“Hotel City” 2018. Ricoh GR1, Kentmere 400 developed in D76 Developer. There are so many hotels in this city! And so many beautiful hotels at that. This one is the Rizal Hotel near Manila Bay. I was very close to the building and despite having the GR-1 with its 28mm lens, I wish I had a wider lens. Yes, there is such a thing as not wide enough! 🙂
Manila, the bustling capital of the Philippines, is a fascinating, lively, and colorful place that in my opinion is better suited to color photography than it is for black and white photography.
“Mall Town” 2018. Ricoh GR1, Kentmere 400 developed in D76 Developer. Mall culture is alive and well in the Philippines. They love their malls! I hate to admit it, but I frequented many malls during my visit and they were all great. They take their malls seriously in Manila! 😊[[[[[[[[[[[[
With that in mind, I couldn’t help but take my Ricoh GR1 along for this recent trip.
Now you may or may not recall, but in the last post I mentioned bringing along two of the greatest point and shoot film cameras along for this trip.
I used those cameras with color film so that means the GR-1 was NOT one of those two cameras, despite the fact that it could easily be in that same list of “greatest.” So what does this mean? It means I hope you’ll stay tuned as I have more goodies and surprises coming your way!
This article will show some photos taken with the GR-1 and Kentmere 400 B&W film. I developed this roll in D76.
Looking back on the photos, I wished I had shot more than one roll with the GR-1. That’s the problem with taking too many cameras 😊 In fact, I could’ve easily used it as my only film camera and I would’ve been happy with that.
Here are just some photos from the trip. Not meant to be an artistic showcase, just the things I saw in Manila and some thoughts on them. Where I can, I will try to give you some commentary.
“Intramuros” 2018. Ricoh GR1, Kentmere 400 developed in D76 Developer. This is the famous walled city at the heart of old historic Manila. I shot this through a dirty window using both the iPhone X and the Ricoh GR1. I was surprised at how much detail came through from both! The detail here is really limited mostly due to the film grain when compared to the iPhone photos.
“SALE” 2018. Ricoh GR1, Kentmere 400 developed in D76 Developer. I love fashion photography but mannequins are as close as I usually get to fashion models 🙂
“BGC” 2018. Ricoh GR1, Kentmere 400 developed in D76 Developer. A scene from Manila’s vibrant “BGC” district, a hip financial and social center.
“Manila Floods” 2018. Ricoh GR1, Kentmere 400 developed in D76 Developer. It rained nearly every day of the two and a half weeks I spent there. They don’t call it the “rainy season” for nothing.
“OOMA Sushi” 2018. Ricoh GR1, Kentmere 400 developed in D76 Developer. Had a good meal here. Not sure why the man is smiling, but I certainly don’t know him! I just took a quick grab shot 🙂
“Lucban Church” 2018. Ricoh GR1, Kentmere 400 developed in D76 Developer. Heading out a couple of hours southeast from Manila, I visited the small municipality of Lucban in the province of Quezon where I saw this beautiful and historic church that dates back hundreds of years. This is the San Luis Obispo de Tolosa Parish Church otherwise know as “Lucban Church.”
“Free Fall” 2018. Ricoh GR1, Kentmere 400 developed in D76. Youngsters having fun at this man made waterfall at the Vila Escudero, a resort about an hour away from Metro Manila.
“Night Lights” 2018. Ricoh GR1, Kentmere 400 developed in D76 developer. The lights on the open air rooftop at the SM Aura mall in Manila. Considering this is ISO 400 film, I think the Ricoh GR1 did pretty good with this shot.
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Excellent photography as usual, Sam, and great technical and local notes. Thank for sharing, old friend.
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Thanks so much Buz! Always nice to hear from you! Hope all is well with you and yours my friend, I’ll be by soon!
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Hey Sam ! i love this wonderful series of BW images from Manila !
especially this Lucban Church that looks sooo beautiful
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Hey Victor I loved old structures like that Lucban Church! Nice to read your comments, thanks so much my friend! 😊
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its my pleasure to see your new works taken with a film cameas !
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Thanks Victor! Film is always in my heart even when f I sometimes get lazy and use my phone lol thanks again my friend! 😊
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Hey bro…love the retro look and the GR-1 delivers. I have an FF-90 which I really like. I guess it’s a precursor to the GR-1. I am very impressed with your darkroom work as well. Keep’m coming.
PS: believe it or not, it’s that time of year again! I’m registered.
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Hey Bro! Thanks a lot man and sorry for the late reply. At least you have a FF-90 that works! Hope you post pics with it. Hope to see you guys at the show man! 😊
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Bro….based on what you have posted, the FF-90 may be decent but not near the quality of the GR-1. Here is a sample: http://www.pbase.com/cato_fong/image/165690115/original
Yes, this year I hope you can make it down in time! 🙂 Rad and Fred are also registered.
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