i've been back about a week. i guess i picked the right week to go because they were hit by a typhoon yesterday.

yet again, taipei was missed.

we did get some cool sideways rain today, though.

anyway, i've a few rolls of film to process.

btw, what's the lowest iso the bessa L? 25. hey! i have 2 rolls of efke kb25 left over from my last visit to freestyle. hmm...can you do street photography with a focus-less camera and iso 25 film?

let's find out. i'm finishing up the second roll now. thank god the weather today was *really* sunny.

hong kong is an option...someone i know was going, but i've been there so many times already and i really don't have the desire to go shopping 24/7. i mean, yeah there's a disneyland there but c'mon, i'm from the hometown of the original. why would i want to see what is essentially the same thing but smaller and with "Uncle Mao"s portrait welcoming me?

he killed 2 million people and now welcomes you to "the happiest place on earth".  

originally i thought it was going to be kl, malaysia...i have a few friends there from my involvement with photomalaysia.com (a completely seperate story). unfortunately, i really can't swing it financialy...need to save for my trip back to the states to see my family & friends next July.

so it's going to be 3 days/2 nights on orchid island ([link], one of taiwan's satalite islands. this isn't one of those ubiquitos tourist-magnet-resort-umbrellas-in-your-drinks-type islands but one that is actually culturally unique. It is home to the Yami aboriginal group and was isolated as a kind of ethnological reserve until the late 60s. Even now it remains in large part unspoiled...no resorts, spas, mcdonalds, starbucks (where the hell am i going to get my iced latte from?), etc.... yes there is tourism, but it's managed. it'll be a great chance to explore some of taiwan's aboriginal culture...not something you really get to see or appreciate in taipei.

i'm leaving on aug 1st. time to dust off the 1947 crown graphic and pick up some 4x5 film

A month or so ago announced a self-funded contest for night-loving photogs.

check this out

I won!!!

Really, I did. I swear! Here's the announcement in his journal: [link]

and this is my winning entry, direct from toon town:

how cool is that?

Clubs:

So I went to Ocean Park last Sun/Mon. The hotel was originally booked but 2 weeks of crap weather gave us an opening and a discount. Cool enough, the sun came out just for us, too.

Here are some pics of a rock band that played covers in the food court area after lunch. All the members are from Belarus with the exception of the lead singer, who is Taiwanese.

Getting good composition was hard as there was a lot of stuff in the way...speakers, mixing boards, lamp posts, strollers with little babies in them, etc.... Here are a few of the ones I like. There are some additional shots on my website ([link].

All photos were shot on Tri-X (EI250) dev'd in HC-110(H) for 14m @20C. Camera was Bessa R2A. Lenses were 50mm and 15mm.











Clubs:

Some time back ~kingmouf issued a photo assignment: stick a fresh roll of film in your camera and go for a walk ([link]. So I did. I threw a roll of ERA100 film into my R2 and shot through it while walking the 3 blocks between my apartment and the local Carrefor supermarket.

These are my favorites off that roll.













That's it! Comments always welcome, of course

Clubs:

Are you a black & white film dinosaur like me? Check out this contest at the newly created ~PhotoPurist club ([link].

I'm entering...who couldn't use a hassey?

Clubs:

Before my trip back to LA I made some updates to my bloghosting community site, MYeBlog.org ([link].

Besides bug fixes, I changed the WYSIWYG editor to something faster and more functional, created a new portal page with it's own new functions, added the ability to categorize your blog as a whole (custom categories for individual entries still apply), and added some new templates (you can still create your own with the HTML editor).

That's it

*sigh*

My bottle of HC-110 is almost gone and I have 6 rolls of Tri-X, Gekko, and HP5+ sitting on the coffee table. My friend called the local shop that I frequent to see if they have any.

Nope.

And they haven't a clue when they'll have more.

We're (my friend, his friend, & I) heading down to the "photo district" (Poi-Ai Rd) to do some searching tomorrow afternoon. If I can't find any then I guess I'm stuck with LC-29 (abundant next door) or if I have the $$$ then DD-X.

At least I still have Diafine. That stuff lasts forever.