A Very Scientific Photo Collaboration

Hello, you good people! Hope you are doing well.

Yesterday, at the London marathon, 31-year old Kenyan Sebastian Sawe became the first human to ever finish a sub-2 hour marathon, finishing at a ridiculous 1h59m30s, beating the previous record by a whopping 65 seconds. As a normie casual runner, I think this is huge, probably a bigger deal than, say, the sub-4minute mile, or Usain Bolt’s 9”58 100 metre run. It’s a big day worth celebrating. Not that you’ve asked, but I am still working toward a sub 3.5h marathon, which may need a lot of serious work, and a bit of luck. But I haven’t given up yet.

Last year, I joined a film swap project started by perfectlight and Susanne Helmert where all who participated would shoot a roll of 35mm film and send it out to the next person for a second round of exposures. perfectlight came up with the swap table and two lists of suggested subjects. All resulting scans were then sent to Susanne Helmert who compiled hundreds of frames into a wonderful digital zine. The final zine came out around the time of my trip to Hong Kong, and I didn’t get to post about it, which I will in later posts. It was a great project where I got to work with three marvellous photographers and had a ton of fun. I told perfectlight about my experience, who was kind enough to invite me to another round between the two of us. Only this time, it was a double-blind double exposure. I don’t know what they’ve taken; they don’t know what I will take, and vice versa. Double blind, hence scientific. In Early March I sent out the first finished roll to my Hong Kong lab for development and scan via literal snail mail. Six weeks later, after convincing myself the roll had sunken to the bottom of the Strait of Hormuz, I got the scans. And I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised by some of the results, even though, I again, messed up the alignment. If you haven’t caught on, I am pretty bad at all sorts of things. Anyway, the lab scanned the negatives twice based on two sets of framings. And if you don’t mind, here are some of the shots. A big thank you to perfectlight again.

First frame from the roll. I over exposed my frame of the walking shadow, so the double exposure is not obvious. But I think it’s important to include it. It also shows clearly the misaligned framings.

I kinda like this one.

This is a subtle one. There’s a tiny person to the left of the buoy.

This is a bit chaotic, and I am all for it.

Cat sign and walker reflection.

One of my favourites from the roll.

If you ask me, this is the best frame. Silhouette against bright patterns is one of the best combo for a double exposure, right?

Bike and trees.

Two pigeons and two people.

Dessert menu and deserted shopping carts.

Roses and Parking.

This almost looks like a single exposure.

My vote for funniest framing. The (mis-)alignment is perfection.

Performance listings and a barber’s counter.

Another chaotic one

Taxi stand and railroad.

Another one I like.

An arch and a cookware store.

A pigeon supervising a road worker.

Cat graffiti and football goals.

It feels like the fish is part of the billboard.

tangerines and balloons

Women and cherry tomatoes. Another silhouette vs pattern-ish.

Carrots and twigs.

Books and metal

Industrial, a perfectlight classic and a building.

F&B vs Industrial.

And that’s it. I hope you’ve had as much fun flipping through these photos as I had shooting them. Again, I am pretty happy even with the misalignment, and the double blind experiment. The unknowableness is part of the appeal of shooting film anyway, ain’t it?

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a good week ahead. Until next time!