Photo Gallery: A Weekend in Vientiane

Original post: A Weekend in Vientiane

I brought my little plastic toy camera with me to Laos last month. I shot a roll of Fuji Superia 400. This is the first roll of color film that I've shot with my Diana that I've been decently pleased with. Most of the pictures from this camera still look pretty odd, but in my opinion, it give it a bit of character. I'm pleased with the way that some of these photos came out.

I like the way the color of the saffron cloth of the umbrella and the red flowers stand out against their backgrounds. One of the problems with this camera is that it tends to let in too much light and wash out the colors a bit. It's a difficult problem, since there are only two aperture settings: sunny and cloudy, so it's hard to balance light and film speed.

Umbrella and Thorns

This is a pair of shots from Patuxai. The first is looking up at the ceiling. I really like how rich the colors of the ceiling turned out. The second one is from the top of Patuxai with Vientiane behind.

I mostly like this pair of pictures because it has Pinky and me together! We took these from the back of a tuk-tuk. This camera shoots in half-frame, meaning it shoots two pictures on each frame of film. It's hard to tell which pictures will end up being printed together, so I'm really happy that this one worked out!

In a tuktuk!

I just like this one, I don't know why. I like coffee and I like Baylor. Is that enough? This pair of pictures was from the second floor of a cafe on the main street in Vientiane. With the shadows and high contrast it's a bit noir-ey, even though it's in color... Is there a word for that? I don't have any idea.

coffee time!

The shops along the main street of Vientiane are mostly old, wooden, and charming. The second frame here was accidentally double-exposed; a monk's robe hung up to dry in the sun and a cute dog in front of one of the shops. Sometimes the camera's accidental double exposures ruin otherwise good shots, but sometimes they actually kind of work. This one, I like!

I was trying to experiment a little bit with colors. The saturation on the flag isn't as good as I had hoped, but it's ok. The tuk-tuks in Vientiane are super colorful, and I thought they might make for some good pictures.

I'll keep practicing! This camera is super finicky to use, but also really simplistic. There's not much to it, so it kind of forces you to just keep trying to get good pictures through trial and error. Anyway, it's really fun, and film is really cheap in Bangkok, so I'll keep playing with it.