It’s Polaroid Week again; this time, it’s occurring during the Autumn season! Other than portraying our usual snapshots, we thought of showing our readers not only the photos taken (& shared) during Polaroid Week, but also the “behind-the-scenes” moments! This week we trotted around Chinatown in Singapore (as we have done so on many occasions before!)
Some of these behind-the-scene photos were taken with our phone cameras. We decided to venture into the realm of Architecture Photography, and attempt to take some Polaroids of unique buildings found in Singapore!
Our gear of choice was the Mamiya Universal Press, coupled with the CB70 back (for Polaroid film), and two Mamiya Sekor lenses (50mm f/6.3 and 127mm f/4.7)! The wide angle 50mm f/6.3 lens has proven to be a very useful lens, capturing the entire facade of the building, whereas the 127mm f/4.7 lens came in handy to capturing close-up shots.
While choosing the venue, we decided on capturing the famous “Hong Kong”-ish building in Singapore, above the People’s Park Complex! Getting there is not difficult at all and is accessible to the public! Simply take the MRT train to Chinatown Station, take exit “C” and walk towards People’s Park Complex, take the lift to level 5, walk up to level 6, and voila!
Upon reaching the 6th floor, you will find LePak Cafe!Walking towards the car park and looking up, the facade of the building apartment is there for all to see! And if you look closely at the bottom, the orange netting points towards the sign “LEPAK” (in Malay, meaning “to chill”), we took a Polaroid of (shown later below).Autumn Polaroid Week Day 1, Image 1: Taken with Mamiya Universal Press, Sekor f/4.7 127mm lens, using Polaroid Original 600 Colour Film.Walking out towards the edge of the car park……we see this view! A nice juxtaposition of the low-rise shophouses amidst a backdrop of tall office buildings.
Autumn Polaroid Week Day 1, Image 2: Taken with Mamiya Universal Press, Sekor f/4.7 127mm lens, using Polaroid Original 600 Colour Film.Not to mention the street view, which continues to be awash in Chinese decorations (despite the fact that Chinese New Year is months away!)Autumn Polaroid Week Day 2, Image 1: Taken with Mamiya Universal Press, Sekor f/4.7 127mm lens, using Polaroid Original 600 Colour Film.Autumn Polaroid Week Day 2, Image 2: Taken with Mamiya Universal Press, Sekor f/4.7 127mm lens, using Polaroid Original 600 Colour Film.We have here an ultra wide angle view of the iconic building! The carpark is often left empty, so wandering around won’t be a problem (but do be careful nonetheless)!Autumn Polaroid Week Day 3, Image 1: Taken with Mamiya Universal Press, Sekor f/6.3 50mm lens, using Impossible Project Colour 600 White Frame Film.Autumn Polaroid Week Day 3, Image 2: Taken with Mamiya Universal Press, Sekor f/6.3 50mm lens, using Impossible Project Colour 600 White Frame Film.Using the ‘tele lens’ function on the iPhone, we spotted this winding street, which led us to take it with our Mamiya Universal Press!
Autumn Polaroid Week Day 4, Image 1: Taken with Mamiya Universal Press, Sekor f/6.3 50mm lens, using Impossible Project Colour 600 White Frame Film.Autumn Polaroid Week Day 4, Image 2: Taken with Mamiya Universal Press, Sekor f/6.3 50mm lens, using Impossible Project Colour 600 White Frame Film.Sandra framing her shot!Autumn Polaroid Week Day 5, Image 1: Taken with Mamiya Universal Press, Sekor f/6.3 50mm lens, using Impossible Project Colour 600 White Frame Film.We were surprised to find a Mobike (a bike-sharing app), and Damian quickly got on it and cycled around the massive, empty carpark! At the far left edge of the building, Damian got up to pose for a rather Titanic-ish photo…Autumn Polaroid Week Day 5, Image 2: Taken with Mamiya Universal Press, Sekor f/6.3 50mm lens, using Impossible Project Colour 600 White Frame Film.
Whilst exploring the parameters of the carpark, we noticed the symmetry of the columns at the back of the iconic buildings!
The rear of the apartments, which present winding staircases.
As the evening drew near, we decided to venture into Chinatown Point’s Car Park to capture this view:
Autumn Polaroid Week Day 6, Image 1: Taken with Mamiya Universal Press, Sekor f/6.3 50mm lens, using Impossible Project Colour 600 White Frame Film.
Sandra getting ready to compose her Polaroid shots!A ultra-wide angle of the public housing apartments (“HDBs”) surrounding the carpark.Autumn Polaroid Week Day 6, Image 2: Taken with Mamiya Universal Press, Sekor f/6.3 50mm lens, using Impossible Project Colour 600 White Frame Film.
This wraps up our photoshoot outing of our Polaroids shared during Polaroid Week!
It was fun to look for architectural shots of the buildings in Singapore; tips we read online included identifying leading lines, juxtaposition and so on. It brought out our minimalist skills, in taking simplistic photos!
Finally, we have had some observations about the recently released Polaroid Originals Film (PO Film) + Impossible Project Film (IP Film). We have noticed that the IP Film tends to produced blue-ish hues and our pictures thus were severely underexposed. Compared to the PO Film, the film chemistry produced very vibrant colours and we are very impressed with it!
Damian with Sandra 