South Korea & Japan Holiday
Overdue family holiday to one of our favourites destinations and a new one we can tick off our list.
Had been a while since we took a family holiday which always means there is one brewing. This time round we decided to check out South Korea and while we are so close to Japan lets go there after that.
Like most of our family holidays it usually revolves around the Australian school holidays and this trip was no exception with us heading to South Korea first on the 19th of December, thats right it was going to be cold!
You might be asking why South Korea (Japan is obvious if you look at any of my old blog posts or pictures), well it simply comes down to the fact that my wife has been watching various Korean dramas on Netflix over the last year. It started with wanting to eat Korean food regularly and then it was just mentions of it here and there where she would say stuff like “We should go on a trip to South Korea”. Based on the fact that we wanted to also swing by Japan meant that we needed more time on the trip and the Christmas break would be the only time that would facilitate it without having my youngest miss school. This meant that we would be going to South Korea & Japan in the winter, not full blown winter but still winter.
We have done Japan around December/January before and it was cold, but i dont think we knew what we were getting ourselves into with South Korea.
For the rare photo that im in the picture my 11yr old Lucas took those shots which turned out well, i also threw some phone snaps in there.
The Gear
We need to talk about the gear, still love geeking out about specs and nerdy tech things so have to cover what i brought with me on the trip. On this trip i didnt want to take all of my Fuji lenses with me so i left one behind (thats a first for me). Here is what i brought:
Body
Fujifilm X-Pro3
Lenses
Fujinon 16mm f1.4
Fujinon 23mm f1.4
Fujinon 35mm f1.4
I found i gravitated to the 23mm (35mm full frame equivilant) a little more although not much more than the 35mm (50mm full frame equivilant) which was 30 frames behind in my selection list. I do love the 35mm Fuji lens as its probably the sharpest Fuji lens i own, plus it was the only lens i had when i first moved to the Fuji ecosystem so ive come to know it alot better than any of the other lenses. The 23mm has only been a somewhat recent purchase so i havent properly found my way around it, but in saying that i think the 23mm (35mm full frame equivalent) is by far the best lens to take on holidays and i do think i could get away with only using that lens. That would also save a lot of lens anxiety knowing what lens to put on the camera, if you only have one then the choice is easy. The 16mm didnt get much action, mainly used for shots that needed it, tight spaces that needed to capture a wider view.
Along with the digital gear i also took my Contax S2b with the Carl Zeiss Distagon 35mm f2.8, i absolutely love this combination and forgot how much i love shooting with that camera/lens combination. Ive had a roll of Kodak Portra 400 laying around for who knows how long so thought id throw it in and try and capture some moments along the trip.
South Korea
South Korea was as mentioned our first destination, things didnt start of well with my wife not getting on the flight (the downfall of flying standby) and only Lucas and I getting on the flight to South Korea. Sadly due to the fact that my wife didnt get on the flight they decided to take all the bags off the plane when she was pulled off so both Lucas and I arrived in Seoul with nothing but the clothes on our backs and some backpacks with his Nintendo Switch, books etc and my camera gear and laptop. This wouldnt have been a problem if the temperature wasnt -5 degrees celcius when we arrived at 930pm that evening and all we were wearing was jeans and a t-shirt!
Thankfully our Airbnb host was very accomodating and organised for a taxi to be waiting at the bus stop we got off which was a good 12 minute walk otherwise, all was well once we made it to the apartment. We got our bags 2 days later on the same day my wife ended up arriving.
The rest of the trip was exploring Seoul which included some of the main attractions, a DMZ tour and then we finished off with a short time in Busan. Enough of the text here are some of the images from our time in South Korea.
Thought id add some of my favourites shots from South Korea into a larger viewing platform.
Japan
Being that this was our 2nd family trip, my wifes 4th and my 5th visit to Japan meant that it would probably be best if we tried to explore places that we hadnt yet seen. The fact that we were ending our South Korea trip in Busan meant that we could have a short flight to the South of Japan, with this in mind we decided to start our Japan part of the holiday in Fukuoka the southern most city in Japan and then make our way to Tokyo where we would ultimately fly back to Sydney from.
So we started in Fukuoka but we stayed in Kumamoto, we then made our way up to Okayam, stayed in the Mt Fuji region and finished off in Nerima City in Tokyo. Here are some of the images from our time in Japan.
Much like the South Korea images, thought id add some of my favourites shots from Japan into a larger viewing platform.
Film Images
This roll of Kodak Portra 400 ive had has been sitting there for at least 2 years from what i can remember, it hasnt been refrigerated or kept in a cool place for its life so i think thats the reason of the over grainyness i got from it. I shot it at 320 ISO which is what i usually do for a roll of 400 speed film but potentially needed to go more due to how its been stored all these years and might have lost more of its sensitivity compared to a fresh roll. Oh well i still like the results of some of the shots, these are my faves, the rest arent really worth sharing as they didnt turn out the best. 18 out of 36 shots isnt a bad ratio, probably could have added some more but left them out.
Conclusion
By far my favourite place on this trip was our time in the Mt Fuji region, the fact that we had a car and could explore where ever we wanted to was refreshing compared to the rest of the trip. Plus Mt Fuji is just so mesmorising. South Korea was very similar in ways to Japan but way way colder. There was lots we didnt get to do in South Korea which was our own fault as we were poorly organised but it just means we have the opportunity to go back and see more things. As for Japan, we saw a different side of it as the places we went to didnt have many other tourists besides ourselves (Mt Fuji and Tokyo obvsiouly being the exception), we experienced a lot of what was just local life with a lady even asking us why we were in Kumamto as its a smaller town that not many foreigners visit. Japan has always given me great experiences even on the 5th visit.
Overall it was a trip we all had fun on, explored new places, ate new foods, made lots of good memories. The only downfall was that our eldest son couldnt make the trip.
Until the next one.
Thats for visiting.
Tempe Photo Walk
While waiting on some repairs to be done to my car, i decided to wonder around Tempe with my 35mm film camera and a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400.
A couple of weeks ago i decided to get some of the gutter rash i did on 2 of my wheels fixed from a repair place in Tempe. I was told that the process can take up to 2 hours to complete.
I could have easily gone back home and come back or wondered through Ikea for 2 hours which is across the road, but instead i decided to take my Contax S2b with my Carl Zeiss Distagon 35mm f2.8 and the Planar 50mm f1.7 with a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 and do a photo walk around the back streets of Tempe.
I honestly wasn’t expecting much and definitely didn’t think id be able to finish a roll within that 2 hour period (which i didn’t), but pleasantly surprised with the images i got back.
I shot the Kodak Tri-X 400 at ISO 200 instead, film developed and scanned (standard jpg) at Rewind Photo Lab (not sponsored :-P).
Here are all of the shots i took while on the photo walk good and bad, hope you like.
The Analog Journey Continues
The analog world can bite hard sometimes, it lures you in and then takes hold and doesnt let go. Tales of the journey.
So i’ve been on this analog journey for around 10-11 months now and i must say its had its ups and downs. Ups are definitely the moments when you get your scans back and you have some gems. Downs were when i came across those scans that i didn’t quite nail and didn’t understand why.
Before i get onto that lets talk about the new cameras i’ve added to the list. Let me start with “gear does not make you a better photographer”, but i love talking about it. Hey i’m in I.T. and love gadgets and photography gear is one of the things i love to have, know about and talk about (feel free to skip further down if gear isn’t your thing :-P). Like many others i cant afford to upgrade my camera body to every new body thats released, so i weigh up my needs and see whether i would actually benefit from the upgrade. Film SLR’s are no different (sometimes cheaper is the only diff).
So the first SLR i bought when getting back into this analog game 10 months ago was the Fujica AX-1, which is an entry level SLR in the AX range not sporting a full manual mode. I originally went for this camera as i honestly wasn’t 100% sure whether id get back into it or not, and didn’t want to spend too much money on an SLR. It didn’t take me long after buying the Fujica that i knew i wanted to continue on this analog journey, so i started looking into a 35mm SLR body that i could invest in that i knew would last me for a long time which also had a lens range i would be happy with.
I came across this video on youtube by Kyle McDougall, he opened my eyes to some brands i hadn’t really heard too much about like Yashica and Contax. He also had this great video about the amazing range of lenses that these cameras supported.
I knew i wanted my next SLR camera body to tick the following boxes:
To have full manual functionality (with no add ons parts)
Have a max shutter speed of at least 1/2000 of a second
An internal light meter
Fully mechanical
Have a great range of lenses
Reasonably priced
What SLR body and lens range did i settle on you ask? My next purchase was the Yashica FX-3 Super 2000 with a Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f1.7, i found it for a super cheap price (pun not intended). The Yashica ticked all the boxes, except for one which is why there is a 3rd and final 35mm SLR purchase. Before we get onto that camera, the Yashica allowed me to use any lens in the Carl Zeiss C/Y mount range or Yashica C/Y mount range which you can find the list for here. Im sure you’ve heard of Carl Zeiss if you’ve been in the photography game for while, they make some amazing glass, this was a range of lenses that wouldn’t disappoint. As for the body it had everything you could want in an SLR body, it was also light and as mentioned by Kyle in the video above it sits very nicely in your hand due to the nice ergonomics.
Now why did i buy a 3rd 35mm SLR, as good as the Yashica FX-3 Super 2000 is you do notice the lack of precision with it. It has a metal frame but has a plastic body, so wouldn’t handle the rain or being knocked around very well. The film advance lever doesn’t feel sturdy along with the rest of the body. I wanted something that again ticketed all the boxes in my previous requirements but also adding one extra box. I wanted something that had a little more precision to it, that had better build quality and that would potentially last me forever. The type of SLR i was thinking about was to the calibre of the Canon F1 & Nikon F3 ranges, sturdy well built and renowned for their build quality and durability.
I chose the Contax S2b, this thing is a tank. It is fully mechanical and has a max shutter speed of 1/4000 of a second, only needs battery for the light meter, has centre weighed metering and of course supports the amazing C/Y mounted Carl Zeiss lenses. Oh and its very pretty.
The Contax S2b is definitely my go to 35mm SLR, i cant see me purchasing another 35mm SLR unless its purely to add to my collection but definitely not to replace it.
As for lenses, the Carl Zeiss list of C/Y mounted lenses is very large. At the moment i have invested in the Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f1.7 as mentioned above as well as the Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f2.8. The other lens id like to eventually invest in is the Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 28mm f2.8, these 3 lenses are great to travel with as they aren’t big like the extremely desirable bigger brothers Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f1.4, Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f1.4 and Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 28mm f2 (maybe one day).
Thats the gear out of the way, how about how I’ve been going with it all. Initially i was into the Fuji film stock, since then i have discovered Kodak and haven’t gone back since. I think i initially tried a roll of Kodak TMax 400 which i really liked, i was reluctant to do much of anything in colour based on some early result not turning out how id liked. But again ive started shooting alot more colour and been shooting a lot of Kodak Portra 400, 800 and recently 160. I love the colours from Portra and think i’ll stick to that range. I have since shifted to Kodak Trix for black and white, I’m liking the slightly more contrasty look the TriX gives over the TMax.
As some more experienced film photographers would understand, film tends to handle highlights much better than shadows. When starting off its something you don’t really understand or know about, i understand now why a lot of photographers choose to rate film that is 800 speed at 400 or 400 speed at 200 so they can stay within the threshold the film best performs in. Knowing this from the beginning or at least knowing to overexpose shots, i think I could have saved a lot of images.
I feel i still have plenty to learn when it comes to film stock which is why I’m trying to stick to Kodak Portra and TriX to try and get consistent results across different lighting situations (i fear this will take sometime). With time I hope to become more familia with these film stocks and know what kind of results I’ll get for each shot.
Hear are some of my favourites over the past 6-7 months from both the Yashica FX-3 Super 2000 and the Contax S2b. Film stock varies with Kodak & Fujifilm.
Thanks for visiting.