PyeongChang 2018 | We Went to the Olympics!

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Snapshots of January

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Khao Lak | Thai Street Food

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Khao Lak | MaMa’s Greeting Bar & Restaurant

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Khao Lak | Bang Niang, Outdoor Market, & Tropical Fruit

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Khao Lak | Hiking Trail to Ton Chong Fa Waterfall

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Khao Lak | Ao Thong Beach Bungalows

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Phuket | Weekend Night Market (Naka Market)

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Phuket | Monkey Cave Temple | Wat Tham Suwan Khuha

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Phuket | Phang Nga Bay & James Bond Island

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travel

book club

korea

SUPER 8

fingers crossed

Posted on February 4, 2010

I’m meeting a guy at starbucks this weekend to check out a potential super-8 camera match. $200 cash. Hope it works out so I can get the show on the road.

As I’m learning, all cameras are not created equal–with the discontinuation of kodachrome, most people have transitioned into ektachrome (which can be bought from most film/camera places, and developed anywhere).  Using ektachrome, a newer type of film, in older cameras, like, say, my dad’s old kodak, usually results in a strange light effect. In nicer cameras, like the one I hope to buy this saturday, it works without any light adjustments.

Hopefully by next week, I’ll have a working camera on my hands.

Have I mentioned how much I hate ebay?

SUPER 8

Win / Lose

Posted on February 3, 2010

I placed a bid on a canon xl814 via ebay, only to be sniped the last minute. With all the shipping costs, it was just too expensive.

Alternately, I found 2 cameras on shopgoodwill.com that I won (they were auctioned together). One is a GAF that sells on ebay for about $1 – $11The other is the camera I really wanted: A Canon 514 XL

Again, I don\’t know if it will work either. At $38 for both, including shipping, I figured it was worth the risk that at least one would function and spin the reel of film I have.

Keeping my fingers crossed, but still continuing the search.

SUPER 8

Time of Death: February 2, 2010, 20:30 PST

Posted on February 2, 2010

More work hours spent googling, convincing myself that it was the connection; that soldering would fix it.I carefully took the camera apart tonight, trying to understand the mechanism, and also to clean any remaining corrosion from the battery area. In the process, I accidentally dropped a tiny screw into the body of the camera. Fuck. I shook the camera gently. Then a little more aggressively. Then almost threw the thing against the wall when it wouldn’t come out, but taunted me with the sound of metal scraping against the lens. Finally: success.And then I noticed something else, something I didn’t want to see–a piece of a cog.Double fuck.One of the gears is broken, which is the reason why the motor runs, but the spool doesn’t advance.Disheartened, I put everything back the way it was and set it back in its box.And then I found this, folded and pressed into one of the compartments of the original camera box:

I had never noticed it there before.

They are tickets from a tour my mom and dad took to (as the ticket stubs state) The Eagles Nest. I wonder if there is accompanying video.

And just like that, just as I felt defeated and about to give up, this discovery feels like both a punch in the sentimental gut, as well as a gentle push forward. Like Dad (or maybe the camera gods, for once) are telling me to keep going, keep searching, keep finding + uncovering bits and pieces of the past that will make it all worth while.

I’m not giving up on this camera just yet. I’m going to fix it one way or another.

SUPER 8

Frustrating

Posted on February 2, 2010

It’s already February, and no progress has been made. I tried replacing the batteries of my kodak, cleaning the contacts again, trying to rig a ghetto contact using tinfoil (stupid idea), and then finally googling to see if I could problem solve this.I wish my dad were here.He would have known exactly what to do to fix this. I’m sure it’s something simple, I just don’t know enough about electronics or super 8 cameras to know how to identify the problem.But he’s not here, and I have to figure this out by myself, which has been frustrating. After doing some more research, I think that the problem is that one of the battery contacts is not contacting with the battery, so the camera is getting power to run the motor, but not enough to spin the reel.I purchased a soldering iron kit today:

Oddly enough, one of my most distinct memories of my dad is of him toiling hunched over at the kitchen table with a magnifying glass stand w/alligator clips, and a soldering iron, listening to his old, 1970s radio.

From my research, corroded batteries, and thus, corroded contacts, seems to be a very common issue with old cameras like these. I noticed that some people had been soldering the contacts in order to fix this. Hopefully it works, although I have zero clue as to how to do this. All I know is that the hot pen tip of the soldering iron melts metal onto a designated location. Fingers crossed.In the meantime, I’m moving forward. I’ve begun scouring ebay for a replacement camera (exact match as the one I currently have), as well as a canon 814, which I’ve read is a reliable mid-priced camera. I’m extremely curious about a stop-motion animation function on the canons–something I experimented in the past, but have always wanted to do beyond this year of kodachrome documentation.To do this weekend:

  • drop off some of dad’s film at the local film-to-dvd place (the goal is to develop a batch, then also try and set up my own system for re-recording film. I’ll get into this later)
  • scan some of dad’s old slides
  • purchase kodachrome film on ebay
  • try and solder the battery contacts

Kind of ambitious for a weekend. I need to make up for lost time.

SUPER 8

Minor Setback

Posted on January 25, 2010

On the plus side: I received my manual. A tiny little thing that doesn’t offer much information.

On the negative side: I realized this weekend that I had been filming…nothing. No film cartridge in the carriage, and this after taking what I thought would be great footage on our trip to Angel Island–with me and Sly waving at the camera like idiots.I read that 50ft of film produces about a 3 min. or so movie. It seemed like a lot longer than 3 minutes, so I became suspicious. I took a closer look at my camera, checking out the functions, trying to get the thing to zoom again. Then I noticed a gauge on the side of the camera that read “0…34…12…14”  Then it dawned on me what that meant: that was a film indicator letting me know how much film was left in the cartridge. I took a closer look: didn’t seem to be any film in the camera…Only one way to know for sure: open the back and check.

I read that exposing the film would only expose several frames, not the entire cartridge, so I took the risk. Sure enough, it was empty.I popped in my reel of 1987 dated film and pushed “record.” I heard the sound that indicated that something was working, but it didn’t seem as if the film advanced at all. I took the film out, marked it, put it back in, tried the button again. It made the same noise. I took the film back out, and the film hadn’t advanced at all. Bummer.

My options are to try and see if this camera is reparable, or purchase another one. If I purchase a new one, I need to decide if it will be the same camera, or something different. Still not sure.On the positive: while reading the dinky manual on the BART ride to work, I read that sometimes when the camera makes a sound, but doesn’t advance the film, it could have something to do wthe batteries.

Tonight, I’ll try replacing the batteries, and ensuring they are correctly in place.Another question: what happened to the film reel of my brother’s first day of school?’

SUPER 8

The Kodak XL350 Super 8 camera

Posted on January 22, 2010

I spent a weekend fidgeting with my dad’s Kodak XL350 Super 8mm. It has been boxed up, unused, for over 20 years, as far as I can tell. The last (and actually, only) time I can recall Dad using the thing was on my brother’s first day of school. I remember because my dad said, “This thing still works, just no sound,”  which, at the time, sounded like the stupidest thing ever. A camera with no sound? Why bother. Then the camera disappeared.  I rediscovered it shortly after my dad died, along with a huge box of developed super 8 film and Kodachrome slides.

I think the reel of film from my brother’s first day of school (he’s now 26) is still in the camera.Unfortunately, the manual did not survive the years (totally unlike my dad, who still has the receipt of purchase stapled inside the camera box–$117, purchased in 1977 at an Army exchange). I spent the weekend figuring out how to operate the thing, wondering if it had film, etc.The first step was replacing the corroded batteries, and cleaning the contacts. I hope(d) that the contacts hadn’t corroded along with the batteries.

With fresh fuel, I pushed what I thought was the “record” button. It made a noise.

A light flicked on.

Then it stopped.

I tried it again.

Nothing.

After fiddling with all the switches and buttons, and trying to operate the zoom (the automation for the zoom seems to be broken, but seems as if can be done manually), the noise came on again. I started filming.I have no idea if they mysterious sound means it was filming, or if its operating some gears without filming. I ran the thing for about a minute or less. If it *is* running, I’m not sure how to determine when the reel is empty. And when the reel is empty, I’m not sure how to replace it.Since then, I have located an original manual from Camerabooks. At $20 including shipping, the manual is worth more than my camera’s going rate on ebay.

Included in the camera box is an expired (dated 1987) reel of kodachrome. I plan on testing it this weekend at Angel Island, providing my camera is actually working. After that reel, it looks like I’ll be scouring ebay for out-of-date kodachrome to last me the year

SUPER 8

my super 8 cameras

Posted on January 22, 2010

the fleet of cameras (will update with more details later):

Kodak XL-350
Description: Automatic zoom camera from late 1970s. My dad’s old camera that I found with his things after he passed away.
Original cost: $177
Current cost: $1.99-$24.99 on ebay. Rare to find any in working condition

GAF SC/100
Description: Manufactured in 1974-75. I don’t know much about this camera.
Original cost: $50-60
Current cost: $1-$11 on ebay. Purchased on shopgoodwill.com with another camera for $21 including shipping.

Canon 514 XL
Description: Manufactured in 1975. Compact mid-priced camera for it’s time. This camera can run ektachrome film.
Original cost: $?? On the link provided, it says it went for $57,500 yen originally, however, if you convert it at today’s currency exchange, that equates like $600. That seems like a crazy price to pay.
Current cost: $50-$100 on ebay. Purchased on shopgoodwill.com with the GAF camera for $21 including shipping.

Canon 1014 XL-S
Description: Manufactured in 1979-1982. Top of the line canon at the time — last line of super-8s produced prior to switching to tape. This model varies over the 814 in terms of size (considerably larger), and features (dissolve and fade functions are built in). This camera can run ektachrome film.
Original cost: $??
Current cost: $150-$700 depending on quality and accessories. I purchased mine off craigslist for $200. It’s in pristine condition.

MEMENTOS SUPER 8

About the Super 8 Project

Posted on January 4, 2010

dad's love letters to mom

But overcome space and all you have is here;
Overcome time and all you have is now.
And in the middle of here and now
Don’t you think we might see each other once or twice…

–Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Several months after my dad died I had a dream that I met him in his youth, at a time when he was serving in Vietnam. I saw him young and vibrant and full of laughter, ideas, hopes and dreams. I saw him the day he met my mom. They were having Vietnamese coffee on a sidewalk cafe, carefree, still alive in this strange parallel universe where life still existed and remained unwritten for them. I saw them in Kodachrome.

I discovered my dad’s super 8 mm camera in the trash can not long after. My mom had been blindly purging all of my dad’s things, yet somehow, the camera and I found each other. It reminded me that my dad had boxes of super 8 film and Kodachrome slides hiding in our house somewhere. I found them and took them home along with his old camera.

My goal is to spend this year unraveling and piecing together my dad’s life before I knew him, transferring his old videos and slides into digital format, and using his camera(s) to document my life in Kodachrome film — both super 8mm and 35mm. I have no experience with the Super 8 format, and there is very little information currently available, but I’m hoping to figure it out along the way. This is the final year that the sole surviving Kodachrome developing lab will be processing this film. After that, it will all be a memory.

2105 Hollywood Place is the house where my Dad grew up. Despite all his travels and relocations, he always considered it to be home. It seemed fitting that the videos and slides my dad took should ‘live’ here too. In a crazy way, I guess I think that at some point our lives on film will start to intersect somewhere in time and space and in the virtual world. In that way, we will meet again and exist together in this parallel universe/virtual world I dreamed about.

CALIFORNIA OUTDOORS

June Lake and Mono Lake

Posted on December 23, 2009

Another unplanned day on the road, this time, heading back North on 395 until we crossed over the Sierras, and headed back West to San Francisco.

We packed up and said goodbye to camp, and the lovely Bishop Creek, then headed to the nearby town of Bishop in search of coffee and breakfast.

We found Erick Schat’s dutch-themed (?) bakery

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