leica on loan to be returned in september

it is the leica 1c with the 135 mm hektor and 50 mm elmar. my patient is lending it for three months. she won't sell. she won't. she won't. and judging by the condition of the camera, i won't either if i were her. it is in excellent condition. the turret finder is clear. the lenses are clear and focusing is smooth on the 135, a little sticky on the 50.



i like the turret and how you adjust for parallax. manually! and the image is in reverse.

SONTAG QUOTABLES

the late sontag did not say anything new. she merely used dramatic irony to describe what was already blasé. her style could impress you at first but the messages were mostly worn out, well established facts. even the photographers she described were already famous at the time of her writing. she did not cite budding ones who are now considered greats. these were the scathing comments i got from one of the venerable members of rfilipinas. (i might have embellished the words a bit but the bite is the same).
the book was written during the early part of the psychedelic years when ugly solid state technology made its rude onslaught. despite this, i thought it still had the vacuum tube realism.
but true, sontag did not write anything ground-breaking but her style of writing is like the dark coffee i take every time i need a perk. and notwithstanding the negative feedback from my well-respected friend, i quote some of my favorites from her book On Photography:

"A photograph is both a pseudo-presence and a token of absence."

"The camera doesn't rape, or even possess, though it may presume, intrude, trespass, distort, exploit, and, at the farthest reach of metaphor, assassinate -- all activities that, unlike the sexual push and shove, can be conducted from a distance, and with some detachment."


"The camera as phallus is, at most, a flimsy variant of the inescapable metaphor that everyone unselfconsciously employs. However hazy our awareness of this fantasy, it is named without subtlety whenever we talk about 'loading', and 'aiming' a camera, about 'shooting' a film."


"What renders a photograph surreal is its irrefutable pathos as a message from time past, and the concreteness of its intimations about social class."


"Photography, though not an art form in itself, has the peculiar capacity to turn all its subjects into works of art."

"Time eventually positions most photographs, even the most amateurish, at the level of art."


no doubt, she is a beautiful read. and so far, the best on photography. and i have read ... let me count my fingers.

corregidor 2007

i was a high school freshman the last time i went to corregidor. it was an excursion of teachers and some students. upon reaching the island, i chose to stay on the beach to enjoy the sun and the clean sea. my teachers tried to convince me to join the guided tour and learn about the island's history. to their chagrin, i chose the beach. but this week, because of a friend's request, i visited the island rock with my family, my friend and her husband, and joined the tour. but i was saddened by the sight of a filthy beach. and i am hoping the workers on the boat are there to do something about it.

(you will hear an old recording of oscar obligacion, a comedian from the 50s, doing what he was known for -- Japanese impersonation).



you can click this link if the video does not work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2abdm_eSVks

available light photography on film

anton with candle insect repellant
(rollei 35S, agfa 400 apx)


baguio silhouette, c. 1984
canon ftb, canon fl 55 mm/f1.2


kutchie, c. 1980
(canon fl 55/f1.2, canon ft)


honeymoon, c. 1986
(canon fl 55/f1.2, canon ft)


watching tv
(biogon 28, contax g2, agfa 400 apx)


reading under lowlight
(cron 35, leica m6, agfa 400 apx)

shooting with the rollei 35 s

taking a taho break in the state university campus


biking along the UP academic oval




busy building a papier mache lens cap for the rollei