Chad Ling 6/16/23 Chad Ling 6/16/23

Dubai Street Photography from 2015

Dubai seems to be an interesting place to shoot street photography. I think the next time I would like to concentrate more on portraiture using medium format.

Dubai street photography from a previous trip in 2015. Re-edited to be more in line with the colors that I now prefer. These were shot using a Fujifilm and the classic chrome film simulation but it has always bothered me that the skin tones always seemed too red. I’ve stopped using this film simulation for a while and do all of my color correcting in post.

Chad Ling 6/13/17 Chad Ling 6/13/17

Japan Street Photography

After dreaming and talking for so long about Japan and all it has to offer I was finally able to visit it and the country did not disappoint. A little bit of everything but especially interesting for me was where the old meet the new. A place that successfully mixes traditional dress, buildings and way of life from hundreds of years ago with vending machines on every street corner that sell everything you could imagine has to be admired in my opinion.

I have read before that the local people's attitude towards foreigners can be racist but I found nothing but respectful and polite people. Of course all the good things you hear about the food are all true and the one regret was that we were not able to simply spend more time tasting more dishes but this alone is a good enough reason to return.

For a street photographer the country is also a paradise of interesting and unusual subjects and although I never went to Tokyo I hear its the place to grab your wide angle lens and get some great shots. From a photography point of view this trip was a bit frustrating and I will explain why. Originally my plan was to shoot both digital and 35mm film only black and white but when I arrived I started to feel that color was the way to go so I shot both. At the end of it I had a whole lot of crap or average black and white film photos which I was disappointed with. Also for me I am really trying to to minimize my travel kit, in fact it is one of the reasons I was drawn to Fuji for the smaller sizes and excellent picture quality but on this trip I found myself lugging around 2 cameras and five lenses of which I probably used two. So, from now on I've told myself to choose before hand if I am shooting digital or film and stick to one camera and one lens. Ok ok, two bodies with a lens each and thats all!

Although we saw plenty of beautiful temples and shrines you will see that I don't have many photos of them here. it's not that I didn't take any, rather that I didn't take any that you couldn't already find anywhere on the internet so instead this post will look more like a street photography post.

I may do a second post just to show you the film shots and you can give me your opinion on which was better, color or black and white.

As Always I hope you find the photos interesting

Chad

Look closely, if only I could read minds, what would these tell me?

For me this image could have been good if not for the car.

The ghost in the darkness. Again another potentially interesting photo missed, this time because I wasn't quick enough to change my camera settings.

Just me channelling a bit of Bruce Gilden style photography.

Chad Ling 6/9/17 Chad Ling 6/9/17

Botswana

A long overdue post on my trip to Botswana. Two weeks of adrenaline filled adventure. Enjoy the read and the photos.

I had the opportunity to spend 2 weeks traveling around Botswana and even though the objective wasn't to make it a photographic trip as always I had a couple of cameras with. I took the Fujifilm X-T1 with a couple of lenses and my Nikon FM2 film camera with a 50mm lens. Because I don't normally shoot wildlife, the longest lens I have is the 85mm equivalent so opportunities were a bit limited. Bear that in mind when you view the photos, it will give you an idea of how close the animals came to us. I admit that there were more than a few occasions that I experienced a bit of the old butt hole pucker, case in point was when I shot the hippo photos. It was literally a car length away from us.

Part of the reason I wanted to go on this trip was to remind myself how small and vulnerable I as a human actually am when taken in context of the awe that is nature. I think we tend to forget this very quickly when we live in cities but when you are in the middle of the bush with no one else around for kilometers and you hear a lion roar less than 50m away from you in the black of night as you sit around your fire you are reminded very quickly where you sit in the food chain.

It was also amazing to realize how we adapt to danger, case in point was one day we noticed a small hut literally made from straw with no door. When we met the locals we mentioned this and he causally said that they used to sit in the hut until one day a lion tried to eat them there so now they don't sit in that hut! There are a few other stories I have regarding danger but I'll save those for another time. Just remember, there are no fences keeping anything out so when you need to pee at night, you dangle it out the tent.

I will say that if you haven't been to Botswana then do yourself a favor and go, your life will not be the same. When you have returned and you are sitting at your desk at work months later, you will find yourself reminiscing about that trip and maybe even sometimes wondering why you haven't sold all your worldly possessions and made that your life.

Again this is a photo blog not a travel blog but I feel obliged to give you a few helpful tips if you are planning a 4x4 trip there.

Buy as much of your provisions including water, beer and fire wood outside of the country. The prices get seem to get more and more expensive the further north you travel.
Don't forget your first aid kit, when you are hours away from anyone this could save your life.
If you have a sense of direction as bad as mine, a GPS with trail maps is a must or you find yourself driving around in circles for hours in a storm.
If you are planning on going in the wet season like us, be prepared for some adrenaline fueled driving! Having more than one vehicle gives great piece of mind but we did fine just 2 guys and a Pajero.
After eating wash and store all food stuffs inside your vehicle or trailer otherwise you tend to get visits from animals that may decide you are lunch. We made the mistake of leaving a bbq grid hanging on a gazebo and went for a drive. When we returned the gazebo was completely wrecked and could only be used for scrap.
When you pull into the camp on your first night in the bush and notice your Dutch neighbour has made his bbq and eaten and is already in his tent as the sun sets, don't be so quick to mock him (see comment above regarding lion roaring at night).
Oh and finally, a fellow traveller advised us to sleep with our shoes inside our rooftop tent because the hyena tend to eat them if you leave them outside (note that we didn't actually experience this but we kept them inside just in case).

That's it for tips, the rest you can read on any website when you do your research. Now enjoy the photos.

Cheers

Chad

This was our first destination and and a taste of what was to come. See the storm approaching in the distance? Yeah we didn't think it would reach us in 10 min either.

They don't call it the rainy season for nothing. We spent our late afternoons and nights being chased by storms.

Big boy is about a cars length away from me.

One of the numerous flooded areas we crossed. Doesn't look too deep right? Water was up to our windshield. One of many pucker moments.

I hate the way Fuji renders foliage but in this case I have to say the colors were nearly spot on compared to what I saw. Shot with Fuji standard film simulation if I remember correct.

I havde a series of these shots. I think these are going to make some great prints.

After waiting patiently for 5 hours to shoot the sunset we were hit by gale force winds accompanied by a mother of a storm.

Chad Ling 4/18/16 Chad Ling 4/18/16

Krabi Thailand

Beautiful and friendly Thailand. Every time I go to Thailand I enjoy it more and more. The people are always super friendly and respectful, always willing to help in anyway they can. Now trying to find something interesting and authentic to shoot becomes a little tricky when you find yourself in a tourist spot like Krabi but with the help of a great tour guide I managed to get away from the usual more well known places.

Although this trip wasn't purely for photography I did manage to get a few great shots as well as trying my hand at shooting 35mm film which I have been wanting to do for a long time. Shooting film alongside digital proved to be a challenge for me because the way you go about shooting each format is completely different. I found with digital I am used to shooting a lot more photos per scene but with film I really had to slow down and think about my shots. The other benefit of shooting digital is that I got instant feedback how the photo looked and obviously the same is not possible when using film. This can be frustrating but at the same time exciting. The one thing I will change for the next trip is that I will have to choose beforehand which medium to shoot, digital or film as both at the same time had me feeling like I was doing half a job for each. Next time I would like to focus on just one. Like that I will work with both the advantages and limitations and I think this will help me improve. One the the really frustrating things I found shooting with film is that I am so used to changing the ISO on the fly to achieve the look I want that I didn't give much thought to what happens when I shoot film until I have to shoot in the daytime as well as night. Digital has really made it so easy and convenient that we are spoilt for choice. With film I had to make a decision beforehand about what film speed I would use and live with whatever restrictions came with that decision. For example I was shooting Ilford HP5 Plus 400 which was great for the days but I had to make sure that before the night I had finished the roll of film and had a new one ready pushed to 1600 so that I could get that bit extra shutter speed that I needed in dark night scenes. I'm not sure how old film shooters got around this, the only thing I can think of is that they carried 2 cameras around with them with different speed films in each. Anyway, I have a long way to go on my film adventure but the bug has already bitten me.

Thanks for reading and have a great week.

Chad Ling 4/30/15 Chad Ling 4/30/15

JinZi Jian, Zhejiang China

These days I find myself still shooting half in color and half in black and white. I still can't bring myself to just commit to one because I still feel that there is a need for each but what is strange for me is the fact that I am more inclined to lean towards black and white for landscapes. For the time being I will stick to this, my only concern is that they don't all start to look the same but I guess that is the challenge that we face when trying to be creative.

JinZi was the most difficult hike that I have done to date. I was told before hand that it should be so I was debating if I should take the X-T1 with the 16-55 lens or just stick with my trusted X100s. In the end I decided to go with the X100s and I am glad that I did. It is so light and convenient that I could just hang it around my neck and forget about when I wasn't using it. Also because there were no paths a lot of the time and the gradient was very steep, I found myself using my hands a lot to pull myself up or to climb. The result was that the X100s was bouncing around a lot on my chest. I couldn't imagine being able to do this with the heavy and cumbersome 16-55 lens hanging around my neck, I think I would be too worried about smashing it against the rocks while jumping from one to the other. I know some of you are saying well why not just put it in your bag when not using it? The problem is that I don't have a rucksack that can offer sufficient padding for my cameras and still be able to hold all my camping gear. Also because this was a hiking/ camping trip there wasn't really much time to stop every 10 min, take off my rucksack to get out the camera and, shoot and then put it back. A lot of the shots were done on the move so as to not hold up the group.

For now I still feel the X100s is the prefect travel camera, I just wish it had wifi like the newer X100T so that I could connect the Instax printer and give out some prints to all the locals I photograph.

Chad Ling 4/15/15 Chad Ling 4/15/15

South African Bush Getaway

Continuing my time spent in South Africa, we took a little time to get out of the city into the countryside. One of the great things I love about SA is the fact that you can drive for 1 hour and be relatively isolated, no car horns honking, not a person in sight, just lots of blue skies, puffy white clouds and fresh air. Oh and depending where you go, lots of wild animals to be found in game parks.

Another normal day on the Highways in South Africa. Just kidding, the highways have much more traffic that this. Shot with a 35mm lens while steering with my elbows!!!

Always wanted to see what I look like behind the camera, scary stuff!

Chad Ling 10/27/14 Chad Ling 10/27/14

Taiwan In Color

Taiwan is a great place for so many reasons but the friendly and polite people definitely has to come at the top of my list, followed closely by the food, great passion for coffee and the shopping was right up there too. The night markets are great and the vibe is awesome. Besides Taipei I was in Hualien and Taroko Gorge. I definitely recommend taking a guide to the gorge as the history is fascinating and something I really didn't expect.

All in all I can't wait to go back, the only bummer for me is that I have to go to Hong Kong every time to ally for my visa but hey, there are worse places than the great Hong Kong to spend your time shooting street photography and eating Cantonese style Chinese food.

Changing of the Honour Guard at the Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.

Really Interesting looking girl I met on the street. I am looking forward to hopefully shooting her again in the future.