My world has become smaller in 2012. Well, everybody's world is, when we became so connected through the net, we know things instantly across the globe. In another sense, my world dwindled quite a lot due to long and gruesome projects at work. Makes me wonder what "small" really means.
I've cancelled quite a few sourcing trips due to various reasons, all somehow points to the fact that I'm part of some ill conceived and badly executing projects. My world is smaller, I became smaller, couldn't allocate enough time on interesting projects like Traveler's Notebook special edition, Invitation of a Japanese stationery commentator to Hong Kong for talk, craft events, etc. I'm pushing quite many limits, including my family's tolerance of my absence. I've also put on hold some of my personal leather projects and stationery production too. In certain context, pushing limits made me even more creative, that was the past. I am currently in the state which I lack energy to fight long battles.
It is obvious I haven't had new instant photos to stick on my photo wall for a long while. Realizing this, I decided to carry my film cameras even more, even though in many instances I was too busy to take even just one shot. Well, at least last week I have two photo booth prints came out from visiting Joyce fashion store in Hong Kong. The booth was there to celebrate Joyce's collaboration with i-D magazine, a Soul i-D Exhibition to be held in Beijing soon. Everybody can just go there and take a cover star i-D portrait.
I didn't do it right for the portrait though, should've winked/covered my right eye. The idea was to portrait a photographer being angried at after he took a photo of a subject and later hurt by the subject.
One of the fun project I participated last Friday was being one of the judges for an instant photo journaling competition called Instant Only. Participants are encouraged to use instant photos like Instax or Polaroid to capture their moments and journal about them. I was amazed by some of the participants' work, the winning entries are obvious despite the organizer's complicated rating system which rendered judges spending long time to mark, I enjoyed reading those journals in those few hours.
Earlier in October I went as usual to Shanghai for a week for work. The happiest time during that trip was a visit to Xing Guang Photographic Equipments shopping arcade (星光摄影器材城), got some nice deals on analog films, including FP3000B to be used with my modified Polaroid 110a.
I managed to join a few colleagues for a day trip to Yangcheng Lake (阳澄湖) for a hairy crab feast! It was just an hour and a half away from Shanghai, not as beautiful as I imagined, but it was a great chance to find some nice photo angles.
Too bad I forgot to bring my Lenspen to clean the lens, some photos had weird shadows when developed. Like this one. I could only give it a proper name to explain: "Soul leaving". The other photo I took of an old lady washing bowl on river side, her face was taken away, too scary to show here.
Thanks to Fujifilm keep rolling out films, FP3000B is great for indoor and out door shots. In many occassions, especially wedding banquets, converted Polaroid camera using FP3000B is a great combo to give out instant photos to friends. Many people have never seen this in action so the peeling apart moment always astonish them.
For those of you who never had hairy crab (大閘蟹) before, it is a delicacy. October and November is the perfect season to try. The benefit of going to the source in Yangcheng Lake instead of buying from the market is that you get to meet the local people there and get a glimpse of their lives. In addition, it costs only RMB 150 per person to have 2 crabs (1 male, 1 female) and 17 dishes shared by 6 people! Great deal!
Many of the 'restaurants' are operated by small families, it is like having lunch in their very own home. You book in advance and drive there, they pick you up from shore using these small boats, arrive their homes and enjoy the feast.
(boat shed)
(old boat)
(boat shed reflection)
We had such a great time. The family's grandparents picked some fresh sugar canes for us as desserts too.
So, gruesome work on ill conceived projects? Gotta enjoy myself a bit more in between, using "small" chunks of time. Now I figured, you fight giants using "small" stones and "small" moves.
