leader out for me to reload it again. So .. how?

First, you use an old negative film strip, or.. in my case, I do not have any old film strip with me, so I use one of those transparent covers which we use as the coverpage when binding documents. I cut out a strip roughly the size of a film negative, stuck on double sided tape on it and carefully insert it into the ‘mouth’ of the canister.



(sorry for the blurry photo… a bit excited hahaha..)

Then you twist the “film canister handle” anti-clockwise until the film inside the canister catches the double-sided tape. You continue twisting until you get a good amount of grip and the transparent sheet and tape starts to go into the canister. Then than all you have to do is to carefully pull out the transparent sheet and…



… TAAA DAAA!!!! Out comes the film leader… all set to be reloaded into the camera.

It’s quite easy… a lot easier than I thought it would be. So dun go wasting that accidentally rewound film :)

Will update blog on some film photos soon.

Something from this morning…

I think this is the first time we had some ‘behind the scenes’ photos during an actual day wedding. Most of the time we are too engross with the couple. This time around, I had a little time to sneak a shot.

A Little Taste of Penang

So here’s something exciting which you guys should come along. The Ryokan Chic Hostel @ Penang is hosting a Stay and Shoot Photography contest this month end. What is it all about? Well, firstly, for RM35, you get a one night’s stay at the Ryokan Chic Hostel in Penang. It’s just a stone’s throw away from many heritage sites and is an interesting backpacking hostel concept. You will also get a goodie bag and a tshirt.

And here are the list of amazing prizes to be won!!

 

We are also proud to announce that we are one of the sponsors of the contest, our first sponsorship for a photography contest. So come along and let’s have some fun in Penang!! .. yeah.. fun!! because we always believe that photography without fun.. well.. ain’t much fun! :)

So let’s get together, have some laughs and get that creative juices flowing!

Technorati Tags: Penang,Ryokan,Muntri Street,Heritage,Photoshoot,Contest,Competition,Sponsor,Fingeronshutter

A Little Teaser…. for now…

 

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Check back soon

Happy Chinese New Year!!

It’s that time again where Chinese make their annual migration back to their kampungs to celebrate Chinese New Year. We would like to take this opportunity to ask that during your drive home, please do take care and drive sensibly.

Last but not least, we wish everyone …

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!

… and a prosperous.. and not forgetting healthy wealthy year ahead :)