GOH

I have no idea why the Grand Oriental Hotel is named as such. My sister thinks it's because the British considered Sri Lanka as a part of the Orient; but I still think its name is a little misplaced.

Nevermind that, look at this awesome pettagama (chest) in the hotel.

GOH

Colombo Museum

Ill be uploading some pics of certain artifacts soon. I will also be sure to complain about indescribable damage the colonial powers have done to the art of this country.

Bo Tree, With a flare shooting through it.

The sacred Bo tree outside the Colombo Museum, with a lucky flare.

Sweet Deals

I was at a dinky photo studio in Colpetty a few days ago to get some passport-sized photographs. It had all this old film equipment in cabinets that have been stored away after shooting film had become inefficient. I counted some Mamiya lenses and film backs. But in a corner of the cabinet was a bunch of film. They had a bunch of Ilford 125 film and these 3 rolls of Ilford PanF in 35 mm form.

It was clearly of no use for them and the film was expired 3 years in a dusty, warm glass cabinet 50 feet away from galle road. I offered to take it off their hands and I got all 3 rolls for 200Rs (~$1.80).

I have never shot black and white film before, and I think I get why some people do it, but I have never had an interest in shooting black and white (I would rather convert in post to black and white). I guess I can find out what the fuss is. It will be interesting to see how these come out once I shoot them. Thats if I figure out where to develop them first.

Fort Railway Station

Going to the beach, brb.

Back of the Tuk

Three wheel thunderrr!

Babies

With nephews as cute as this, I dont mind being an Uncle.

Bands.

Jon and pat played an awesome house show a while back. I finally got around to filtering out the crap pictures and processing these.







It was pretty dark in there, and low light performance isn't really the XSi's (450D) forte.

Dogs

I'm missing one actually; it's hard to get decent shots of hyperactive dogs.

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Last of the Carrie Furnace set

I wanted to upload these before I forgot about them. These are some pictures I took with a Yashica-A at the abandoned carrie steel furnace.

The rest of the pictures from the furnace can be found here







These were shot on Kodak Ektar. While being a wonderful film with vibrant colors, it's kinda unforgiving if you dont get the exposure right. Makes pictures come out a little washed out looking.
That said I absolutely love medium format and I wish it wasnt such an expensive habit to get into.

PGH vintage grand prix '10

Like last year, I was able to make it to the race day of the annual Pittsburgh vintage grand prix. Unlike last year however I only took my dslr and 50mm lens (last year I shot film as well). It turned out to be a wise decision as the event turned out to be more of the same, or even less of the same as the selections of cars on show and on track were not as good last years. The weather was also not agreeable to photographers as it was overcast one second, raining the next and really sunny in between.

However it didnt stop me from snapping a few pictures and trying my hand out on panning some shots.











The cars on show were also not up to last years quality, but here are some highlights:


Mercedes 300sl Gullwing


Lotus Exige


The usual selection of M3's, R8's and other exotics were present but they didn't really stand out much.

On a side note, I met a man shooting with a black Leica M9 that day and he let me hold it and compose a bit (he had a 90mm Summicron on it, I believe). It didnt cause my heart to explode in a sudden burst of envy or motivate me to sell everything I own to buy one, but it was really nice. I mean the thing was built like a tank, really heavy for such a small(ish) camera and everything felt well built. I cant imagine myself spending that kind of money on a camera ($9,000 just for a camera body, with lenses upwards of $3000), but If I was going to spend the kind of money that can buy you a film M6, I would rather buy a nice Hasselblad or Mamiya 6.

I mean c'mon, medium format is the shit.