A short film I made for my Directing Short Film final. Big thank you to everyone involved, you guys are the best!
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grandma’s thief – a short film
An assignment I made for my Directing short film class. Special thanks to my team and My Ngoc Jewelry for helping me complete this project.
Artist Deborah Burian
Deborah Burian is a fine art painter based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I had such an inspirational interview with her. Hope you enjoy this video. You can check out her work here: https://www.deborahburian.com/
Abi the dancer
I got to know Abi and document her working on her senior capstone show for the last few weeks. This is Abi’s last show before her graduation in May 2024. It’s my pleasure to work on this project and get to know the freedom of music and dancing. Hope you enjoy this video as I do.
Jude the tattoo artist – artists series
I had the opportunity to document my friend Jude, who is a talented tattoo artist. Originally from China, Jude graduated with a major in sculpture. After discovering the art of tattooing, Jude has been passionately pursuing it ever since. While I continue to work on a more in-depth documentary about Jude, here’s a brief 36-second video to introduce him.
4×5 portraits
I got to learn how to use 4×5 camera this semester at school. And I am in love with 4×5. This is a whole new level of making photos as it brings so much possibilities into the photographs. I am learning how to focus on the subjects and how to use the camera movements to focus on multiple subjects in the frames. Here are some portraits I have made during the last 3 months. I hope somewhat capture the subjects’ characteristics or an essence of their feelings, this is my goal in large format portraits.
death inside – self portraits
This was not intended to be a self portrait series but I did not have a model at this moment so I had to put myself in front of the camera. This was my first ever self portraits and and consequently, they carry a raw vulnerability. I wanted to show a part of me that true to myself but also visually intriguing. I choose flowers to be my props because flowers are delicate and fragile, dead flowers are even more poetic. Reflecting on myself through the metaphor of flowers, I don’t see myself as a blooming blossom or one on the brink of blossoming. Instead, I identify more with a dried, withered flower—still possessing beauty, but in a more rugged and weathered manner. And to feel the beauty or value of a dead dried up flower, you need to have a different mindset than when you appreciate fresh flowers. In portraying myself as a human adorned with dead flowers sprouting from within, I aimed to expose the intricacy of my inner space. Through my poses, I hope to convey the pain, the ease and the peace that accompany a soul weathered by life’s trials.
All photo was taken on 35mm Ilford Delta 100 film. Darkroom printed and scanned digitally by me.
notes on Hiroshige’s work
Some notes on Hiroshige’s work that can relate to composition study in photography.
Learning from Utagawa Hiroshige’s work, I found many interesting composition techniques that can relate to [my] photography. These are things that I feel interesting and connected to me, or at least I feel please to look at.
If you haven’t known, Utagawa Hiroshige was a master ukiyo-e (woodblock printing art that highlights the pleasure scenes in life, such as beautiful landscape, pleasure activities, festivities, female beauty, flowers and folk tales) artist in Japan during Edo era. He lived from 1797 to 1858, created about 8000 woodblock art prints demonstrated mostly landscape, everyday scenes, fleeting weather conditions and festivities. He was considered the second greatest ukiyo-e artist, after Hokusai. His work even influenced Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters in Europe. “Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido” and “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” are two most brilliant and lasting series of Hiroshige.
I’m drawn into Hiroshige work because of the poetic and mundane feels in his work. To me, Hiroshige’s work is not as neat and perfect as Hokusai’s work, but it’s more calm, peaceful, intimate and soothing, like real memories from his own experiences walking pass those scenes in his endless journey looking to observe life and people around him. Maybe because of the imperfection in his work, his composition to be exact, I can feel the realness of life in that, like he painted/sketched as what he saw, not perfectly align things to the most pleasing angle/position in the frame. Here’re some notes I got learning from his prints:
First, Hiroshige usually put something [very] big or dominant as foreground in the frame.
Especially he liked to use tree trunk for this purpose.
Secondly, he usually put a tree trunk in the middle of the frame unapologetic. As we usually heard that in photography or painting, we should not put a tree (or big subject) in the very middle of the frame unless it’s a symmetrical composition. But look how Hiroshige do the opposite so beautifully below.
This is not a tree trunk but same concept here.
Then Hiroshige liked to put subjects at the edge of the frame to cut off the subjects but still enough for the viewers to imagine the shapes, scale or function of that subjects.
Next, and you probably know by now that Hiroshige’s work includes complex layers and subjects. There’re always foreground, middle ground and background. He barely did a minimal composition.
Point number five is the use of negative space. As you can see in the photos below, he didn’t hesitate to leave a big chunk of negative space in the frame.
Point number six, the use of subframe. Some are quite obvious but some are more subtle.
Bonus point: he also has some interesting composition that I can’t help but think of wide-angle lens in photography term. You will know what I mean in three photos below.
And here’re some other amazing prints from Hiroshige that I personally love. Since you’re already here and get to know Hiroshige, enjoy these brilliant work!
Reference:
https://ukiyo-e.org/artist/utagawa-hiroshige?start=100
https://www.artic.edu/artists/34946/utagawa-hiroshige
yosemite on super 8 film
A personal document film on Super 8 camera.
Shot with Kodak Vision3 50D and Vision3 200T.
summer in yosemite
Yosemite in the summer on Pentax 6×7 medium format film camera
It’s been a while since my last post. I’m glad that I’m back on time for the summer. I was a big Lana Del Rey’s fan years ago. In her songs, I got the impression that summer is the most beautiful season of the year. All the summer vibes in her music are so goldenly youthful, vivid and full of lust for love. From her “Young and beautiful” lyrics, a perfect summer scene stuck in my head and I will forever looking for a summer moment in mid July, when the heat turns overwhelmed along with the humidity and the fruits are so ripe with all the juice about to burst out of their soft skin just before they turn rotten in the heat of summer. I just love how lively and vigorous but also nostalgic summer is in her mind, it’s the best suit for young and wild hearts that are full of love in the relentless summer heat.
My photos are quite different than what I posted here before, I don’t know why my “style” [if I had one] has changed but I’m glad with how it looks now. It’s a coincident when I wrote the intro for this post and realized how Lana Del Rey’s summer vibe was so similar with what I got here.
Here’s the slideshow for quick look at the series.
I like to begin the set with the photo of apples fell on the ground beneath an apple tree. The composition is not my best but I like how the apples lead our eyes from the bottom right of the frame to the top left. I like that the apple in the bottom right is out of focus giving a sense of depth in the photo.
The next three photos are from an afternoon walking around my airbnb house. I was fascinated with the reddish tree trunks that look so vivid in the sun light. I like how the red and green contrast each other in these photos.
Next, I walked to a small waterfall near my airbnb house in the following morning to scout the waterfall and enjoy my time alone with my camera. The waterfall was nice but there weren’t a lot of water sine it’s summertime so I stepped on rocks that supposed to be under water to look around and go upper the stream.
On my second day in Yosemite, I went inside the National Park and visited some famous views. The first stop was Tunnel View. The view was beautiful but I wish the sky were clearer rather than misty and hazy as in the photos.
In the afternoon, I walked around the house again for some more discover. Here’re some photos that I like from the walk. I love the tree below because of its interesting gesture. I thought I need a wider lens to capture the whole tree but this frame still balance to me so I’m quite happy with it.
On the following day to Glacier Point I brought my digital camera instead of the Pentax 6×7, I end up didn’t take much photos because of the hazy sky but I still got some photos that I might like. But in the end, I just love the feeling of shooting film. Lastly, I walked to the near by waterfall in the last morning in Yosemite to make some long exposures. Here’re the results.
After these shots, I fell into a pond while trying to get over a rock to compose my next shot. My Pentax get wet and stopped working. Although it means I have to send the camera to repairman now but I don’t feel regret or upset at all, that’s my choice, and to me all will be worth it if I got some photos that I’m proud of. So, cheers for a vivid beautiful summer.
suburbs scenes from the Rolleiflex SL66E
This is the third roll in my photography journey in 6×6 ratio, still getting used to it but I’ve been enjoying the experience a lot. I think it doesn’t matter what aspect ratio I shoot with, just the experience of taking a camera and making some photos is already a sweet thing to me. That’s why I enjoy shooting with the 645, 6×6, 6×7 or panoramic regardless. The downside of this is I don’t spend enough time to master a camera or a ratio and might not get the most out of one aspect ratio. But I think keeping my context consistent throughout different ratios is also an important skill. I’m not an educator or a proper educated photography student so I’m not 100% sure my way of learning in this case is right but I think I made a little progress in my development through this.
In this particular roll, I spent about 2 hours walking in a a suburbs neighborhood in the afternoon. The weather was so nice and the afternoon sunlight was gorgeous. There’re few scenes that I like because of the messiness and mundane feeling about them, something quite inadequate but humanistically poetic. I always love the image of something crooked but beautiful in their own sense. Below is the digital contact sheet of the roll.
As a whole, I’m very happy with the roll. There’re 6 out of 12 that I like. The first two shots is not that good as I imagined when I took them. The car shot might be good if there weren’t any tree peak out behind it. The second one was appealing to look at in real life but I don’t think I can present a clear context in the photo. The white car shot is pretty much comes out as I imagined, I like the warm sunlight hitting it and the trees behind are kind of tilting to the right and gradually high up, the electric wire is also parallel in the movement of the trees, one bonus is the car’s door is damaged and add a bit context to the photo.
The 4th photo is my favorite scene. As you know, I like the messiness and inadequateness in a complex scene. There’s no human in the photo but you can have a sense of how’s the person’s life and characteristic.
The 6th is compositionally nice but the context is not strong.
The 5th and 9th are a nice pair. I took the 5th first and wonder if I should take another angle but them I walked around to shoot some few more shots, when I passed the camper van[?] again I decided to shoot at another angle which line up the gap in the fence with the middle front frame of the van. I think the second shot is better than the first one, but overall I like the colors and composition in both of them.
The 7th is a accident shot when my camera bump to my bag, I’m having this kind of accident more frequently.
The 8th one is another favorite too. I think it’s have a similar vibe to the 4th one but in a more vivid and opened way. I like how the chair and the table is completely facing forward to the opened doorway[?] and stylobate. I think it tells a bit about the person, it’s must be an out going and straight forward kind of guy.
The 10th one I personally like because it reminds me of a street or a neighborhood in District 3, HCMC where I spent a lot of time hang out and buy art supply for school. I like how the air conditioner is completely put out of the building and the lower part of the building is jutting outward from the plane of the garage door, creating a nice little space that fits the air conditioner perfectly. The plants on the ground are bathing in sunlight and shine up is also a nice touch. I love this photo.
The 11th photo is not so special. The car has a nice shape but I couldn’t get a nice angle for it. However I like the fact that there’re a lot of tiny white petals fall all over the front hood of the car.
The last photo from the roll is nice but I think the context again is not strong enough. I like the shape of the tree and how the sunlight hitting it create beautiful outlines. The light hitting the wall also look gorgeous. The car on the left side is cool but I feel like it’s stuffed in the frame because of the front side of it is just barely fit completely in the frame, I don’t like that crop very much.
That’s all for my third roll of 6×6. Still want to shoot more with this aspect ratio. Hope you like it. More photos next time!
shooting square
I got myself a twin lens reflect camera, the Minolta Autocord CdS, to start shooting square photos. I’ve been curious about square format since I learned about the famous Hasselblad V series and the amazing experience of shooting from the waist level. Shooting from the waist level is truly enjoyable. The feeling of seeing the photos from the ground glass is so satisfied.
One note I may add to using the waist level finder is don’t stuff your eye into the magnifier glass for “fine focus” (as you see so many Youtube photographers do), but rather put the camera down at your waist level and flip out the magnifier glass, at this distance, the circle “focusing spot” (in the middle of your ground glass) will fill up the entire magnifier glass, makes it super easy and fast to fine focus. Then, you can flip down the magnifier glass and re-compose, this way is much faster than you stuff your eye in the magnifier glass and bend your back up and down for the shots. Thanks to Rick Olesen for this focus tip.
Rick Oleson is a man who sale focusing screens for waist level camera and he’s been using waist level for about 30 years now. His tip is super helpful to me since I was stuff my eye to the magnifier glass as I saw others did.
Next is some shots from my newest camera, the Rolleiflex SL66E, my dream camera and the most expensive one I have. So far I really enjoy using the camera. I’m planning to test out the tilt feature soon.
The last photo is my favorite from the roll. I like how similar the 2 trunks divide into 2 branches and their “gesture” creates a nice composition. The thing I wish I could do better is make sure the trunk behind is in focus entirely, I should shoot at f/5.6 or something like that to achieve that desire depth of field. But it’s hard to know exactly how much depth of field in these cases. Hope I will learn more about controlling depth of field for the next time.
Thank you for reading to the end. More photos next time!
second panoramic roll from Pentax 6×7
My second 35mm film roll shooting with the Pentax 6×7 is Portra 160. Since I have the intention to keep the sprocket holes, I tried my best to keep my camera straight and look carefully at the frame lines to make sure everything is line up nicely, this really helps me save a lots of time in post processing. I got 15 shots out of 1 roll and open the back while I didn’t wind all the film into the canister so I caused light leak on my 2 last frames.
I’m not sure keeping the sprocket holes is a nice touch or just a “cheesy film photographer” aesthetic but it looks cool. Let me know what you think.
That’s all I’m happy with in this roll. Thank you for going to the end. More photos next time.
shooting panoramic photos on Pentax 6×7
Panoramic photos weren’t interesting to me from the beginning but since Nick Carver shows how wonderful panoramic photos can be, and other Youtubers’ talked about the Xpan and panoramic photos, I slowly get curious of this format. After awhile, I think I enjoy looking at panoramic photos because of the wide scenes and so much elements we can include in one frame. The feeling of looking at a photo from left to right slowly to appreciate the details and how the elements interact with each other in the shot is very enjoyable to me. So I tried panoramic photos for the first time, with my Pentax 6×7.
In other methods I saw on Youtube, most people use the adapter for the 35mm film canister and load the film into the camera with an extension paper at the beginning of the film roll so they don’t waste the film while winding the camera for the first shot. The down side of this method is you have to unload the film in the dark when you finish the roll, because you cannot rewind the film back into the canister when you finish so you have to go into a dark room or put your camera in a dark bag to take the film out of the film back and rewind it into the canister. This will limit your shooting experience in the field, if you can’t have a access to a dark room or dark bag, you cannot take the film out and load the new roll in. So I came up with this method, including 2 film canisters/cassettes, one is your brand new canister and one to take the film in, this one acts like the pick up spoon in normal scenario, but it can protect your film from the light.
First, I made 2 pairs of 35mm film cannister adapters from old empty 120 film spoons. You can buy them dirt cheap online but on the day I wasn’t be patient enough to wait for the delivery so I made my own. It’s not beautiful at all but it works well. If you do it yourself like I did, one thing you should make sure is checking the length of the adapters carefully, so when you put it on the 35mm film canister, it will have the same height as a regular 120 film spoon. If it’s too high, it won’t fit in your film back, if it’s too short, it won’t stay straight and neat in your film back, this may cause damage to your film back.
One pair of adapter 
Left to right: regular 120 film spoon, 35mm empty cannister and 35mm new film cannister. Make sure they have the same height.
So, how to prepare your pick up canister? We’re going to step 2.
Step 2: Made the pick up canister/cassette from a old empty film canister/cassette, which still has a short amount of film left so you can tape a piece of paper on the actual film left. This piece of paper I cut from a backing paper of a 120 film roll, measured the wide is 35mm (same as the wide of the actual 35mm film) and the length is 18 cm. I taped one end of the paper strip to the film left on the old cannister and then taped the film lead from the new film roll to the other side of the paper strip, as photos below (step 2b).
Step 2a: Tape the paper strip to the piece of film left inside the empty cassette 
Step 2b: Then tape the other side of the paper to the film lead from the new film roll
Step 3: Transfer the film from the original cassette into the empty cassette in the dark bag. So now you have 2 cassettes connected, and the film will be transferred from the new cassette into the empty cassette. Of course the transfer process is done in the dark bag. Why you must transfer the film from new cassette to the empty one? Because the point of this method is to let you unload the film in day light. So when you finish the roll and wind all the film to its original cassette, you open the camera back to take the film out, the backing paper strip that you taped earlier will be there at the end of the roll, and you don’t loose any last photo.
All the film was winded to the empty cassette, as you can see the white tape at the very end of the film roll is on the original cassette’s side.
Step 4: Cut out a rectangle in a piece of black paper, the dimension of the rectangle is 35x70mm. (This includes the area of the sprocket holes, if you don’t want to include the sprocket holes, cut out the rectangle 25x70mm). Then put this piece of paper on top of your ground glass. This is a guideline for your composition.
A cut out 35x70mm paper for composing in the viewfinder 
How you will see the aspect ratio looking through the viewfinder
Step 5: Load the film into the camera. Remember to put the old film cassette (which now contains the film inside) on the left side and the pick up cassette (which is the original cassette) on the right side. So now when you take the photos and advance the film, you are actually wind the film back to its original cassette.
Film contained cassette on left side 
Pick up cassette on the right side 
Film will be transferred from the old cassette to the original one
Step 6: Finish the roll and unload the film. After you finish the roll, you can open the back and remove the cassettes out of the camera safely. You will see that the film in winded into the original cassette and the part exposes to the light when you open up the camera is the paper strip you taped in. You can just remove the film lead from the paper strip and reuse the old film cassette and the paper strip again.
Open the back to unload film when you finish the roll
So now you have it, a method to take panoramic shots on your Pentax 6×7 without requiring going to dark room to unload your film. All you need to do is preparing your film upfront as a set of film cassette and pick up cassette, and you can have more freedom shooting in the field. I was able to get 15 shot out of the 36 exposes roll but I was messing with the loading part, I think if you can load the film more careful than me, you can get 18 out of the roll. I will update the exact number of the shots you can get when I finish the second roll.
Here’re some photos I made with this first try. Taken with Kodak ProImage 100.
I love the photo of the man on the bike, it’s too bad that it’s underexposed but when I took the shot I knew this would work well on panoramic aspect ratio. You can also see that the ones with no sprocket holes are the ones I couldn’t get the horizon line straight 🙂
My favorites from the roll is this pair of photos, taking of the car in front of the house. I took the photo on the right side first and walked couple steps more to realize that the tail of the car and the scene was quite interesting and could make a good photo, so I took the second one. I think these 2 look very nice together because the continuation of the object, which is the car make the photos stand well next to each other. And I also like the idea of “the beginning is the end” cycle in the left photo, it’s not that literally but the photo starts with the head of the black car and ends with the tail of the silver car, like the end and the beginning come after each other. Or maybe I like series “Dark” a little too much 🙂
I love the last photo also. The frame feels a bit too much and messy but I like the overall feelings and colors of it.
Thank you for making it to the end. Hope you like these experimental photo ideas. Cheers!
a bit of everything
This post does not have a specific theme but just shots from the Pentax 6×7, and some personal thoughts in life.
I got myself a Pentax 6×7 MLU body from Japan last September, along with a 90mm Leaf Shutter lens. I chose the LS lens in regard of the ability to shoot with flash, I don’t feel very comfortable with the flash sync 1/30s of the Pentax focal plane body. Since I got the system, I’ve shot with it through 4 rolls of film. Of course this is not a big amount of photos I’ve made with the camera but it’s very precious to me. The Pentax is my first 6×7 camera, I wanted a 6×7 camera for roughly a year back then, since the hype of 6×7 overrules Youtube and film community on Facebook groups. I never like the design of a replicate 35mm camera for a 6×7 system from Pentax, to me it’s just ugly and unergonomic. But after doing research, I end up getting the Pentax 6×7, because (1) the Bronica GS-1 is not as good as the Pentax or Mamiya, (2) the Mamiya RB is super heavy (not all people find it too much to handle but I’m a small Asian girl, it’s of course too big and heavy for me), and (3) the Mamiya RZ is so out of my budget. So the Pentax seems like a best option. When I received the camera, it’s not as bad as I thought, I actually did like to hold it. Gradually I find the Pentax 6×7 is not ugly anymore but kinda cool, because it’s black and huge and the sound is freaking amazing[?]. I set it up with a right hand 3D printed grip for more ergonomic to handle and of course a strap as an insurance for an expensive camera.
Since it’s 6×7 negative, means that I get 10 shots from a 120 roll, I choose my subjects and compose more carefully. Still I got some ugly and illegitimate shots, but I think my first 4 rolls are not disappointed. Not just because I got myself some favorite shots but also because the experience of shooting a “professional format” with a “professional camera”. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean those professional things make me a better photographer, but it gives me the spirit of intention and fidelity in my photography work. To this point, I haven’t done any paid photography job so the purpose of purchasing a Pentax 6×7 medium format camera has nothing to do with my professional or career but simply a dedicated inquisitive nature. My enthusiasm for photography is naive, I don’t know if I can become a photographer or have people admire my work, I am doing this because I want to create something that matters to someone, anyone. I’m always in the struggle of defining the purpose of my life and if I matter to anything or anyone. The only thing I can do to keep me from beating up myself with this query is keeping creating work and hope for one day, my work will give me an answer.
First shots I made with the Pentax 6×7 is still lives in my living room, shot with Ilford XP2. The main purpose of this is just testing out the camera to see if it works properly. The object I chose was a pineapple, because I like tropical fruits and the shape and texture of the pineapple is interesting to me. After a few shots with the pineapple, I decided to put more things in the frame, and I chose 2 eggs, because (1) 2 eggs and a pineapple makes it 3 objects in the frame, odd number of subjects is more pleasing to look at in general, (2) a pointy big pineapple is contrast with the round shape, smooth texture and small size of the eggs and (3) colorful contrast neutral (but you don’t see this in black and white photos, silly me). I like the contrast in life because things contrast each other doesn’t mean they are right and wrong, or against each other, they’re just simply different. It teaches me that everything may has its own way and we don’t necessary justify everything in order to accept it, we can just be opened and accept things or people for how they are.
The next 2 rolls I shot when riding a bicycle around my neighborhood. It’s fun to ride a bicycle just wander around and go to streets that you never go before. It reminds me of the time when I was 11~12, back then I was trying to ride bicycle and my friend was helping me and keep me company every afternoon that I went out and ride for an hour or so. Gradually, I didn’t ride bicycle every afternoon for practice anymore but because of it’s a pleasure time for me to hang out with my friend and passing by streets and scenes that elicited my curiosity and a strange urge to know/understand the stories behind visual things.
The first 2 photos I took to check out the shallow depth of field of the 90mm lens. I’m not sure why I shot a lots of cars with my Pentax but can’t denied they look quite cool on 6×7. My favorite photos are the one of the golden orange car packed in front of the windows with afternoon sunlight creating a clean line of light and shadow on the wall. I like the scene and the atmosphere here a lot. However the contrast between highlight and shadow is very high, it makes the shadows are too dark for my taste. The red car below is interesting to me because 1 of the head lights is half way up, makes the car has a sense of imperfection and uniqueness – something I’m always draw to.
The baby blue car below is cute and classic to my eyes. I like the shot of the wheel from outside of the window the most. The red color from the steering wheel lock gives a attraction to the frame, also the subframe is quite nice.
Next are some shots that feel very special to me. I’m from Vietnam, and I spent couple years in Saigon for my university study. There’s a area in Saigon that I usually went to with my friend for after school hang outs, called Thanh Đa. The places I went to with my friend back then were typical old, tight, a bit messy and mundane. Aside from all those adjectives, I still cannot find a proper word to define how was Thanh Đa exactly from my mind, but it feels very Vietnamese. And when I came across this street near my apartment here, I knew for sure it’s a Vietnamese community. The old houses and the tightness feeling and the way people hanging their stuff out on the walls, that all represent an old Vietnamese’s life style that I’m so familiar with. I don’t think these scenes are beautiful in other people’s eyes but to me they feel like a sad old poetic memory.
Final is some shots taken with Portra 800 in a rare foggy morning in my town. The tree standing there alone in the field feels very photogenic. I know that converting the photos to black and white will look more pleasing for these type of minimal shots but I personally don’t like minimalism style and “minimal shots + black and white” is too cliché for me. However, with these shots I was receiving a lots of helpful advices from fellows on Discord so I’m grateful for it.
Thank you for stopping by, hope my biography didn’t bore you to death. As always, leave a comment if you want to. Cheers!
replace light seal and clean up Minolta Autocord CdS
I came across this camera in a thrift store and couldn’t help myself but buy it. I’ve been wanting a TLR for a while now but decent TLRs are not cheap. Although I never touch a TLR before but I know enough about cameras in general to check the basic functions and this camera seems to work fine. So after purchased it, the first thing I did is cleaning it up. I always clean things up after I buy them, and also because of the Covid situation. I used rubbing alcohol and damp tissue to wipe the outside of the camera, I also used Q-tips and toothpick to get into places that I can’t with my fingers. For the lens, I used lens wipe and microfiber cloth to wipe them gently. Here’re some photos of the camera after I clean it. How beautiful it is!
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After the basic cleaning, I opened up the viewfinder to clean the ground glass and also to remove the old light seal and apply the new one. Here’s what you need for the process: a set of small screwdrivers, light seal foam ( I used the 1mm thickness), rubbing alcohol, and some additional stuffs such as baking soda, aceton, sewing machine oil.
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To remove the focusing hood off the camera, you need to unscrew the 4 screws on top of the camera, using a flat 1.6mm screwdriver.
6. The position of 4 screws 
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This is the focusing hood after I take it out (photo #8), you can see the dust on the glass surface and in between the ground glass and the focusing mat. I also need to remove the metal thin bars (there’re 2 of them) as in the photo on the right in order to remove the ground glass out of the hood.
8. Bottom of the viewfinder hood 
9. The thin metal bars that keep the glass in place
Big advice: DON’T USE RUBBING ALCOHOL OR LENS WIPE TO CLEAN UP THE FOCUSING SCREEN!!! Because they will make the screen foggy and white and will destroy your screen. So what I read on the Internet told me that I can wash the focusing screen and ground glass with water and gentle soap and use my fingers to gently scrub them, so I did. And it worked fine. One tip is you can use the hair dryer to dry the screen and glass so they don’t have water drop marks on them. I also cleaned the magnifying glass with lens wipe and Q-tips.
So when I finish the focusing screen and ground glass. I put them back into the viewfinder hood. Now it’s time for replacing the light seal. So, the first thing I do (and recommend you too) is using tape to cover the film chamber so the dust and old light seal crumb cannot fall on the taking lens.
10. I used tape to seal the film chamber from the dust and crumb
Also, remember to remove the pressure plate out of the camera door, just so the film back would be easier to clean.
11. Remove the pressure plate from the back
Next, I used toothpicks and the small flathead screwdriver to remove the old light seal and dust on the camera door. I put the camera on a thick book for more convenient. Then, I used Q-tips, toothpicks and rubbing alcohol to remove the crumb and rusted waste from the camera body, right at the hinge of the film door (as photo #13). As you can see, my flathead screwdriver is very affective at removing the old light seal in the small gaps along the film door.
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After clean the hinge area, I continued to clean the rest of the light seal, along the film door edges. The photos below show you the before and after I remove the old light seal.
15. Old light seal and crumb on the back door
Before
16. Old light seal removed 
17. Crumb and dust removed on the hinge 
18. Close up of the back door after remove old light seal
After
And I also used baking soda and water to wipe the metal parts that’s rusted along the way, such as screws or back door locking mechanism.
Next step is cutting the new light seal foam into the stripes to apply on the camera’s door. I asked Mr. Karl Bryan, who is a famous Minolta Autocord repair man, for the instruction of the replacement light seal since I couldn’t find the light seal pattern on the Internet, he did kindly reply me with the instructions. The light seal for the door should be 2-2.25mm wide and 1-1.5mm thickness, the light seal for the bottom of the door, right at the hinge should be wider. So in the end, I cut 2 stripes of foam 2mm wide, 250mm long (250mm is the length of the whole form, I didn’t measure for the length because I can always trim it later); 1 piece 5mm wide and 65mm long for the edge at the hinge. To cut it, I used regular paper cutter and a long ruler to guide the straight lines and put pressure on the ruler to stable the foam when I cutting.
19 
20
Mr. Karl Bryan also gave me a tip that applying rubbing alcohol onto the back of the light seal and on the surface of the area where we need to put the light seal on, and then lay the light seal down, slide it into place and let the alcohol evaporate. The nice thing here is the alcohol makes the adhesive backed foam and the camera door don’t stick together when they contact, so you can move or slide the foam into places easier. I used to replace the light seal in my Nikon F2 and didn’t know the trick, so when the light seal was put in the camera, it’s sticky and you may tear the foam stripe when you try to peal it out. As you can see from the photos below, I used a small paint brush to apply the rubbing alcohol on the gaps of the camera’s door and on the stripes (photos #21-22).
21. Applying rubbing alcohol on the area of the camera’s door 
22. Applying rubbing alcohol on the back of the foam stripe 
23. Using small screwdriver to put the foam into place 
24. Applying rubbing alcohol for the door’s edge at the hinge 
25. New light seal installed at the hinge 
26. New light seal installed completely
After replace the light seal for the back door, I also noticed that the viewfinder hood also need a foam right at the front side where it touch the name plate. So I clean up the surface, measured the area and cut the proper light seal foam for it (photo #28). I guess the foam was put here to avoid the two parts bump and scratch each other.
27 
28
29. New foam applied 
30. New foam applied 
31. Putting back the viewfinder hood
So the process almost finish here, but there’s still one last thing. As Mr. Karl Bryan advices, I applied sewing machine oil on each end of 3 film rollers (photo #33), on the upper film chamber gear (photo #34) and on the take up spoon gear (photo #35). Just put one drop of oil, spin the rollers or rotate the gear and wipe the excess oil. This will minimize scratching your film when winding.
32. Sewing machine oil for the lubrication, comes with a long tube, nice! 
33. 3 film rollers 
34. Upper chamber gear 
35. Take up spoon gear (in lower film chamber)
In addition, I also put the oil on the hinge of the viewfinder hood since it’s a bit stiff to open and close. After applying sewing machine oil into the hinge, the viewfinder’s smooth like butter! Of course, always remember to wipe the excess oil because you don’t want the oil gather dust around in your camera.
Finally, time for the test roll. I used an empty roll that just has the paper back to test out the rollers and winding crank. Everything worked beautifully. After 12 dummy shots and winding, the roll’s transferred to the pick up spoon nicely, I open the paper back to check if there’s any scratches on the back but no, yay! This camera is now ready to shoot!
36. Time for a test roll 
37. Loading the test roll 
38. The roll’s transferred to the pick up spoon
Thank you Mr. Karl Bryan for the instructions and advices. I didn’t know anything about the Autocord series or this CDS model particularly but when I read about it, I’m in love. Just because the design is so special and the quality is one of the top. So I wanted to give it a nice treat by having a CLA by Mr. Karl Bryan but since my camera doesn’t seem to have any functional problem, he suggested I should use the camera until something goes wrong. I definitely recommend Mr. Karl Bryan to anyone who’s looking for a repairman for the Minolta Autocord, he’s the best, and also a super nice man! You can reach him at karl.kathy@frontier.com
Thank you for making it here. Hope to share with you guys some photos taken with this camera soon. Cheers!
mammoth lakes road trip [part 2]
![mammoth lakes road trip [part 2]](https://filmsequence.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/mammoth-lake-28-1.jpg?w=1200)
Here we are for the continue part of my Mammoth Lakes road trip.
After the first day of going to Gull lake (which is I took a roll there but no photo came out that I want to post here 🙂 ) and another frozen lake that I forgot the name, we came back to the lodge because we weren’t sure to be out when the sun went down. So after getting back to the lodge, I walked out to take some sunset (or blue hour, for more precise) photos at the Meadow and stopped frequently on my way to take some nice house scenes. Here’re the photos that I like the most from the trip.
The first one is photo of one street in the lodging area, I captured it because it gives the general feel and architecture of the area, along with the massy mountain behind. The second one I took because the nice red house is quite interesting and the cloud above has a very nice shape and color. It’s a bit hard to take everything into the frame but I quite happy with the result, the only thing I don’t like is the bright red pole in the foreground that overlaps the house.
The photo on the right is when I went back the the lodge and the sky was dark. I saw the light from the light bulbs from the house was quite interesting and the tree in the front also had a nice shape and texture so I set up the shot for a long expose photo. I like how it came out but still think the composition is a bit off. I think if I had stepped back a bit and moved to the right couple inches, the composition would be much better, because the roof of the house wouldn’t ended right at the frame lines. Another lesson for watching your composition carefully before taking the shot.
I like this very much. This is the first photo I took when I walked out for the sunset. The sun pretty much hided behind those mountain already but there’s still a bit orange glow at the horizon. I think the colors here work together very nice, the red is pop but not taking away the cold calm vibe in the photo. The reflection in the glass window also looks so dreamy and poetic. I also like the composition and the complex of the scene. To me, everything works together very well in this photo.
This photo of the “Private Property” sign I took on the way back to the lodge. It belongs to the Snowcreek Golf Course. I think the photo represents very well the calmness and coldness of a winter sunset in a meadow surrounded by mountains.
The photo above here is the first one I took on the Meadow. Took with Portra 800. The sun was behind a peak of mountain but the field still have plenty of light and the glow at the horizon was so beautiful. After took this shot, I managed to take the photo on the left, of a part of the house and the mountain behind it. I think the photo is not bad but still something is off about it. The reason I didn’t include the whole house because I wanted the photo to be suggestive, not just show the objects straight out. I also like the little fence[?] in the middle of the frame, it adds a very nice touch to the field. One thing I think I could do better for this photo is exposing for the house to get more details out of that, and hopefully don’t blow out the highlights. In general I still like it but it’s not good enough to be showed as my best work.
On the right side are photos I took when the sky is almost dark and there’s not much light on the grass field to expose. I took these in the much longer shutter speed than the previous photo above. You can see how much the difference is compared to the earlier photo taken 10-15 minutes apart. This merged photo describes the vast scene of the meadow in blue hour. I really enjoy this photo.
The photo below is another panorama merge from 2 photos. This is the scene at Rock Tub Hot Springs. The tub itself is quite small and funny in the middle of the vast land. When I got there, the sun was high up and the sunlight was extremely harsh. I took a couple photos but nothing come out as I like, so here just a photo for you to have an idea how the landscape looks like. All the daytime photos were taken with Fuji Pro400H.
Final photos from the trip are some I took on my last hike to the place I forgot the name again, but that’s a long hike that passes couple lakes on the way. We could just have enough time to hike to the first lake and then had to come back but it’s quite a nice hike with beautiful view. The light was softer and warmer as it’s afternoon and we really enjoyed the hike.
The photos above are of the Green Church near the hot springs. When I first saw it on the way to the hot springs, I was fascinated by it. A small green church in the middle of no where, who can resist that? So on the way back from the hot springs, I stopped by and took these photos. Of course with the harsh light condition, I could get the photos as good as I want. I really hope I can come back and take photos of this church in a better light. The last one is the composition that I like the most. I don’t really know why but I like the fact that a part of the building is included with the backdoor stairs and the white fence with the gate. You can also see the grass in the field behind and the mountain at the horizon. There’s many elements in this photo to look at.
As you can see, the 2 photos on the left were merge to make the panorama below. Just so you know the view of the frozen lake that I got to see after the hike. I wish I could come down closer to the lake to have more close up photos but we’re really low on time so this is all I could get. I don’t think the composition is that good but it’s nice to see the whole view. I like the yellow grass field by the lake and the color of the sky reflect on the frozen surface.
The last 2 photos are other composition that I took of the lake from a closer spot. I like the final one because the branches at top right foreground and the shadow at the bottom combines to give a direction to the eyes to look at the lake surface. I definitely blow out the highlight in this photo but I like that you can see the cliff behind the left side tree that you cannot see in previous photos.
That’s a wrap for this Mammoth Lakes trip. Thank you for making it all the way here. Hope you like the photos. Cheers!
mammoth lakes road trip [part 1]
![mammoth lakes road trip [part 1]](https://filmsequence.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/mammoth-lake-20.jpg?w=1200)
It’s 2 months late after the trip to publish this post but I worked quite hard on the photos so I hope you enjoy it. I went to Mammoth Lakes in the middle of last November. The trip was nice and lovely, the weather was beautiful. This trip gave me some favorite shots that I’m quite happy with. In this trip, I tried something new with my photography: first, I practice merge 2 photos together to make a panorama scene; secondly, I used my new wide angle lens for the Bronica, the PE 50mm/2.8, for the first time. Having a wide angle lens gives you much more ability to shoot landscape or just more scenes in general, in the end, I shot all the photos here with the 50mm lens. Since I have a good amount of photos to share here so I make it 2 parts because I don’t want to overload my page or make you wait forever for the photos to load.
Since it’s 2 months already so I apologize for forgetting the names of some locations that I took photos of. When I went to Mammoth Lakes, the weather was very nice, not very cold, there’s thin layer of snow on the ground but I did not see any snowfall. The fall leaves were long gone and the snow was just appeared. The sky was very clear and bright in the morning and afternoon, at noon, the sky was so blue and the sunlight was very harsh, made it so hard to take photos at this time.
First off, let take a look at the area my friends and I stayed during our trip. It’s a lodging [compound?] called Snowcreek, it’s located by the Kerry’s Meadow and next to the Snowcreek Golf Course. These photos here I took with Bronica 645 system and Portra 800.
The first photo is the road at sunrise. This is a very high contrast scene where the peak of the mountain is lit up but the road and houses down here was very dark.
Next is some houses in the sunrise light. I took these with the promist filter 1/4 to have the glowing affect on the trees and windows.
Next, the photos of the sunrise view that I took from the edge of the Kerry’s Meadow looking at the Mammoth Mountain. My specific spot here is just off the road between the Golf Course and the Meadow, I didn’t walk into the Meadow although it could be great if I did. Here I combined 2 photos together to make a panorama of the scene. When I went to the Meadow for the sunrise, I noticed the blue van was silently parked there, they must went there to watch the sunrise just like me. Even though I didn’t know them and we never talked to each other but since we came there for the same reason, I feel a connection to them, like ‘we were a same place at a same time waiting for the same thing’ vibe. Besides, the van is a nice addition to the photo in term of showing the scale of the scene. At this moment, the sun haven’t come out yet, as you can see the scene is flat and dim.
This one here is the view from the edge of the Golf Course looking at the peak of the Mammoth Mountain when the sun rises up.
Another panorama photo. I think I watch a lots of Nick Carver’s videos to make my photos into panorama ratio. But I don’t think my composition is that good, the first reason is I didn’t actually see the composition as panorama when I compose the shots, just the estimate and imagine from myself, so when I merged the photos together, the composition is always off. But it’s nice to make these photos and see the scene as wide as I can.
The following photos are some scene on the hike on the first day. Taking photos in the snow scenes was definitely hard because the snow is so bright and if you don’t know how to expose the shadow, your shadow will be pit black, just like my right side photo here. These were taken with Portra 160 expired.
Finally, these are photos of a lake that I forgot the name. I took these in harsh sunlight so the shadow was crushed to black. The film I used here was Fuji Pro 400H. I did heavily edit these photos because the “straight out of the scanner” were so terrible to look at [or just me being terrible at scanning]. The first two are not that great but still give you the nice view of the frozen lake. The last one is my favorite, I like the color palette and the way I can capture my shadow, just something about it makes me keep looking at it.
This is end of part 1. Thank you for making it here. Let’s check out the part 2! Cheers!
the famous amboy
It’s been a while since my last post. Since then, I’ve constantly had a thinking that my photos are not matching my expectation. I don’t know if it’s because whenever I go out to take a photo, I always think about making photos for my blog post or just because I’m not improving my skills. Either way, I’ve chosen to slow down and think about the photos only, not about the purpose of the photos later. So here you are, some photos from my few hours in the famous Amboy town. I was there around 1pm so the sunlight was not very pleasing (compared to golden hour) but since it’s winter time, 1pm was not that harsh and strong. I got some photos that I’m happy with.
These photos were taken with Portra 800. I didn’t plan to shoot Portra 800 at midday but I was having the roll in my camera from the last trip so I have to finish the roll. It’s the famous Roy’s sign so I had to take a good amount of photos to make sure I got one that I can proudly share with people on the Internet :). The second (2) photo is a initial composition that I like when I look at the Roy’s sign while standing in front of the restroom :). Then I move to the right to take the third one. I like the composition and elements in the #3 photo but wish that I have the man in a nicer post (he was doing his job and I think he’s a good element to the photo but I was worried that he may blend into some objects so I take the photo when he just separated himself from the gas pump. I also wish that I moved away a bit to not cut the bottom of the “Cafe” sign and I also want to include the “no vacancy” in the photo :(. In the photo #4, I also want to include the light pole at the foreground because my photography goal is to create photos with complex layers, not sure if I tried so hard and ruin my composition in this case. Anyway, here’s the 2 photos that I think look best.
The #6 photo is just simple and straight forward about the environment and how vast the place is. When I look at the photo I can feel how lonely the sign is, there’s no other like this in miles. The #7 photo tells more about other structures around the sign and I like the affect of the wide angle lens here.
After taking photos of the sign, I cross the street to take photo of the church across Roy’s because who can reject a lonely white church in the middle of desert?
This is also the last shot from my roll of Portra, so I loaded Fuji 400H and continue shooting. I love abandoned things because they carry so many stories, they are unique and broken :).
I like the #9 photo but I heard feedbacks said it not pleasing, I guess because of the ugly house on the right side, but I still like it because it’s life, beautiful and ugly, light and shadow, high and low, they just come hand in hand, nothing is 100% beautiful. I had high hope for the photo #10 but sadly it doesn’t come out the way I want. Subframe and multiple layers in a photo is something I thrive for but I guess still not success this time. The photo #11 is not that great but I like the fact that you can see the house over the window, and it also pair nicely with the last photo below (because of the heater?).
Finally, the last 3 photos are the best ones. I suppose to like the last one the most because, again, so many layers and elements to look for, but I still think it’s missing something to be one of the best of my work. The photo of the hallway and doors is fascinated to me because it’s mystery and make me wonder what’s inside those room, there’s so much possibilities inside those broken doors. It looks just like a scene in a movies. Last but not least, the whole church and abandoned houses around remind me of the TV series Preacher from AMC.
Thank you for coming all this way. Hope you enjoy it. And watch Preacher if you’re open to dark, ugly and cruel things 🙂
a little dreamy green
In case you like a little dreamy green scenes. All shot on Nikon F2 and Fuji C200.
san francisco street photos
You may think that I just shoot landscape and houses because that’s all I’ve posted so far on this blog. Yes, I’m drawn into scenes that doesn’t have human present but definitely have human’s mark on it. Maybe because I like the hinted details or the metaphor of human’s present and their impact or just because I’m a big introvert. However, I had chances to take street photos and it’s quite excited I guess. I don’t think street photography is easy, it requires time and lots of exposures, skills and hard work. I know tons of street photographers go out walking for hours every single day to do their job. Fully respect from me for street photographers out there. Street photography is not like landscape or anything I do, you don’t have the time to meter, get your composition right, look for best angle, focus and then re-compose, everything happens in a split second and you have to react in a blink of an eye. However, it’s not all street photos are about capturing those candid moments like that, sometimes you can shoot slower depend on your themes. And I’m the slower shooter type.
I had a day in San Francisco in January this year and I luckily got some street shots that I feel good to share here. They’re quite different from what you usually see from my suburbs or landscape scenes. All were shot with Yashica T4 and Fuji C200. Hope you enjoy!
beach town observation
I went to the beach town by Victoria beach few week ago in sunset hour to take some sunset on the beach shots but got caught up in these residential houses scenes. I love the calmness and quiet atmosphere here, along with some nice little houses and windows that feels so warm and homely.
Before get into the photos from that afternoon, let me show you 2 photos I took in another morning walk in the same area. These shots are not anything special but I was testing my Mamiya 645 150mm lens before I sell it. Even though the composition is not that great but I love the tones here and the sharpness is really nice.
Mamiya 645. 150mm/3.5. Fuji NPS 160 expired 
Mamiya 645. 150mm/3.5. Fuji NPS 160 expired
The next 2 shots I took one in golden hour and one in blue hour. That wasn’t the plan but somehow I feel drawn into the windows and the way it’s slide open just a bit to show a present of a person inside the room is quite nice and elegant. When I got back to the car after take photos on the beach, I came across it in blue hour and the yellow light came out of it is just nicely contrast with the blue sky outside. I think this is a short and straight forward form of “story telling”, something I desire to do in this blog. Wish that I were having the same composition so that the similarity and contrast are highlighted but it’s good to learn that same composition sometimes can help in story telling. I know that the trash cans are distractive but sometimes I just think if it’s there and I was capturing the scene, is it bad to exclude something out just because it’s not aesthetically pleasing? Or I should document the scene as its good and bad? So, I show you the non-crop and cropped version of the photo. Let me know if you hate the trash cans so bad 🙂
This one is a photo that I really like but I still feel something doesn’t work out in this. The whole house feel very mysterious and old, all the windows and doors were covered with white thick curtain like the owner doesn’t want anyone to look inside. The house blends into the blue hour sky and those bush in general feel weirdly but sad at the same time.
This photo is my favorite in the day. It’s the first scene captured my eyes in the town. I like the way the branches twist and the straight up street light glowing just in front of the tree. The scene was much more dynamic as in the photo but I think my photo is kind of 7/10 get to that atmosphere. The sky is subtle and soft while the green is quite saturated and pop.
After not successfully capturing the vibe of the house, I went back another day to try again. And these shots turn out okay I guess. The photo with the Harley sign makes me go down into the rabbit hole again about include and exclude things as it is or get the thing you want and ignore the rest. The others are nice in term of tones and composition.
So now you know how the whole house looks. This time I went in the morning so there’s no warm light as in previous photo but the photos are nice nevertheless.
And here’re some other shots I got from the day.
Pentax 645. 75mm/2.8. Fuji Pro 400H
Pentax 645. 75mm/2.8. Fuji Pro 400H
Hope you enjoy the photo talk. Till next time!
[Vietnamese] Sequoia road trip
![[Vietnamese] Sequoia road trip](https://filmsequence.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/sequoia-17-6.jpg?w=1200)
Mình và 1 số người bạn vừa có chuyến road trip ngắn đi Sequoia National Park cách đây 3 tuần. Khởi hành từ 8h tối thứ 6, đến 1h30 khuya sáng thứ 7 mình đến nơi. Mình dành cả ngày thứ 7 và nửa ngày Chủ Nhật để hiking và lên xe lái về OC lúc 6h chiều Chủ Nhật. Lý do đến bây giờ mình mới đặng bài blog này là vì mình cảm thấy chuyến đi này mình không chụp được nhiều ảnh đẹp như mong muốn. Nhìn chung hình không phải là tệ (hoặc tệ thật?!) nhưng mình không tìm được ảnh nào thật sự ưng ý và đẹp như chuyến đi Lake Tahoe lần trước. Đó là lý do khiến mình không tự tin để post ảnh nhưng sau đó mình nghĩ có thể ảnh không xuất sắc nhưng mình có thể chia sẻ kinh nghiệm và những sai sót của mình cho các bạn qua những bức ảnh này. Mong các bạn thấy bài blog này hữu ích và truyền cảm hứng.
Về camera và film thì mình mang máy Bronica ETRSi và 75mm/2.8 lens, đây cũng là lens duy nhất mình có cho máy, mình đã muốn có lens 50mm từ chuyến Lake Tahoe lần trước nhưng vẫn chưa mua vì thật sự vẫn còn cân nhắc về số tiền. Mình cũng mang theo 35mm camera là Nikon F2 cùng vài cuộn Kodak ProImage 100 (sau vài lần thử thì mình không thích màu của ProImage nhưng mua vẫn còn dư nên phải dùng cho hết), Portra 160 và 1 cuộn Portra 800 (vì Portra 800 đắt xắt ra miếng thật!). Film 120 mình dủng Fuji Pro 400H và Ilford XP2 trắng đen. Mình chưa bao giờ chụp trắng đen nhưng gần đây có bạn bảo mình nên thử chụp trắng đen để focus vô mảng khối và contrast trong khung hình, và bản thân mình nghĩ mình cũng nên chú ý hơn đến bố cục khi chụp nên mình đã mua 5 cuộn XP2, đây là film trắng đen nhưng dùng C-41 để develop như film màu, giúp mình tiết kiệm và đỡ nhức đầu research về hóa chất cho film trắng đen 🙂 Ảnh trắng đen của mình không đẹp như mình mong nhưng mình xin chia sẻ ở đây để ghi lại quá trình chụp của mình.
1. Bức ảnh đầu tiên trong chuyến đi
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3 
4 
5. Bầu trời màu nâu nhạt và tầm nhìn rất hạn chế do khói
Một điều các bạn nên biết về chuyến đi này là mình đi trong lúc cháy rừng đang diễn ra trên diện rộng ở California. Tuy không quá gần khu vực mình ở và hiking nhưng khói từ đám cháy theo gió đã phủ lên bầu trời 1 lớp bụi than mỏng làm bầu trời ngả màu vàng nâu trông khá u ám. Đây không phải là điều kiện lý tưởng để chụp hình nhưng mình vẫn cảm thấy thích chuyến đi lần này.
Tấm hình đầu tiên mình chụp khi đang dừng xe trên đường để ăn trưa trên xe. Đây vẫn còn là khu vực rìa của Sequoia National Park nhưng cây cối đã phủ xanh um tùm, một điều mình rất thích. Mình đang ngắm để chụp thì nghe tiếng xe moto từ xa vọng lại, thế là mình đã đợi chiếc moto chạy vào khung hình rồi bấm máy. Dĩ nhiên là mình đã canh bố cục và lấy nét sẵn để khi xe chạy tới đúng khoảng lấy nét thì mình sẽ bấm máy. Mình để khẩu độ 11 nên dĩ nhiên là phần lớn khung hình sẽ in focus. Một điều đáng tiếc trong bức ảnh này là mình đã bấm máy hơi sớm, khi moto còn đang khá xa mình cho nên chiếc moto và người lái bị nhỏ và chìm vào background. Nếu moto chạy tới mình gần hơn thì bức ảnh sẽ tốt hơn nhiều. Tấm hình tiếp theo mình chụp windshield xe của bạn mình, như 1 tấm ảnh ký sự về chiếc xe và đi chơi thời Covid, với thú bông và khẩu trang giấy 🙂 Tiếp đến là 1 thân cây bị cháy đen ở bên trong. Tuy tấm ảnh không xuất sắc nhưng đây là lần đầu tiên mình thấy 1 thân cây cháy đen bên trong nhưng vẫn còn sống và bên ngoài vỏ cây màu cam rực rỡ nhìn rất thú vị. 2 ảnh kế đến chỉ là cảnh landscape bình thường nhưng cũng đủ để thấy bầu trời trông như thế nào những ngày mình ở Sequoia.
Ảnh tiếp theo [6] mình đã chú thích ý đồ trên hình. Rất tiếc mình đã không thể hiện được điều mình muốn trên ảnh. Còn lại là các ảnh [7,8,9,10] mình chụp trong ngày thứ 7. Mình thích ảnh [10] vì đó là chủ đề ưa thích của mình, những ngôi nhà nhỏ trong town nho nhỏ với nét retro và tĩnh lặng. Nếu được chụp lại mình sẽ nâng máy cao hơn để lấy phần cột đèn nhiều hơn, dĩ nhiên tâm điểm bức ảnh không phải là cột đèn nhưng ảnh lại cắt ngay lúc dây diện rẻ ngang ra làm mình có cảm giác mình cắt vật thể ngay mép, rất khó chịu khi nhìn. Mình đã được học về trang trí và bố cục rằng hoặc là mình lấy trọn vật thể hoặc cắt ngay lúc vật thể không có biến chuyển gì thú vị, tuyệt đối không cắt vật thể ngay mép (như mình đang làm) hoặc ngay góc. Nhưng nhìn chung mình vẫn rất thích ảnh này vì cảm giác nó mang lại. Ảnh [11] cũng là 1 ảnh mình thấy khá thú vị, mình thích màu xanh trong hình mang 1 cảm giác lành lạnh và mơ hồ rất đặc biệt.
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Mình đã muốn dùng 2 thân cây cong này để tạo 1 đường dẫn hay 1 khung nhỏ nhằm hướng người nhìn về trung tâm của bức ảnh là thảm cỏ và cây thấp được nắng rọi xuống rất đẹp. Dĩ nhiên các bạn cũng thấy là mình fail rồi 🙂 
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Mình vừa mua pro mist filter 1/4 để chụp thử vì mình thấy công dụng của nó khá hay. Pro mist filter dùng để giảm highlight xuống và đồng thời làm highlight glow 1 chút, như có thể thấy ở 2 tấm hình bên phải. Đây là trưa Chủ Nhật khi mình và các bạn dừng lại trước 1 nhà hàng trong ski resort để ăn trưa. Dĩ nhiên ski resort khá vắng vẻ mùa này, như trong hình là 1 sự trống trải và âm u trong phòng ăn không 1 bóng người.
Ảnh bồn gas này mình chụp theo 1 bức ảnh của photographer Scott Enlow đăng bên dưới. Mình đặc biệt thích tấm ảnh này của Enlow vì nó chứa đựng tất cả những gì mình muốn nhìn thấy trong 1 bức ảnh, tiền cảnh, trung cảnh, hậu cảnh, cỏ xanh, ánh mặt trời trong và vàng ấm, bầu trời hơi u ám nhưng toàn bộ hình lại không có cảm giác u ám nặng nề. Mình thích sự cũ kỹ và hơi hoang tàn nhưng cũng rất “neat” và tươi mát mà bức ảnh mang lại. Mình đặc biệt thích cây cột gỗ ở tiền cảnh, mình cảm thấy cây cột gỗ làm tấm ảnh rất sống động và thú vị. Các bạn nên xem thêm ảnh của Scott Enlow qua Instagram như trong hình bên dưới. Mình rất thích Scott Enlow vì ảnh của nhiếp ảnh gia này rất retro và dreamy.
Quay trở lại với ảnh của mình, mình nghĩ ảnh bên phải tốt hơn ảnh trái bởi vì ảnh trái có chiếc lều nhỏ khá kỳ cục trên bồn gas làm mình không thể nào chọn được 1 bố cục đẹp cho ảnh. Hình thứ 2 khá hơn vì bồn gas màu trắng, dễ tách biệt giữa chủ thể và background hơn. Thật ra cũng không phải là tấm ảnh mình ưng ý 100% nhưng mình cũng thấy nó khá thú vị. Nhất định lần sau gặp 1 bồn gas mình sẽ thử lại.
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Tấm ảnh mấy tấm ván bị bỏ lại trên hồ nhìn khá buồn và cũ. Không hiểu sao 2 tấm này màu scan ra nhìn hơi ám tím và trầm dù mình chỉ dùng Fuji 400H, có thể là do cảnh quá tương phản giữa highlight và shadow nên khi scan máy cố tone down highlight để giữ lại chi tiết ở highlight (thật ra mình không rõ lắm, cũng có thể do mình chưa biết cách chụp, scan trong điều kiện tương phản mạnh). Nhưng mình nghĩ nó khá hợp với nội dung của ảnh, về đồ vật bị con người bỏ lại vội vã nằm chơi vơi bên bờ hồ giữa đám cỏ mọc lố nhố không ai chăm sóc. Tấm thứ 2 có bố cục đẹp và nhiều lớp (tiền cảnh, trung cảnh, hậu cảnh) hơn ảnh thứ 1. Nhưng mình nghĩ 2 ảnh đi chung sẽ mang nội dung mạnh và thuyết phục hơn.
Ảnh [18] mình chụp vì ánh nắng rọi xuống chóp của những cành thông khô nhìn rất bắt mắt, Đây cũng là 1 cảnh tương phản mạnh về độ sáng cũng như màu sắc, màu vàng cam của chóp thông khô và màu xanh thẫm của cành thông dưới bóng râm làm cảnh nhìn rất thu hút. Rất tiếc lên hình mình không thể hiện được vẻ đẹp đó. Ảnh [19] mình rất thích, vì đó là chủ đề ưa thích của mình, những cảnh bình thường hàng ngày của cuộc sống nơi xa cách chốn thành thị hiện đại tấp nập. Ảnh này chụp ở khẩu 5.6 nên không có nhiều vùng in focus, là 1 điều mình rất tiếc, nhưng cảnh khá thiếu sáng nên đây là những gì tốt nhất mình có thể làm.
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Cuối cùng là những hình chụp casual trên đường hoặc lúc đi hiking. Thật ra mình có thể chụp nhiều hơn trong lúc hike nhưng mình không thể cảm nhận được vẻ đẹp của đá nên mình không chụp nhiều dù trong lúc hiking có đi quang qua 1 đoạn đường toàn đá xanh, chỉ có 1 khe nhỏ đủ để 1 người chui qua, cảnh nhìn rất Thập Diện Mai Phục vibe vì thật ra bạn không thể thấy gì xung quanh mình ngoại trừ đá, và mình luôn có cảm giác ai đó có thể nấp đằng sau 1 tảng đá và nhảy ra mai phục mình[?!] lol. Nhìn chung, mình nghĩ nó khá thú vị nhưng không nghĩ nó photographic cho mình.
Cuối cùng là 2 hình cuối của 1 thác nước nhưng đã cạn nước vì đây là mùa khô. Lần sau mình nên kiểm tra thác nước trước khi mang theo tripod đi hiking 🙂 Không có nước cảnh chỉ toàn đá khô khốc nhưng mình cũng thấy vui vì chuyến đi này.
Sau đây là ảnh từ cuộn film trắng đen duy nhất mình chụp trong chuyến đi này.
Cảm ơn các bạn đã theo dõi đến đây. Mình biết bài viết khá dài nhưng mong hữu ích cho các bạn. Chúc các bạn chụp ảnh nhiều hơn và hài lòng về ảnh của mình. Cheers!
Sequoia road trip
I was having a hard time to write this post, because I think my photos out of this trip are not that great as I expected. But it’s okay to share them because we all know that I’m learning along the way. So I hope you learn something from here or find some inspirations somewhere in this.
My friends and me went to Sequoia 3 weeks ago. We started to drove around 8pm Friday night and got there around 12:30am Saturday. Then we spend whole Saturday and haft Sunday to hike and drove back home in Sunday evening. Back then the wildfires were not as crazy as right now (September 10th) but the area were covered by a thin layer of smoke and the sky turned orange brownish already. Not ideal for photography but that’s what I got. For the gear, I brought the same Bronica system and Nikon F2, left my digital Nikon and the Yashica T4 home because it’s a short trip and I didn’t want to bring too many cameras. For film, I had Fuji Pro 400H, and Ilford XP2 black and white 120 film, I also had some 35mm rolls of Kodak Proimage and Portra 160, and 1 roll of Portra 800 (because it’s so freaking expensive!). I never shoot black and white before, I like seeing some black and white photos but never seeing myself shooting black and white but some fellow on discord told me that I should shoot black and white to focus on shapes and contrast in my photos, [and be more careful about the composition] so I picked up some XP2 because I can develop them at home with my C-41 chemicals. My black and white photos are not special but I’ll share them here as a encouragement to others it’s okay to have bad photos, they help you to see your mistakes and improve your photography.
First photo on the Bronica 
This gives you an idea how the sky look like in these days.
Above are my first photos of the trip. The first one is when we’re having lunch on the car at road side and I was framing the photo while the moto appeared and I waited for him to be on the spot I want and shot it, I wish I had waited a little more for he to come closer because he was so far back in the frame and so small. The second one is taken with the idea of document the trip and the windshield had some weird plush toys and the disposable masks that remind you of the Covid-19 era. The photo of the hollowed tree is not good but personally I never saw a tree burned inside before so it’s a new thing to me, and I guess if I live in California I will definitely see that a lot more.
Moro Rock view 
I took with the idea that the bended logs in the foreground and midground kinda shape a subframe to the center of the photo, which is a path of sunlight shines on the grass, but it didn’t work. 
The Moro Rock is an iconic sightseeing in Sequoia. Unfortunately the day we hike there’s so much smoke in the air and the view was not good at all, I had some photos taken on the rock but they’re not much to share. [And if you read the Lake Tahoe road trip post you know that I’m into forest and green scenes, not rock :)]. I hope my first photo gives you and idea of how the atmosphere was. The second I explain in the photo description. The next ones are some nice scenes I came across when we’re heading back to the Airbnb after a hike day. The green trunk photo with some dried branches is my favorite, maybe because it has a cool and poetic vibe. The last photo is definitely my thing, I like to shoot hundred of photos like this and put them together as a zine because I love the calmness and poetry in it. One thing I regret is that I should lifted the camera higher to get the whole electric pole in frame. I don’t mind cut a part of it out but in this photo I cut it right at the horizon wires, which is so annoy me every time I look at it.
Next are some shots on the second day hiking. We stopped at a restaurant in a ski resort, which is much empty now, for food and then I took these 2 shots to test out the pro mist 1/4 filter I just got. The glow is definitely nice and dreamy, but the photos are not that strong. However, I still love these 2 and think they’re pair well together. And all of the photos on this trip is taken with the pro mist filter on, but then I learn that not everything with pro mist on is good. The next two photos of the gas tanks are inspired by a photo of photographer Scott Enlow showed below. I love this photo to the moon and back. It has everything I wanted in a photo, retro vibe, old and abandoned stuff, green, foreground, midground, background, negative space, but above all of that, I love the feeling it gives, fresh and relaxed but still has some neatness and sadness. You can check out Scott @scottenlowphoto on Instagram and his website. I love his work!
Back to my photos, I like the second tanks than the first, because the first tank has a structure on top of it and I couldn’t make the composition look good while the second one is much nicer since it’s white and has green background behind. It’s not a great photo though but it’s the best I can get out of it. The next one is a effort to capture the sunlight hitting the cut off branches at the tips on the ground but it seems like I can not convey that to the viewer. It’s so contrast between the highlight and shadow and the colors really interesting in real life but in the photo they don’t work out. The photo of the table and domino pieces with some bottles and a can of coke is my favorite although I wish I could have more in focus. The scene was little dark so I had to open the lens up to 5.6. I like the feel in this, some kind of mundane everyday life scene in a suburb area. The photos of the canoe and board feel off to me, usually I like the clean or warm colors but colors in these 2 are so purplish and sad, which is not my type, and I couldn’t correct the color as I want so I try to make them look best. The second one has a stronger composition and the feeling of leaving stuff behind vibe.
Last are some shot on the road and hiking view. The last two is actually a waterfall without water. We came in the dry season so there’s no water to shoot a long exposure for silky waterfall like last time. Better check the waterfall next time before carry the tripod on a hike 🙂 . I cannot feel the beauty of rock so to me this 2 photos are not beautiful at all but here to demonstrate the atmosphere.
And here’re the only roll of black and white in my career, so far 🙂 I know I should shoot black and white differently than with color photos but sometimes I just take the shoot as color negative and yeah, of course the subject is not well separated from the background, or you cannot tell what is the subject either. There’re so much I have to learn here.
Thank you for making it here. I appreciate any comment and feedback in these photos, or if you want to share something just leave the comment. Cheers!
suburban series
This is a project that I realized that I need to make it as my first ever film project. As the number of photos I’ve taken keep increasing, I find that suburban vibe is the most common theme in my collection. Coming from a rural Vietnamese town, I find suburban is quite close to my heart. I love everything from old houses, rusty gates, broken cars, random stuff in flea market and abandoned things. Old things to me are not just things that stay around for a couple years but rather something that we share memories and stories with. My goal here is to document the beauty in such mundane moments of human’s lives and their poetic belongings.
the last dance – a short film
Protected: a loss story
the house
Memories about my first “home” in Oklahoma.
I moved to Oklahoma 6 months ago, all by myself. This is the first time ever in my life I move to a completely new place and know no one before. This new journey in life has been making me face new challenges and encounter new experiences that make me feel more grateful for everything. This house is the very first place in Oklahoma that I can call “home”, my first shelter, my first safe place to return to after a bad day. Although I cannot live in this house for longer time, I have had some fond memories of this place and with the people in it.
However I am moving out in the next few days, to a new house. Therefore this house already becomes nostalgic to me. I want to hold on to that nostalgic feeling and take photos of the house to reserve the memory of this place. I choose black and white photos to unify the photos and add timeless sense to this series.
film sequence 