Flower blooming in winter | Mitaka, Japan 2012 This was taken with Leica 50mm Summicron and NEX 5N, along with Hawk’s helicoid adaptor for reducing the minimum focussing distance of the rangefinder coupled Summicron to more usable distances. I love how this lens renders such creamy and painterly bokeh, and very glad that its seeing much more use now with my NEX 5N than it ever did with my Leica M7. See my other photos of Japan! High-res

Flower blooming in winter | Mitaka, Japan 2012

pic leica 50 summicronThis was taken with Leica 50mm Summicron and NEX 5N, along with Hawk’s helicoid adaptor for reducing the minimum focussing distance of the rangefinder coupled Summicron to more usable distances. I love how this lens renders such creamy and painterly bokeh, and very glad that its seeing much more use now with my NEX 5N than it ever did with my Leica M7.

See my other photos of Japan!

The Illusionist: A Stunning Portrait of Scotland

the illusionist edinburgh hills

I have just finished watching Sylvian Chomet’s The Illusionist on DVD and it is a beautiful beautiful film. Set mostly in Edinburgh and the Scottish Isles (with a bit of London and France), the lush hand drawn and painted sets were such a welcome break from the 3D souless perfection of Disney and Pixar.

Having visited Edinburgh and the Scottish Isles about 10 years ago, and having lived in London for close to 9 years, watching The Illusionist brought back a rush of memories, it was like a romanticised version of reality, but at the same time, gritty and authentic (it was constantly raining in London and Scotland in the film). Each gorgeous frame of the movie could have been a painting.

the illusionist scottish isles port

The Illusionist is based on an unproduced script written by a French mime, director and actor Jacques Tati in 1956, intended as a personal letter to his estranged eldest daughter. A quiet film with hardly any dialogue, The Illusionist is the story of a down-on-his-luck illusionist and his fatherly relationship with a ‘daughter’, set mostly amidst the the backdrop of beautiful and at times moody Edinburgh.

If you haven’t yet watched it, I would urge you to do so.

The-Illusionist-Scottish-Isles-boat

The-Illusionist-Edinburgh-shopfront

The-Illusionist-Edinburgh-night

The-Illusionist-Edinburgh-street

The-Illusionist-Edinburgh-train-station

The-Illusionist-Scottish-Isles-car

The-Illusionist-Edinburgh-panorama

Songs of the South Pacific, a welcome from Fiji.

Fijians just have a knack for music, they are without doubt one of the most naturally musically-inclined people I have met (Filipinos are pretty high up in the list as well). Everywhere we went, there was music. At dinner, someone would be strumming the guitar in the corner, in a queue, someone would be humming a tune to themselves, at church, the singing was glorious, and the congregation would be in full belt. Music seems to be fundamental pillar of Fijian life and culture.

This duo were singing at breakfast at the Sofitel and I asked if they would mind doing a rendition for me by the beach and they were more than happy to. I don’t know what the exact title of the song is but I call it ‘The Bula Song’.

*Bula, which literally means ‘life’, is a a word imbued with a variety of meanings, chiefly, ‘hello’ or ‘welcome’.

Check out the aerial photos of Fiji and the rest of the Fiji series.