chambok village homestay in cambodia

This set is from Chambok, Cambodia. We had a homestay for one night in this village near an eco tourism center. The center coordinated homestays with a few families in the village. We also went around a school and temple in the village where I got some of these photos. I'm in the process of contacting the eco village to have a copy of these photos sent to the village.


These girls were hanging around the temple in the village. This is one of my favorites from the trip.


Classes were on break when we visited the school. The students were coming back into class and these guys were eager to pose for the camera.

Da told us he was the only student who spoke English. He had learned it from his dad and was happy to practice with us.

A boy who is too young for school, but was following his mother around.

This is our homestay host and her son.

first photos from southeast asia

I've been slowly developing and printing rolls from a trip to Southeast Asia I recently took. Other than a point and shoot, I took just my Minolta Autocord. Other than a few minor problems it held up during the trip, although it's still scratching some of my negatives. I think I got some good results though. I've been spending much time in the darkroom the past few weeks getting my favorites on paper. Below are a few from Cambodia. There will be more in the weeks ahead.


This photo was taken at Phnom Pros in Kampong Cham, Cambodia. There was a family of these guys and I think this guy was putting himself between us and the youngins. Luckily he didn't give me rabies.


This is part of the Bayon Temple Complex in Angkor.


This was taken on out way to Sihanoukville in Cambodia. There are two or three pigs in the cage on the back of the bike. They did not look very happy, but perhaps they are still too small to be dinner.

color prints

Been doing a lot of color darkroom printing lately. It's a bit more time consuming than black and white due to the fact that it's difficult to find the right color balance. Sadly these scans don't do the actual prints justice. I got them pretty close but the print just looks better on paper than on the screen. Same thing can be said for scanned negatives though.

gang of six deficit plan

The Gang of Six plan seems to be the most likely solution to the August 2nd debt ceiling deadline. The plan doesn't seem much of a compromise to me. Yet it is very likely Obama will support it. A major tax cut would be given to the top tax bracket (from 35% to 23-29%), which, other than just after Reagan's presidency, is at it's lowest point since the great depression.

This just about sums it up:

Just about the only specific piece of the Gang of Six proposal, as explained well by Rep. Peter DeFazio above, is the move to chained CPI, a benefit cut for Social Security, veteran’s benefits and any program with a cost of living adjustment, along with a regressive tax cut.

Overall this plan will place most of the burden on the working class. It's about time we put the myth that these cuts help job creators to rest. Let's not forget the huge income inequality we have in this country.




In other news, the US claim that no civilians have been killed by drones in Pakistan is a lie. From a recent study:

Yet a detailed examination by the Bureau of 116 CIA ‘secret’ drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2010 has uncovered at least 10 individual attacks in which 45 or more civilians appear to have died.

Also an interesting read from Glenn Greenwald; the governments case for the anthrax attacks in 2001 is full of holes.

That Ivins lacked the means, ability and equipment to produce the sophisticated strain of anthrax used in the attacks -- especially to do so without detection and leaving ample traces -- has long been one of the many arguments as to why it is so unlikely that he was the culprit (or at least the sole culprit).

[...]

But, of course, in the U.S., the nation's most powerful political and financial factions -- especially those who control the National Security State -- are immune from meaningful scrutiny and investigation. As a result, President Obama -- in what I think is one his most indefensible acts -- actually threatened to veto the entire intelligence authorization bill if it included a proposed bipartisan amendment (passed by the House) that would have mandated an independent inquiry into the FBI's anthrax investigation.

On the lighter side of things, they now have fake Apple stores.

squared

Been using my Autocord TLR shooting both black and white and color film. I'm really liking this camera. The waist level finder is like using the best lcd ever made and I've found I can hand hold it still for stupid long amounts of times. Gotten sharp images down to an 1/8th of a second. After the jump is a set from the past few rolls I've shot.

He might be orange, but we call him Blue. My roommate's cat was relaxing then perked up at the sound of the buzzing self timer on my autocord and froze perfectly still for the half second exposure.

Arts Market at Civic Center.

TLR

Another camera I've been lucky to inherit is this Minolta Autocord from the early 60s. The leather covering on it was in pretty bad shape so along with getting it cleaned and fixed up I got a Deep Jade leather kit from Camera Leather. I was also lucky to find a hood and UV filter from a local used camera store, Camera Heaven. Definitely the place to go in San Francisco for rare photographic accessories.



I've shot a few rolls through it with one to scan. Still getting a feel for this camera. Here's a shot from Coronado Beach in San Diego. With a negative 4 times the size of 35mm, the details are great. Scans much easier, too. The square format also makes for interesting compositions.

train east

Finally got photos from my train trip out to Chicago uploaded. You can view the set here on Flickr. I've also created a set of my favorite shots.

darkroom

I have about 6 rolls of film I've been meaning to upload from a trip I took a little while ago. Finally got them developed and scanned, now to sort through them and clean them up for web use. In the meantime here's one of my favorite shots from the trip. It's at the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago. This is a scan of an 8x10 print.

It scans a little weird so I'll have to play with my scanner settings some to get it right. This was shot with my leica iiic on kodak tri-x.

developing my own film

Decided to take a dark room class. Haven't started printing yet, but did develop my very first roll. This is a large set, so click here for all the photos.

more info on this photo on flickr

more info on this photo on flickr

vehicles and performers

Some shots taken in San Francisco. Just got back from a trip and have 6 rolls I need to develop.

1/500@f/6.3
Summitar 5cm f/2

1/500@f/4.5
Summitar 5cm f/2
See this on Flickr

1/500@f/4.5
Summitar 5cm f/2

1/500@f/3.5
Summitar 5cm f/2

1/500@f/4.5
Elmar 3.5cm f/3.5

Taken with a Leica IIIc. Film is Ilford HP5+, scanned with an Epson V500 and minor edits done in Lightroom.