San Diego 2021 Pt. 2

This entry has been sitting in my drafts for months and I finally got around to finishing it. The last few weeks have been crazy trying to meet project deadlines at airports I've never worked at before. Lots and lots of late nights, but I can finally see the light.

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My second roll from San Diego was shot on Fuji 400h with the same gloomy condition as the Kodak Gold roll. When I got my scans back from the lab, I was surprised by the cyan cast all the shots had. I'd be lying if I said I didn't hate it. I've shot 400h before, and it did not look like this.

I knew 400h tends to be on the cooler side. I asked some friends who scan their own film if it was my shooting settings or environment that caused it. They agreed that the cyan was a little much. Apparently, it's up to the experience of the lab technician. I decided to do a comparison experiment and sent the processed film to the main lab I use.

Check out the comparison shots below. Honestly, some shots I preferred are from the first lab, and others, the second.

San Diego 2021 Pt. 1

My sister asked me to accompany her on a day trip to SD a few months back. The thing about day trips is that you end up spending more time in the car than the actual city. The thing about road trips with my sister is that she only has two modes - singing for hours at the top of her lungs, or dead asleep. Because of our early morning drive, she was dead asleep for this one. The traffic sucked, and I'm not a fan of the city - mostly due to a lack of interconnected public transport. The only times I visit San Diego is for my work Christmas party, the zoo & the annual Taco Festival ☺ This city does have great coffee shops, and is home to my favorite taco restaurant. It was pretty easy to decide to explore Balboa Park for a few hours while my sister met up with her friends.

I loaded Kodak Gold the night before and didn't care to check the weather assuming it would be sunny. Noting that I should probably make it a habit to check the weather. Unfortunately, sunny SD turned out to be overcast and gloomy. I decided to shoot it at box speed anyways and challenged myself to not use a light meter and test out the sunny 16 rule.

I could not get enough of the details and architecture of the buildings. So much Spanish influence, and my favorite feature were the courtyards. They reminded me of the courtyards I used to read at in Berkeley. The Botanical Building was the one place that I was looking forward to visiting - and it was closed lol. I'm coming back for a redo, San Diego!

Joshua Tree 2021 Pt. 2

Falling in love with the desert's colors.