The magic color of cross-processed Fujichrome Provia 100F Slide film

Film photography has one major disadvantage from digital photography that is: very limited frame count .

Usually, single roll of 35mm film takes 36 exposures and sometimes even less like 17 exposures. Think about how many pictures 4GB SD memory card can hold for your DSLR camera — at least 220 pictures even when you are shooting in RAW format — now think again, just 36 pictures? That’s barely enough to take the pictures of everyone getting excited at the airport even before leaving home!

Laugh at me if you wish, but this is the exact reason why I picked the film camera over digital camera for the Southeast Asia trip.

Why?

Well, if you know you only have 36 frames to capture the adventure of lifetime, then you will be more conscious about not wasting a frame for less interesting subject right?
After all, 10 rolls of film enabled me to shoot close to 320 photos so it allowed me to shoot ample amount of “second chances” to perfect some important scenes (cover photo at the top for example, this was pure result of bracketing).
When you become conscious to make each shot count, the limitation of frame count will not be disadvantage after all 🙂

Another reason why I went for film is because you don’t see how the pictures turned out until they get developed. It’s kind of nice to think there is some exciting prize to look forward to after the trip.
There is nothing more photographically rewarding than seeing your beautifully composed film photographs get printed on fine sheet of paper. It’s just whole different degree of awesomeness, and brings back traveling memories in fresh perspectives.

Taming film photography takes much practice and it can often be very frustrating (yep, all those blurry days and unexposed rolls…I will never forget them) but this is also why it often captures the slightest of moment in quite organic and surprising ways.
When the picture is taken at perfect exposure and timing, it sparks the magic.
I choose analog photography for that exact reason, and thrilled to see how each frame captured people’s life in Southeast Asia 🙂

First day in Southern Thailand was pretty much endless adrenalin rush from red eye flight and overwhelming excitement of free-spirited traveling!
Few hours after landing Suvarnabhumi Airport, I was already on the run to Don Mueang Airport — the original main international hub of Bangkok — to catch the earliest Air Asia flight down to Surat Thani.
Despite its reputation as budget airline, Air Asia offered above average service in my opinion. I used Air Asia multiple times during this trip and it has been quite pleasant experience (i.e., no luggage got lost, no major flight delay, sexy flight attendants).

On the road, I’ve met several long-term backpackers who strongly recommended me to travel the country by train and boat.
Apparently, it is much cheaper than catching the flight and you can also see the country side better — it sounded pretty awesome and I am definitely going to do that next time in Thailand. Unfortunately, land traveling tend to take very long time and it was not ideal for this 1-week adventure.
I did however ended up taking one night-train from Chiang Mai (North) to Bangkok during this trip, which was fun experience and really allowed me to see beautiful landscapes of the country — but it did took very long time to travel (10 hours on train as oppose to 1 and 1/2 hour flight).
So if you are traveling on tight schedule and considering to maximize your site-seeing time, flying is probably the wisest option.
One-way flight fare is around 27-50 USD for most domestic flights.

Just to share some experience with flight booking – If you are going to book the flights on Air Asia.com, make sure to set your currency display preference at the very first flight search page. Otherwise you won’t be able to change it until the last confirmation page!
Just like you will see on other budget airlines, booking page will prompt you to add extra luggage services and in-flight meal options. So you can add/subtract as needed. One thing, travel insurance is selected YES by default so unless you really want that to be included you have to manually detach it. This part can be little tricky.

Also another thing — beware of baggage weight limit!
Check the airline’s website ahead of time for baggage limitation and make sure to book the flight with good baggage option. If you don’t pay the fare in advance, it can cost you quite a bit of additional baht from your money pack at the check-in counter 🙁
Travel lean and minimize weight as possible. If you are traveling only with your TSA ok size carry on, you can easily get pass the weight limit policy. Make sure you print out the boarding pass ahead of time, or use the self check-in to avoid unnecessary yaddi-yadda at the airline’s service counter (which happened to my buddy, sadly).
If you absolutely need to check-in your non-carry on baggage, make sure to have your flight confirmation printout (or email on your smart devise) and present it to the agent. Again, make sure you get the right baggage option at the flight booking stage.
Remember, there’s always thorns in roses’ stem… and there are reasons why budget airlines can stay less expensive than the other airlines. Excessive weight fee is something you can avoid if you plan it ahead of time 🙂

After about 1 and 1/2 hour flight from Bangkok we touched down on Surat Thani and bought (1) shuttle tickets to boat station, and (2) speed boat ticket to Koh Phangan.
Shuttle service form the airport to boat dock was about 90km apart and it took another 1 and 1/2 hour drive to get there.
Southern Thailand was in perfect season with no sign of continuous rain or intolerable humidity…just many mosquitoes that apparently love certain people and hate certain people.
Rustic view of country road from the shuttle’s window was somehow reminiscent of countryside of Karuisawa in Japan, and brought me some nostalgia. Boat dock and the view of islands from the speed boat reminded me of some random scenes from Danny Boyle’s “The Beach”.
All of these were perfect views to burn on my 36 frames of Fujichrome Provia 100F.

I am big fan of Fuji slide film — particularly Fuji’s Provia series — it’s unfortunate they are bit pricy, but I really like their color and contrast.
One super cool thing about the slide films is that if you process them with the negative film processing method (C-41 process) it will shift certain spectrum of color. I don’t quite know how to explain this…but it’s cool and very dreamy looking.
If you ever get hold of positive films to shoot, I highly recommend playing around with this cross-processing method.
You can take your film rolls to photo store and request the slide to get cross-processed 🙂

Thank you for reading through my second posting.
Here’s the result of cross-processed slide films that I took on the way to Koh Phangan island.
These are all shot on Fujichrome Provia 100F slide film which has been long expired since the 90s.

Hope you enjoy!

Immediately after landing on Bangkok - we were on the run to catch the morning flight down to Surat Thani! Air Asia = best friend for budget travelers.
Immediately after landing on Bangkok – we were on the run to catch the morning flight down to Surat Thani! Air Asia = best friend for budget travelers.

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Shuttle bus that transports the flight passengers to the aircraft. So much mosquitoes in this bus!
Shuttle bus that transports the flight passengers to the aircraft. So much mosquitoes in this bus!

Witnessing the break of dawn over Bangkok city.
Witnessing the break of dawn over Bangkok city.
A glimpse of great Mekong River from the air.
A glimpse of great Mekong River from the air.
Morning glory! Bless this adventure!
Morning glory! Bless this adventure!
Shuttle bus that connects Surat Thani Airport to the boat station. Traveling time is approximately 1 1/2 hour.
Shuttle bus that connects Surat Thani Airport to the boat station. Traveling time is approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Safety charm on the shuttle driver's rear view mirror.
Safety charm hanging from the shuttle driver’s rear view mirror.
Ross and Jon getting ready for speed boat ride to paradise.
Ross and Jon getting ready for speed boat ride to paradise.
Footpath to the speedboat dock was full of fishermen.
Footpath to the speedboat dock was full of fishermen.
Shrine by the boat dock.
Shrine by the boat dock.
Two travelers pointing and talking about the islands.
Two travelers pointing and talking about the islands.
A lonely backpaker avidly reading into Lonely Planet guidebook.
A lonely backpaker avidly reading into Lonely Planet guidebook.
There is our boat!
There is our boat!
So many fishermen. It must be super competitive to catch the big fish here.
So many fishermen. It must be super competitive to catch the big fish here.
"This will be my day" -- he whispers.
“This will be my day” — he whispers.
Jon, Mac, and Ross getting excited for the paradise action.
Jon, Mac, and Ross getting excited for the paradise action.
A brief stop at Koh Samui island which we have not visited.
A brief stop at Koh Samui island.
Young fisherman taking a break.
Young fisherman taking a break.
Ross
Ross
A view of stopping boat in Koh Samui.
A view of docked boat in Koh Samui.
Another view of stopping boat in Koh Samui.
Another view of boat in Koh Samui.
Jon
Jon
Lonely "foreigner" deep in thought.
Lonely “foreigner” deep in thought.
Mac is too busy texting his girlfriend.
Mac is too busy texting his girlfriend.
Ross and boats in Koh Samui.
Ross and boats in Koh Samui.
Leaving Koh Samui and we are getting close to Koh Phangan!
Leaving Koh Samui and we are getting close to Koh Phangan!
Ross and Jon on the back of truck on our way to the resort.
Ross and Jon having conversation on the back of truck on our way to the resort.

Next up is Koh Phangan island adventure and beautiful Koh Nang Yuan captured on experimental film stock “Color-Implosion”.
Stay tuned!

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