My wasted Saturday, 35mm B&W shooting

Woke up early this morning. Thought this will be a good day to clear up lots of unfinished business I had left for the weekends. Was quite productive in the morning, went Robertson Walk signed up for the Sports Science course, donated blood at blood bank, went around in search of a suitable headlight bulb, installed it....Then somehow went home and knocked out.... wasted the entire afternoon sleeping on such fine weathered day.

The office where I went to sign up for the course was actually the same place as Shaoxiong's wedding photoshoot. Can't believe that I actually signed up for a degree course. It's been like how many years since I last touched educational materials and actually sitting for a test? Still gives me nightmares. Hope I can cope with the work load since I will be working at the same time. The timetable looks very packed throughout the term. Hope there is enough time for me to finish whatever reports they will dish out. Sometimes I think I must be nuts to do this but it's gotta be done and now it is.
I am sacrificing and risking alot of things by going for this degree but it's all for the long term good. Social life, spending power, even exercise time will be cut. I wun be even going back much to coach the juniors at NP Njd judging by the schedule. My boss will also definitely cut my bonus and promotion chances if he learns of this. Not to mention blowing off 26K++...
If it's a degree I'm gonna attain, there isn't any other subject that can hold my interest other than this. Can't imagine studying for a part time ENGINEERING degree after work. Stuff of more nightmares. I rather be roadkill. Study has always been a torture for me. And if I'm gonna torture myself, I'm gonna make sure I enjoy doing it.

Bike's been giving me problems again. Been dying on me in the middle of traffic. But right now it seems I have fixed it by changing out the spark plug, reconnected the severed plug cable(!), refilled the coolant, and changed out the light bulb, which blew on me as I checked the fuses last night. Had to ride with the "High" light on as it was the only safe alternative. Sorry to those drivers that I blinded when they looked in their mirror. But maybe that will also remind them that it will be the same effect for other drivers if they were to install HID headlamps, whether it's legal or not. Damn those HIDs. esp those on SUVs. Truly the legalised road hazards at night.

Somehow maybe it's the blood donation, maybe it's the stress on decision to study, Njd tournament/ restructuring planning, or even multiple late night photo editing. Came home around 1pm and just slumped onto bed. So wanted to go a few places for photography. The weather was like the best since July. Turns out that the shuttle finger was willing but the mind and rest of the body was not. Can't even force myself to get out of bed.
Oh well. The day was wasted but not as much as my body feels. Sometimes I just push myself over the limit. Only then do I remember that my physical is no longer that of an early 20s.

Experimented with KodakTri-X ISO 400.
Have not shot 35mm since I got my first Fujifilm A303 digital camera as part of a bdae gift back in 02 or 03.
Been too spoilted by digital when you can keep spamming to ur heart's content without guilt. And can even assess a pic on the spot and retake if the exposure/composition ain't no good.
Gotta admit I did spam lots of exposures in 35mm in the past but it was on a fully automatic Olympus compact(until my bro broke it) where all the decision are made for you and all you gotta do is press the shutter button. It's abit unnerving to suddenly revert back to film and this time on a F50 SLR. Still essentially a relative 'automatic' SLR even in Manual mode which I only used. But this time you cannot view your shot on the spot. Takes a bit of getting used to again.
And had to wait till you finish the whole roll of film and to be developed to know the results.
Ironically, this waiting and anticipation actually adds to the excitement of shooting film in the past, and it still holds true today. At least it does for me.

Below are a few preview of the pics. More can be viewed in my friendster album. These pics are made possible by my buddies, Guanghao and Peilei who graciously allow me to use their scanner in the middle of the night! Thanks Thanks!! And not forgetting those juniors who posed in the shots!
After scanning, I had to use adobe photoshop to inverse the colour. These are still negative scans you see. So the resolution and clarity will not be as good as those that are developed in a REAL Photoshop. Heh.
But I like them even more! Some photos had some dust(that were on the glass of the scanner) prints that made the photos look even more retro!



Thanks to Ilyana and Clarice for posing in some of the shots. While scanning the photos, Guanghao brought to my attention that Clarice is a very photogenic subject. Yeah that is true...either that of my snapping kung-foo up another level liao! hahah...

Will not be shooting another BnW roll so soon. The developement cost of a single 4R print is $2!!!! Astonomical but it is individually hand developed.
Even though Andy's fully manual 80s Nikon FM2 is with me, yearning to be taken out and shot with.....gotta resist temptation....for now...