Bokeh Challenge f/0.95 in Singapore : Leica M6, Noctilux, Kodak Portra 400

The concept of the Bokeh Challenge 0.95 is to shoot an entire roll at the aperture of f/0.95. I was in Singapore and I went to Chinatown with my Leica M6, Noctilux and a roll of Portra 400. I started by the Sri Mariamman indian temple and I was very lucky because there was a special ceremony, a Puja. It was very lively, colourful, musicians played a typical indian music and the priests were performing the ceremony. Then I went to a taoist temple, Thian Hock Keng, build for the worship of Mazu, a Chinese sea goddess. I was a quiet atmosphere , very inspiring, with beautiful details of decoration to capture.
Doing these challenges is very interesting because you need to take pictures which fit the special aperture of f/0.95 with a very shallow depth of field. The photographe is then encouraged to find a special inspiration, to look for original angles, and to shot subjects that you might not think to shot usually.

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Street photography in Montmartre with the Leica Noctilux, M6 TTL, Kodak TX

I was in Paris in January and I went to Montmarte and the Sacre Coeur to shoot some street photography. It’s a very lively neighbourhood with many cafés, restaurants, musicians, painters, street sellers. In January there are not so much tourists compared to the spring and summer , but it’s still busy and entertaining.

I shot with the Leica M6 TTL, the lens Noctilux, and a roll of Kodak TX 400. I choose to push the film 1 stop at 800 because it was not very sunny and I wanted to have a descent depth of field for street photography.

You can see below the video and the pictures.

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Chinese New Year 2018 in Bangkok : Leica M6, Noctilux f/0.95, Kodak Portra

Great celebrations are taking place in Chinatown Bangkok for the Chinese New Year : dragon dance, parade, shows, food etc… This year, in 2018, it’s the year of the Dog. I went to Yaowarat (Chinatown) with my Leica M6, the lens Noctilux f/0.95 and a roll of film Kodak Portra 400. The vintage look of this film is perfectly suitable to shoot a traditional event and the rendering of the colours is perfect! New Year is very colourful and it had to be seen in colour and not on black and white.

It was a sunny day and Iso 400 was enough to shoot at a high speed (between 1/250 and 1/500) and to have a comfortable depth of field (between f/5.6 and f/8) . And for the sake of it, I shot 2 pictures at f/0.95 ; will you be able to spot them ?

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Night Photography in Paris with Leica M6, Noctilux and Cinestill 800T

Cinestill 800T is a special film which comes from the motion film Kodak Vision 3. Consequently it has a cinematic look and it’s amazing for night pictures. We often see this film used in Asia or chinatowns in western countries because there are a lot of neons and it looks great. We rarely see Cinestill 800 pictures of classical monuments from western countries, that’s why I wanted to try it in Paris to shoot the Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde, le Louvre and its pyramid. For this shooting I used my Leica M6, the lens Noctilux f/0.95 and a tripod. As it’s a fast film, I didn’t need very long exposures, however for 5 seconds I still needed a tripod to have sharp pictures. I had a cable release as well to be sure that the camera would not move.

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Street Photography in Bangkok with Leica M6 and Noctilux 0.95

I went out for a photo walk with my Leica M6 and the lens Noctiulux 0.95. It was the first time I used this camera. The first pictures were a little bit difficult, having to set everything manually : the aperture, the shutter speed, and the focusing. Hopefully, the M6 has a lightmeter and it was pretty accurate. I tried to document the life and the atmosphere of Chinatown (Yaowarat) Bangkok, a vibrant and lively neighbourhood, which continue the tradition of an ancient way of life.
I used the film Kodak Tri-X 400 which has a great contrast and a sharp look.

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Polaroid 250 & Fujifilm FP-100c in Paris : the most beautiful monuments

I shot with my Polaroid 250 and Fujifilm FP-100c the first time this September 2017. The weather was nice most of the time, with clouds and a little rain sometimes. It is difficult to control the exposure with the 250. It is automatic, you have to rely on the internal lightmeter ; there is an optical sensor close to the lens. As my model tends to underexpose the pictures, I placed a piece of paper on the sensor and made a small hole in the middle. This way, the camera think that it’s darker than it really is, and make a longer exposure. There is as well a dial around the lens “darken-lighten” that you can adjust. I used this dial usually to darken when my pictures were overexposed.

It was a really fun to shoot with this camera and the peel apart film. Every time you pull out the picture from the camera, there is a surprise, you never know how the picture is gonna look like. and when you start to peel the negative apart from the positive , when the picture is sharp, well exposed and well framed, it is a delight to see the result showing slowly. When you succeed, the result is usually beautiful, the FP-100c is one of the best instant film ever made. Unfortunately, they are not produced anymore and they are difficult to find and expensive.

you can see below the videos that I shot during the photowalk, the scan of the pictures, and the scan of the negatives that I reclaimed.

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Photowalk with Rollei 35 and Agfa Vista Plus in Bangkok Thailand

I shot a roll of Agfa Vista Plus 400 with my Rollei 35 in Bangkok Thailand. I shot some street photography, urban landscape, monuments, and night pictures with a cable release and a tripod. It was a lot of fun.

I love the “seventies” look of the Agfa, it gives a vintage ambiance to the scene. I bought the roll for 185 baht (5.5 USD) at Siam TLR camera store in Ploenchit. That’s where I bought my cable release for less than 8 USD. The owner is very friendly. He repairs himself the cameras in his shop.
The Rollei 35 is easy to use, but sometimes you can forget to focus, because when you look in the view finder it looks fine. With a rangefinder, you can’t forget to focus because you see that the 2 squares are not aligned in the viewfinder when you frame. With the Rollei, it’s a distance focusing, the settings you do have no connection with the view finder. Besides, you need some practice to evaluate the distance.

To meter the light, I used 3 different ways ; the Sunny 16 rule, the meter of the camera, and an iPhone app mylightmeter pro. I was surprised to notice that vey often the Sunny 16 rule gave the exact same result as my app ; surprised but reassured that it was the right exposure. compared to this methods, the meter of the camera tends to underexpose. But in fact, now that I see that many of my pictures are a little bit overexposed, I think that I should have followed the indication of this lightmeter.

You can see below the video and the pictures.

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Linjie Zhou, curator of Subhashok The Arts Center gallery in Bangkok

After a degree of Art Administration and Cultural Management at Chulalongkorn University, Linjie Zhou worked at the HOF Art Space Gallery for several years. Then she became curator for Subhashok, an influential gallery in the art world in Thailand. Linjie tells us about her work as a curator, her relationship with the artists and the public, how she choose the concept of an exhibition and the corresponding art pieces. She presents as well the next exhibition of a fascinating Thai sculptor…

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Interview : Miss Portugal, Cristiana Viana, in Lisbon

We had the chance to meet Cristiana Viana, Miss Portugal, in Lisbon. She told us about her experience as Miss Portugal, the countries she discovered, the people she met, and her projects for the future.
Mr Isidro de Brito, President of Miss Portuguesa, was present as well and could give us some knowledge and understanding about the organisation of the contest and the international relations he maintains with other beauty contests.

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