Roll #232
Film: Kodak Vision3 500T/5219, remjet removed (Cyberpunk 640T repackaged version)
Developed & scanned: Li-lai Photo, 2024/9/30
Camera: Minolta Hi-Matic AF 38mm f2.8
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Strictly speaking, I'm a marketing professional. My interest and specialty happen to be web design.
My first job out of university was at Edelman PR in 2010. The first task they gave me was media monitoring — flipping through newspapers and major websites, logging every mention of our clients, compiling it into a daily Excel report. Every morning, before anything else.
Unfortunately — though in another sense, fortunately — I didn't make it past probation. My English wasn't strong enough, and my personality wasn't what the company needed. I left the PR industry and joined the Taiwan distributor of F-Secure for my second job, doing actual marketing work rather than pure PR.
Almost every marketing role I've had since has involved a significant amount of market observation and evaluation — studying what consumers are thinking, what competitors are doing, and deciding what we should be doing ourselves. Over time, I went from someone who consumed other people's research to someone who produced it.
The most obvious occupational hazard of working in marketing is that you find it hard to believe anything you see at face value. Everything has a motive behind it. In Taiwan's film market, the most common form of this is simple: when someone — a person or a store — is enthusiastically recommending a product, there's a good chance they happen to be selling it. Not a genuinely objective recommendation. The internet is flooded with this kind of insincere endorsement: whatever the seller needs to move today, they push. Whatever consumers see being pushed, they buy. The buying never stops, and there's always a justification for the next purchase.
Which brings me to the film on this roll — Cyberpunk, a cinema film repackager from Taobao. I kept seeing influencers and stores raving about this brand online. "Great quality, no light leaks, the best I've used, can replace Cinestill," that sort of thing.
Out of curiosity, I bought a few rolls. They were... fine. Generic plastic cartridge, light leaks still present, price not particularly low. A marketing professional, outwitted by marketing.
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#1
The Minolta Hi-Matic AF 38mm f2.8 is awkward to use — there's no half-press focus lock. Instead, you press a separate focus lock button, which locks the focus at that distance until you fire the shutter. Similar in feeling to the mirror lock-up button on the Pentax 6x7 MLU: once you engage it, the only way out is to press the shutter.
#2
Working on book content today — in the process of selecting photos.
#3
There's a Q Burger near home that gets the latest issue of Business Weekly — we brought my son and had breakfast there, with him reading his own book while we read the magazine.
#4
I was coughing more than usual at the time and didn't want to disturb anyone at MOS Burger, so I worked from Q Burger — fewer people, less impact.
#5
The volume of illegal real estate ads showing up on utility poles tells you exactly how much selling pressure is in the market right now.
#6
Finally finished selecting all 100 photos for the book.
#7
Passing by my old co-working space — Dotel Banqiao. Closed after COVID. It was a good place to work.
#8
That signature red halation from the Kodak Vision3 500T/5219.
#9
Waiting to pick someone up from work — shooting to pass the time.
#10
Previous frame was flash off, this one is flash blocked — one too bright, the other too dark.
#11
"Surviving in the cracks" — I think this might be where that phrase was coined.
#12
A traditional craft workshop with a striking sign — they make bells, drums, and incense burners for Taiwanese temples.
#13
The desk has been relatively tidy lately.
#14
The Minolta Hi-Matic AF's focus point sits noticeably low in the frame — whether that's a quirk of this particular unit or a design choice, I'm not sure. I was trying to photograph the station name display in the center; the camera locked onto the MRT barrier in the foreground.
#15
Taking my son by MRT to his math class in Taipei City — the ride is long enough that I brought headphones so he could listen to a Podcast story on the way.
#16
The man on the right has a very eye-catching hairstyle. I read somewhere that the human eye instinctively moves to the area of highest contrast first — that checks out here.
#17
Exiting at Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall MRT Station — the sky had already turned that deep evening blue.
#18
I rotate through MOS Burger locations — most often Xinzhuang and Tucheng, occasionally Banqiao, and once or twice Neihu.
#19
Can't remember which intersection this was.
#20
Drinking Sapporo tonight, which made me realize how much I actually prefer the taste of Asahi.
#21
Another case of the focus point sitting low — I was trying to photograph the McDonald's 1+1 promotion in the center of the frame; the camera locked onto the lamp post below it.
#22
Wasting film.
#23
Trying to catch a distant reflection in a mirror. Didn't work.
#24
A shop with a very commanding name.
#25
What's the name of this stir-fry place? From the sign layout, you could easily read it as "Good Fierce" — a visual hierarchy problem. If "好迎" were scaled up and "生猛快炒" shrunk, the correct reading order would be immediately clear.
#26
Working from Q Burger today. Coffee available means I can work.
#27
An inexplicable sidewalk-blocking device, positioned with remarkable confidence.
#28
Sir, there's nothing in the direction you're looking. — A tilted gaze just looks more natural. You wouldn't understand.
#29
Proof that I still ride a bicycle sometimes.
#30
The Minolta Hi-Matic AF 38mm f2.8 doesn't have a particularly sharp lens.
#31
A route I hadn't ridden before — felt good to explore something new.
That's the full roll — Minolta Hi-Matic AF 38mm f2.8 with Kodak Vision3 500T/5219, remjet removed. Thanks for reading.
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