One Flew Over the Beach in Capetown, South Africa

This morning I posted a few photos of wildlife from the Kruger National Park in South Africa after going through some photos I had left unpublished.

Among these were also photos from Cape Town. One photo has a special place in my memories of that town – I was taking photos of folks on the beach with a Minolta Autocord medium format TLR camera. The 80mm lens is fixed so all photos had to be taken from a close proximity.

In order to not identify people, which is always a challenge to a street photographer, decided to take contre-jour shots thus having the sun behind the subject hence leaving their faces obscured. I took a few, but nothing special. Then I saw this couple having lunch sitting on the grass near the beach and from the side of my eye saw a lady selling hats. She was dressed in traditional African clothing and wearing a straw hat advertising her merchandise.  I focused a meter or so behind the lunching couple and waited. Sometimes one has to anticipate scenarios based on the environment and hope that the one clicking chance he has to capture the scene will be timed just right.

So, the hat lady passed exactly behind the couple as I expected. And I thought I clicked just at the right moment.

When I developed the film, I saw a strange shadow above the hat selling lady’s head. Intrigued, I decided to print that frame even though there seemed nothing very special in the captured moment.

To my surprise, my timing for depressing the shutter had been better than I anticipated. Obviously a pigeon flew over the scene at that very moment and I did not notice it. Here is the cropped and enlarged unanticipated inclusion to the otherwise well choreographed scene I had organized:

Now this otherwise pedestrian photo had that je ne sais quoi that makes street photography so unpredictable and sometimes because of that, delightful.

September 26, 2019

©Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019

When Hairy Met Silly in Kruger National Park, South Africa

It rained all night and the mountains now are floating in a sea of frothy fog. For a minute one may think about the Japanese paintings where fog lets each viewer understand nature according to past experiences.

When I stay home, I paint, write or search my photography files for that photo I missed to use or did not appreciate enough. All my photos are printed under my 1950s enlarger, and then scanned.  So I do not have to look through interminable numbers of shoeboxes as I once did…

… I came across a thick envelope containing 8x10 photos from South Africa and Zimbabwe. I have posted many of them in various entries about these countries, but found a few that I had not.

So, here is a couple from Kruger National Park in South Africa.

To start, I have to say that while all going through the park had digital wonder cameras with lenses that can capture the smile of a flea on a sleeping lion’s nose; I took with me my 1960s Mamiya 645 medium format camera and its 90mm lens. As a backup, I had a 1954 Canon L3 rangefinder 35mm camera which I enjoy using more than any Leica of the same era.

Ok, so we were in an open safari car looking for a leopard. Of course these magnificent animals hide in the tall trees, and even if our guide would spot a leopard, my lenses would take a photo of the tree only. All the wonder cameras with unlimited storage of pictures would win the photo shoot by zooming across a 100 or so meters.

We drove for a while without seeing a leopard. But we saw a tick-covered male lion sleeping at the side of the road:

And groups of gazelles filling the fields by the thousand:

Our guide told us that they call these gracious animals “Mc Donald Fast Food” for the lions…

We were about to finished our morning tour when a handsome male lion came out of the forest. He seemed oblivious to us and the two cars that made our caravan. He was a few meters behind our car when I took this photo

The slapping mirror sound of my Mamiya made our guide forbid me to use that camera! He was worried that the lion would be intrigued by the sound and jump into our totally open car… (Of course, I never understood why they cannot have cars with minimal protection for the passengers). So I used the Canon rangefinder for the next shots.

The male lion sniffed the air toward the forest from where he came out. Then a magnificent lioness appeared with that feline walk that would turn anyone’s head.

And it did. Very quickly, the lion and lioness engaged in an amorous tandem exercise just a few meters from our car (photo at the top of this entry). I have to admit that while it may not be unusual for them to do so, witnessing the king and queen of the jungle so intimately was a once in a lifetime experience for us, the humans sitting in an open car peeping on the love making of the strongest cats in the world!

… And then, as if to tease us pudic and prude humans who think of J.J Rousseau as being too close to nature, the content lioness laid on her side next to the king of the jungle for a short post-coital nap.

The look of the lion is almost anthropomorphic – it is kind, caring and proud!

So, as a street photographer this series does not fit into my portfolio, but I thought it captures a behavior many on the streets I have met across the globe would identify with.

And would give a high five to the Lion and Lioness!

I ended the day with a salute.

September 26, 2019

©Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019

A Lonesome Walk in a Desert Cemetery

 I woke up in the dark of the night from the smell of burning wood smoke. It is fire season in the desert and the dried brush catches fire quickly. I knew the fire was a few miles away, given the minimal smoke that had reached our house.  Yet, half-asleep, I was overwhelmed with the scent of burning cedar. Of course it was from the cedar/pine family trees and junipers that had been touched by the brush fire.

And in a short moment, I relived moments in churches and cemeteries where such incense was burned.

Then I went back to sleep.

Early in the morning, and perhaps directed by my sub-conscience, I decided to take my dog for a walk in a nearby cemetery. I also took with me my old 1969 Nikon F, knowing that taking any photo while walking a 50 kg two-year old Akita on a leash is near impossible, especially when one has to set the aperture, and focus holding the camera with both hands…

Here is the entrance of the cemetery, my camera, and the sneaking head of my dog behind the structure:

I was wondering how the gravesides were organized, kept or forgotten. The strong sun, the sand, the drought of the land do not allow for any plants, trees or grass. It is sand and rocks upon those who were remembered by a gravestone, a cross or a simple plate.

I wanted to capture some of these characteristics, hoping that I can stop my dog from chasing lizards so I have a split second to focus and click.

Many of the grave sites were affected by the passage of time, loneliness perhaps, and the winds full of sand. There also were large numbers of hoof prints in the cemetery attesting to the fact that peccary and deer had made this secluded space their own.

Here is one that had stood the passage of all elements and perhaps feelings. Angels still standing upright:

While a nearby plot had been taken over by Prickly Pear cactus, the most prolific type of cactus in the high desert:

I tried to not identify the names on the gravestones for privacy consideration. Some photos have partially recognizable inscriptions, though. Here is one where I found a cap upon the stone. The hat has been weathered and given the lack of water/rain and the very dry weather materials do not rot or decompose as in more temperate climates. So this cap could have been there for many years.

I came across, after being pulled by my dog that sniffed fresh tracks of deer, to a humble grave surrounded by small rocks that were painted. It was a personalized grave site, and the stones had faces and profiles of Native American young men.  This was the only grave site I saw there with such an arrangement.

Finally, the most intriguing were the sites where the names on the plate or erected stones were mostly unintelligible and the cross was broken, or more recently replaced by two pieces of wood tied en guise of a cross.

Here is one example

And another that had a haunting appearance when I printed the frame:

… My dog was panting from all the running around and pouncing upon lizards that he never caught up with. The sun was getting already hot and it was time to return.

As I was walking slowly next to him, I kept on wondering why the dead would have a grave if few get visited.

And, as if the lizards that escaped a big dog, I realized that graves are for the living, not the dead.

PS/ Since I only scan my prints from negative strips, any blurring of "special effects" have to be done during the printing under the enlarger. I use a 1960's simple enlarger that has a Leica 39 lens screw type. That means that any Leica type 39 mm lens will be adaptable to the enlarger, even if these are camera lenses and not enlarger lenses. The difference is that enlarger lenses are flat field, meaning there is no aberration in the corners of the photo when printed. Camera lenses are not flat field but the front lens is convex. This means that all kinds of aberrations can happen when printing a photo! And I like that surprise dimension as I may get flare, soft/off focus spots, and uneven light distribution.

Here is what I did to have these effects on the above photos: I used a 1960s Soviet camera lens, A Jupiter -3, as an enlarger lens. I never liked the unpredictability of this lens when used to take pictures, but sometimes it surprises me with its "creativity" while printing the negatives!

September 13, 2019

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019

Singapore, Almost Twenty Years Later

 It has been years since I had heard from a colleague in Singapore. I was amazed that he was able to track me down.

“One of your books popped up from under the pile of papers on my desk” he said. “I thought I should see how you are doing old bloke.”

.. I was in Singapore first in 2001 working with the Ministry of Health in restructuring the delivery of medical services. I was amazed to realize that there were no suburbs, no mountains, and no outdoors. The entire country was just a city, that of Singapore.

“Many of the colleagues you knew are still here and working on old topics,” he wrote. “Before I decided to write to you I let them know and they send their hello. We also talked about when you were here at the outbreak of SARS in 2003. You remember?”

Of course I do. As an epidemiologist it was quite an experience. Every morning I went to a special center to get my temperature taken. Then I got a sticker, valid for the next 24 hours, stating that I did not have a fever. I had to wear that sticker on my shirt visibly, if not I would have been pulled off the street for test and observation!

The surveillance was not on individuals as such, but truly the entire population as it was at risk for the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Given the small size of the city (and the entire country being only a city) a clever approach was adopted for immediate surveillance. Indeed, all the large screens on Orchard Road were transformed to heat seeking tactical display centers. The thousands of people that walked that main artery were scanned for body heat, and one could see a red spot on the large screen (like the ones in Times Square, NYC) indicating a person with possibly high temperature.

It was a very active screening by the Ministry of Health and the potential spread and ravage of SARS was contained very effectively.

“Yes, I do,” I replied. “I visited Singapore possibly ten times till 2008, and have many fond memories of your country, the research we did together and your hospitality.”

“You will not recognize Singapore if you return,” he continued, “We are expanding the city into the ocean by building new land. People are different too – I think they are more cautious. But I recall you fancied Emerald Hill Road, and that has not changed much” he ended.

… Of course all this made me wonder if there are photos on those rolls of film that I have not printed. I know there are because I have printed only the better shots over the years.

But now, perhaps I have some that captured the “old” Singapore! So, I went to look for 35mm negatives from almost 20 years ago.

I know I have more in other shoe boxes, somewhere. But I did find a few strips with frames I vaguely recall taking and for sure of not having seen them printed on paper.

So, decided to take a trip on memory lane in the darkness of my darkroom.

The Armenian Apostolic Church of St. Gregory the Illuminator (circa 1839) and its cemetery: The first time I visited Singapore I was surprised by the Armenian immigrants’ story to this tiny country. In short, Armenians arrived in Singapore in 1819 with Sir Stamford Raffles who made Singapore a prominent commerce port.

I have taken many photos of the church, gravestones and cemetery statues. Perhaps one day I will get the courage to print all the negatives I have instead of picking one or two shots that are well composed. I have posted some here (https://liveingray.blogspot.com/2017/01/aesthetics-that-tell-story-fluidity-of.html) and here (https://liveingray.blogspot.com/2017/11/armenian-diaspora-salmon-syndrome.html).

But there are many others, mostly taken with an OM-1, which are less than perfect. So, now I decided to publish them in this entry as they may perhaps show some change over the past 20 years.

Here is one I like – the cemetery and a young woman bent over a grave stone. The light flare due to the unhooded lens (I presume) makes it actually quite charming.

In the above links I had already written about Agnes Joaquim (Hovakimian), born in Singapore on April 7 1853, and who hybridized an orchid which in 1981 was designated the national flower of Singapore now called Vanda Miss Joaquim.  Looking through my negatives I believe that I have her father’s gravestone:  

I can only partially read the writing since the stone and its carved face have sank into the dirt. It is inscribed in Armenian and what I can read states:

“Gravestone of Mr. Parsegh Hovakimian, a merchant of good reputation who at age 54…”

I assume he is the father of Agnes as she is also buried there. And, as the stones slowly sink into the ground, at some point in the future they would be engulfed in dirt and no one will know who was buried there....

The passage of time also affects the statues, especially my favorite limestone statue in the cemetery. Time and the tropical rains have already taken a toll on the stone, but I visited it on every trip I took to Singapore as if it were a memorial statue upon the grave of a family member. There is grace, charm, pain and hope in her posture and face.

This time, I found a poorly focused shot of the statue where the inscription on the pedestal is showing.

Unfortunately I can hardly read the first two lines, and I thought the inscription was from the Bible. I sent the photo to a friend who was able to read the entire inscription as:

“Our loss is infinite
More dear than life itself
And life without him (her?)

Is akin to a thousand deaths”

He also specified that these lines are about the person buried under the statue and not borrowed from the Bible.

Also, while the statue shows a woman in mourning, it is not possible without knowing the name of the deceased to know if it was a man or a woman since Armenian language is gender neutral.

The crowded streets of Singapore: I am not sure if this is Orchard, but I like the reflections in the glass captured by this shot. Of course I was laughing at the “House of Condom” sign next to the MC Donald….

This photo made me smile. I assume I took it as a play on the relationship between the Registries of Marriage sign and the young men and women who are walking away from it. 

And then I found a frame of classy lady window shopping. For me, the attitude and attire of this woman is typically Singaporean, as I have not seen it in Malaysia, China, Taiwan, Indonesia or Japan.

And, I believe that it was maybe around 2001 when French cheese and bread shops opened in Singapore. I may be wrong, but I recall that on a trip in 2002 I was told that now I can have French bread instead of noodles..!! My friends knew about my inclination to favor French bread over other forms and sources of starch...

So, I was delighted to see this frame which of course I do not recall shooting:

So, I chose these frames to print with my enlarger in my darkroom. It was a trip back in time, but delightful as always. There are of course many more on those negatives’ strips that I may tackle one day.

But I cannot wrap up this entry without this shot:

Truly, I have no idea, but I think these are three roasted piglets in trays given the anatomical features of the one at the far right.

And I recalled, after almost 20 years of not thinking about it, that, at each visit, I used to go to a fish eatery with a friend to eat fish head. Yes, only the heads of very large fish that made a delightful dinner. I recall ordering these with Indian, Chinese or Malaysian spices and picking the meat, skin and connective tissue with chopsticks. 

What a delight it was to cool our mouth with Tiger beer during dinner.

August 26, 2019

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019

When a 1970's Salyut S Medium Camera Returns to Life

My hope is in the daily appreciation of what I had appreciated before. New feelings or feelings of new discoveries have never taken the lead in my celebrating the joy of being in company with the quotidian.

So I bought a broken 1970s Soviet Salyut S medium format camera for sentimental reasons. I have used one before and wanted to hear that all-bronze curtain slam again with each tripping of the shutter.

A bronze curtain made behind the Iron Curtain…

Actually, these cameras are not difficult to fix if the problem is “frozen gear” rather than “broken gear”. All it takes is patience, lighter fluid, cotton swabs, and luck. I have brought many a mechanical camera to life again with a good clean of the hardened, glue-like lubricants that have self-petrified after decades of non-use.

The Salyut has a special history as it is said that all the pieces (steel, leather and bronze) were hand fitted and adjusted in the 1970s. It is also a remote relative of the Swedish-made Hasselblad a classic professional camera that often costs more than the car I drive. But most interestingly, the Salyut had 3 original lenses only – a 90mm, a 150mm and a super wide 30mm that looked like a military weapon and weighed about 2 kg… In addition of being crude in their functioning, these lenses had the most amazing background blurring ability I have seen in the hundreds of lenses I owned and used. The background (called bokeh) is often harsh, contrasty and like a Rorschach ink blot page…

So, I worked on the camera for a week or so and felt like it was working predictably to test it with a roll of 120mm B&W film. The most “expected” problem with these cameras is the spacing of the frames on the negatives – they usually either overlap (bad film holders) or are erratically spaced. That of course can be discovered only after developing the roll of film.

I finished the twelve 6x6 frame shots one can take on a 120mm film with this camera and rushed to develop the roll. After more than 50 years, I still get excited with the unknown associated with looking at a wet strip of freshly developed film holding it to a red light.

I was pleased – the spacing between the frames was very consistent, and the speed/diaphragm combination seemed to have yielded bright frames with the f2.8 90mm Vega lens. The photo shown at the outset was taken at 1/125 sec and f8, still showing strange background shapes even when stepped down. 

I am eager to try it with the 150mm Kaleinar and 30mm Arsat lenses soon.

August 9, 2019

©Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019

National Cowboy Day in Prescott, AZ

It seems like almost every day is a cowboy day in this town. So I do not walk around with my camera as much as I used to do when living in cosmopolitan cities in the US or overseas.

But a month ago I saw a 1969 Miranda Sensorex camera in an antique store and decided to add it to my collection since I had never found one that worked reliably in the past and stayed away from collecting cameras that do not work.

This time I could not resist since the store owner said that it was broken and was selling it as a display piece for very little money. I looked inside the camera and it was pristine, so decided that maybe I can find the problem as it was not used much.

While the rainy season was raging outside with heavy downpours, winds and thunder, I spent a couple of weeks looking at the Miranda repair diagrams online. Since I have repaired mechanical cameras for the past 35 years, I was able to trip the stuck shutter and lubricate the lens blades. After some scraping and acetone rubbing, the terminals of the light meter came back to life, and I was eager to try the massive f1.4 lens.

The photo above is a typical example of street photography. This couple walked toward me but taking a photo of them face-on is intrusive. So I waited till they passed, then turned and as I was depressing the shutter, he put his hand on her shoulder. Just for a second and off again.

I was able to capture that tender moment, and was please with the performance of the lens.

July 28, 2019

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019

The 4th of July 2019 in a Cowboy Town

Prescott Arizona loves its identity as the birthplace of the first Rodeo, the town where everyone belongs, and the freedom the high mountains and vast skies offer to those who want to be part of nature.

I took my 1970s Olympus OM-1 and same age Tokina 28-210mm zoom lens. As always, I was looking for a few moments that represent what I see so charming in this city and its people.

Yes, the horses were well trained and behaved, but somehow some of the riders decided to be in the saddle in rather eclectic ways...

I could not resist taking a few shots of women's best friend either:

Finally, my favorite shot ended up being this one: the fire hose spraying water to cool out the road and a young woman giving out ice-cold Pepsi for free. Sure, it is good advertisement, but what a wonderful change from the days when cowgirls used to give free cigarettes to the parade attendees!

Plus, this photo has all the tonal range and imperfections that only film can give and that I left untouched while scanning.

July 2, 2019

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019