Color Film

So here we have a photo dump post. I divided them into two sets so it doesn't slow down browsers and annoy people. Obviously with film, you have to finish the entire roll before being able to process it so there's a combination of different events in this set.

These ones were taken in San Pedro when my cousin Mick decided to have a little get together. Hanging out at White Rocks reminded me of my Uncle Mike. We always went for long drives. Most of the time, we didn't really have a set destination and we didn't care. I'm bad with directions so I learned to navigate through Anaheim, Buena Park, San Pedro and Wilmington by using food places for landmarks. I definitely learned that from him which probably is where my passion for food came from. The other part, from Amado (for obvious reasons).

By the way, bomb soft serve ice cream truck! I'm willing to track this guy down on a weekend if I have to. That's how much of an ice cream junkie I am. I've told Amado that when we finally buy a house, I only have two requests. A soft serve ice cream machine in our kitchen and a Korean BBQ style table/grill in our backyard.

Here's one from Marley Mae's shoot and with Sully feeding the ducks at the park.

My cousin Suzanne and her family pay a visit in our home area of Manhattan Beach all the way from Canada. It's been almost 15 years since we last saw each other. It was great seeing them. The kids were just super excited to be able to enjoy SoCal's beach scene despite the overcast which definitely did not put a damper on their Sunday Funday. I recall one of the girls exclaiming aloud "This is the BEST DAY ever!" Definitely put a smile on all our faces. And major props to Amado for getting them a pretty-in-pink, patriotic beach towel. Pretty expensive but well worth the happiness and smiles attained from that day. (NOTE: Manhattan Beach does not have a souvenir shop.) 

Kevin's Birthday. Pat, sorry, I thought I got one of you standing next to him.

Juku sunbathing. This is her usual spot from 10am-12pm if I'm at home. Our little Pink Belly. So ripe.

From a shoot Greg and I worked on in DTLA. Miracles happened during this shoot. Greg and I managed to put together a pretty awesome video despite the conditions we had to work with.

Pentax Spotmatic II

For the last couple of months I've been scouring through eBay and other online stores for the right film camera. I've read as much articles as I could, joined and lurked plenty of photography forums and watched countless YouTube videos but the selection was just really overwhelming. When I saw the listing for this Pentax Spotmatic II, I knew I didn't want anyone else to have it. Great condition and it was dirt cheap!


I'll try not to geek out too much here.

Having learned everything I know on a digital camera, I got used to having unlimited amount of shots I can have in a single memory card. There's always that thought of "take one more just in case". Where at times that saved my butt from shots where someone blinked or an unwanted passerby getting in the way, it also spoiled me and even held me back from learning more about the process. Since I picked up my very first DSLR camera, I've only shot on manual mode. Yes, it took a while and a lot of deleted files but I forced myself to never rely on Full Automatic mode or P mode. I'm still working on getting to a point where I can look at a scenario and say to myself, "I'm going to shoot this at ISO 400, f/2.8 at 1/1000th." and be spot on without monkeying around and fiddling with the settings.

For my first roll of film, I just went with the cheapest and readily available pack I could find (Fuji X-TRA 400). I'm saving the good ones for another time. I wanted to check if the camera's metering is accurate. The battery for this camera has been discontinued and there really isn't an official replacement. Others suggested using 1.55v batteries that they sell at electronic stores but I read somewhere that it can cause incorrect metering which could either result to having under/overexposed images depending on which battery type you end up using. So far everything is good and it doesn't appear to have any light leaks except for the first photo I took of Amado.

Yes, he's eating salad from a huge metal bowl. All for him.

And yes, he really dresses in Japanese robes with matching pants/shorts when we're at home.

I know, harsh shadows! Again, this was my test roll so let it slide just this once.

Some people on the train heading to Anime Expo. We took some friend from out of town all over DTLA and Hollywood. My legs are still sore.

I'm still waiting on my 2nd roll to be processed. The lab's machine broke down after they processed my first roll. Anyway I like having to wait until the film is processed to see how the photos turned out. It's like opening gifts on Christmas day. There's no guarantee to what you're getting. Which isn't really completely accurate for me because I just check our bank statements to see if Amado bought anything during the holidays and my birthday. But so far I'm enjoying the process.