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| Mr. Mohan R. |
27 May 2007 Sunday. Sunny weather and cloudy.
I went to the National Stadium to do more photography. Out of my expectations, I was told by the security guard that there'll be an event held in the stadium and no photography is allowed today. To my great disappointment (I woke up early as I wanted to capture the first light at the stadium) I walked towards the East Entrance area outside the stadium, where strong sunlight is shining.
About an hour later,the sun was hidden behind dense clouds, so I waited for it to clear. Suddenly a man stopped right beside me. He's an old Indian man, on a bicycle, wearing LTA (Land Transport Authority) safety vest and helmet. He seems friendly to me. I said "Hi!" to him. He asked me a few questions about my profession and photography. He even wanted to pay me to take photographs of him. I told him that I'm doing it for leisure and hobby.I've always wanted to do environmental portraitures and so I took the rare opportunity and advantage to take a few portraitures of the old man.
Thought it was my lousy day but it turned out to be a lucky one. Overall I took about 8 shots of the old man. I asked for the old man's name and contact number. He's known as Mr. Mohan R. Mid-60s, married with 2 children whom both are working in Australia. He wanted to send his kids pictures of him as family memorablilia and that was the reason why he approached me.
Mr Mohan has been working at LTA as a site inspector for 5 years. Currently he's stationed at the construction site next to the National Stadium, for the new MRT station. He was doing his round when he bummed into me. Fortunately I took 2 cameras with me - a Holga 120GN and a Seagull-4A TLR. With street photography in mind, I wanna use Holga, but instead I used it on Mr Mohan. I got no regrets and I have confidence using a Holga for good portraitures with great results, even I do say so myself.
All photographs were taken with a Holga 120GN on Kodak Ektachrome E100VS slide film. A manual external flashlight is used even under strong sunlight. The 2 main purposes are to freeze the subject in motion and to create catchlights on the subject's eyes.
Hi Martin! Really like your write-up of Mohan. The portraits are nice too. What film did you use and where did you get it developed? Really like the saturated colours and wonder whether its becoz of film, glass lens or PS :p Thanks for sharing the environmental portraits and your thoughts & experiences.
ReplyDeleteHi Ruby!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind words. I greatly appreciate for yr time to read my blogs. The film I used for these portraitures is Kodak Ektachrome E100VS. The 'VS' stands for Vivid Saturation and it gives warmth to yr images, without having to fix any warm-up filter lens on yr camera. For review on this slide film, log on to:
http://www.photographyreview.com/cat/film/slide-film/kodak/PRD_83310_3118crx.aspx
OR visit kodak film website here:
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/films/e100vs/e100vsIndex.jhtml?id=0.1.18.14.7.20.5&lc=en
I've once used Kodak Ektachrome E100GX which has the same vivid saturation as E100VS but warmer color balance with fine grain. Unfortunately Cathay Photo is not selling it anymore. I heard news that Kodak has discontinued its production. Well I think E100VS is good enough. 120 roll film is cheaper than 35mm. I can't remember the prices for both format.
I got it developed at The Colour Lab, The Adelphi for $6.00 per roll. For this roll, I got it scanned (high resolution @ 3637x3637px) for $19.90. I think it's worthy as I might want to do large printings for exhibition in the future.
I'm sure you know, as a Holga/Diana user, under strong sun light is highly recommended when taking pictures with it. Yes Holga/Diana lens causes bokeh on yr images, but it's coherent and unobtrusive, in the case of Mr Mohan images. Focussing is the main factor. With good distance judgements, you can rest assured for a couple of good shots.
As for PS editing, I did not do any color correction nor any form of manipulation on these images. I always like the way things/people are, in their natural form/behavior. Well except for the third photograph, I've "healed" away some distracting item on the right edge.
Hope I've answered yr questions well. Cheers!
- Martin Liew