Exercising The FED 5C

It's been a long while since I've shot anything with the FED 5C camera, which is a shame really. It's always given me nice shots. One of the main reason is it's size and weight. With a good aim and a strong throw you can use it to knock both the snatch thief and the rider in front of him off a motorbike. The other is that ever since my son has learned to walk, autofocus cameras are the preferred choice, man can he walk fast. But during the recent public holiday, I decided to put a roll of film through the FED 5C, kinda miss shooting with it. (All images shot with FED 5C and Kodak 400UC)

Me and the FED 5C

Poor hairstylist had a bloody finger when he snipped his hand, never easy to get a baby to stay still

One second before breaking something from the shelf...and we left quickly soon after -.-"

I am reminded how much I love shooting with this camera when I look at the pics, even though it makes me look like a freaking tourist with the strap and the case I will make an effort to bring it out more often.

Solids

Baby Cyrus has turned 6 months and started taking solid foods. We have fun experimenting with foods and seeing his reaction to them.

Today we're trying pumpkin porridge

Wat the....?!

So we switched back to what he's familiar with...

...and added some of the pumpkin porridge

But he found out...

...and kept his mouth closed. Lol.

He did finish the whole thing in the end. We've found out that he likes apple, bananas, grapes (with a very sourish face) and papayas. Sweet potatoes, potatoes...not so popular with him. We hope he will enjoy as wide a variety of food as we can give to him, with it being easier now at this age when he can't talk back or refuse to eat. 

Peek-a-boo!

Somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd month of life, Cyrus started blabbering and using his voice to express a wide range of emotions. His first word wasn't mama or papa but Earl (highly disputed by my wife who claims he was saying uggh instead. I beg to differ...). The one event that made us drop everything and stare at him was when we realized he was laughing. Oh yes he'd smile before this, and try to laugh, but always without the accompanying audio.

Why are babies amused by peek-a-boo? And we tried peek-a-boo-ing with two people hiding behind the blanket instead but he wasn't amused at all. Then we returned to just one peek-a-boo-er and he resumed laughing like normal. Remind me to check the rules regarding multiple peek-a-boo-ers/peek-a-boo-ees.

A Milestone

Baby Cyrus has turned 2 months last weekend! He's grown at such a rapid pace that I use him for weight training now.

There was a bit of a worry when Cyrus produced this weird black pepper like stools 2 days after his 2 month vaccination. He didn't have any fever and was looking and acting his normal self. We were stumped, but decided to wait and see since it was a Sunday and the clinic was closed. We found out that the vaccination can cause diarrhea but it mentioned nothing of this. Thankfully it got less and less and disappeared totally the next evening.

As you can see from the pattern, I caught the explosion 'mid-spray'

I've not been able to do a lot of thing that I used to do (Develop film? Catch a movie? Get enough sleep? Forget about it!)  All these have taken a back seat for the time being. This goes without saying, but having a baby changes everything.

I'm not complaining though. When he rewards us with such a smile, everything is worth it. In fact my wife was saying that he's growing so fast that she regrets that we can't spend more time with him because of work. That makes every second we spend with him that much more precious, even if it's watching him sleep.

Hacking The DX Coding On The Film Canisters

Mom: So is there anything you'd like me to bring over when I visit?
Me: Hmm, ya. Whatever happened to my old film camera?

So she searched around the house and found this.

My old Olympus Mju-II. This camera accompanied me through my college and uni years and to many places in Europe. It's a reliable old friend. There was one problem with it though, it automatically sets the ISO based on the DX coding on the film canister. That may be alright for normal photography but a massive inconvenience when shooting with redscale or black and white films.

So how to get around this?

Changing from 400 to 1600

Fool the camera by changing the DX coding. The film at the bottom is at normal 400 speed and the film at the top has had its paint scratched so the camera reads it as a 1600 film instead. Probably the best thing about this is that the Olympus is such an easy camera to handle that I can be in the pictures more often.

With available window light and spot metering on the Mju-II

Darkroom Fun

Following up from my last post, I tried my hand at developing my own black and white film. The very first time, I had a few issues to iron out, like getting all the chemicals at the right temperature (20 deg c) before starting. I tried putting ice in a basin but it wasn't getting anywhere near that figure, so I just stuck them all in a freezer till it dropped. Thanks to the timer from the Massive Dev Chart App on the iPhone, once everything starts, it's pretty easy. I took a shot of my setup and here it is.

I've done 3 rolls so far with 2 different type of films and the results vary quite a bit. I think I may have been a bit overenthusiastic in agitating the chemicals in one of the sessions but I'll know more after many more trials and errors.

He's wearing a 'I love mum' shirt... -.-

This last film with Delta 3200 - oh the grain!

Thankfully there are many things to shoot these days. Cyrus is growing really fast and looks different everyday.

Now there have been people who have been saying that Cyrus looks more like his mom and yes, if you look at the shots above, you can see the similarities with the nose and the chin. But if you look at him from another angle, you will see that he looks EXACTLY like me.

Huhuh! Thanks for such great hair dad!

A New Family Member

... and one that doesn't need to be stored in the dry cabinet too! We welcomed the arrival of our baby boy, Cyrus, last week with much joy and relief. It's been a long journey for my wife and I, one in which we've faithfully recorded daily in a journal.

One day I will hand it over to him so he will know the ups and downs we've been through together and the many sacrifices made by his mother, but until then, I've got some words for you Cyrus. Think of it as an instruction manual for inheriting your new set of genes, though I can only speak for my part... So let's start off with the not so good news first.

1) Acne/Pimples

Yup, truly sorry about this. I wish I didn't have to pass this on to you. If you wonder why you don't see any of daddy's pics on the day you were born, it's partially due to the fact that I was the one behind the camera. I had a bad outbreak prior to your birth and didn't want that to be immortalized.

I know what you're thinking and hoping desperately for, 'Mom has such flawless skin! So maybe my skin takes after her!' Don't get your hopes up too high, it's a dominant gene. How do I know this? My mom (your grandma) has flawless skin too and she told me she's never had a single pimple, but not my dad (your grandpa). Unfortunately my sisters and I had none of the 'flawlessness' our mom had and had to go through our teenage years 'dermatologically challenged'. So you have around 13 years or so to enjoy baby smooth skin, but hey, thank God you've got pharmacists as parents eh?

2) Facial Hair (or lack of)

Nothing I can do to help you out here... I've looked at the male relatives from your mom's side and the prospects aren't that fantastic either. Clean-shaven all the way then... I don't know if it works but you may want to try finding a hairy wife? Looking at the bright side you'll save a lot of time from all the shaving that you don't need to do.

3) White Hair

Late 20's ... but it doesn't really bother me one bit.

Despite all the flaws, you'll be inheriting my wit, charm and sense of humor. That will be more than enough to see you through whatever life may throw at you. Welcome to the family son!

Antenatal Class at Hospital Likas

We attended an antenatal class at Hospital Likas last Saturday. Someone suggested it to us, my wife did some asking around and we were told to be there for the registration at 8.30am.

There were quite a lot of people present already and the morning started off with a tour of the facilities, the labour wards and the delivery room. We then adjourned to a hall where they delivered a series of lectures.

First time parents get priority with the Dum-By (Dummy Baby)

Topics included pregnancy and complications, an introduction to painkillers during delivery (including epidural), medicines to avoid during pregnancy, breastfeeding and some hands on tutorial sessions with the nurses.

The practical sessions were what we found most useful, particularly the handling and bathing of the baby. The nurses were very experienced (most of them being mothers themselves) and walked around supervising as we listened to the instructor.

Its quite daunting sometimes when I think that I'm going to be a parent soon. On one hand I'm very excited but on the other there is some nervousness as to how things are going to turn out and whether I'm prepared for it. But one thing I'm sure of is that I'm grateful for all the advice and support given to us so far from many experienced hands.