Batu Pahat, Johore in Malaysia is the place I used to call home. Born & studied there and left for Kuala Lumpur (which I burned another 10 years of my life at) when I completed secondary school. I do travel back there every couple of months to visit my folks and getting fat eating all the delicious food there.
Compared to those days when I was there, it’s no longer the peaceful and slow paced town (though there are still slow paced people who drive like turtles … but hey … have tons of them here in Singapore too!). Wanting to capture some photos of it, I loaded a long expired roll of Tmax 400 on my LC-A+ but could only manage some snaps here and there, most of the time from inside my dad’s car, as I was busy entertaining them (yeah, listen to them nag!) and of course taking care of baby Fitzand. Shot the roll at ISO800 and got the lab to push 1 stop during developing. It’s my first time doing this, and being the type who doesn’t care or bother to remember all the technicalities … I had to call up a friend to ask if I should be telling the lab to push or pull. I am a fool!
Here they are, some of those shots from the 24 exposure roll. I decided to leave them as they are, default from scan, instead of adjusting a bit of curve or desaturating them to make them look real black & white. I think the pretty flat feel and tint, makes the photos a bit more nostalgic (no?). I tried to avoid capturing modern signs and shops, so as to remind me of those old days … but I guess things will never be the same again.
The images dont look flat to me at all.
Anyway I totally recognize some of the places there. Travel up often with my grandparents to visit relatives 🙂
Haha. Gerald, maybe one day we will meet there for beer!