Roll 293
Film: Kodak UltraMax 400
Developed & scanned: DEP Lab 2025/9/10
Camera: Ricoh GR21 21mm f3.5
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After shooting several rolls of black-and-white film through the GR21, I've become firmly convinced that black and white is where this camera belongs. Shooting it in color feels like a waste of the lens somehow. When I temporarily switch a GR21 image to monochrome in Lightroom, my reaction is always: "I knew it." That said, the world is hardly short of black-and-white GR21 photos — and that's actually a reason to keep shooting color with it.
This roll was shot last year, and I'm sorry it's taken this long to write up. The second half of 2025 was the busiest stretch of work I've ever lived through, and this roll was very much a product of that period — shooting film while grinding through work, finding small pleasures in a difficult stretch, feeling like life had real texture.
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#1
The film fridge. There's something deeply reassuring about having one — though you can't freeze anything in it, and late at night you can hear it making noises.
#2
I'm the kind of person who photographs their desk constantly. On this particular day I was feeling overwhelmed, and when I didn't know what to do next, I decided to apply the accounting principle of FIFO — first in, first out — and start with whatever had been waiting longest.
#3
That day I noticed a billboard I'd always walked past had been taken down, waiting for the next advertiser. The GR21 is a camera that resists tidy composition — horizons drift, frames tilt — and with other cameras I'd correct all of this in Lightroom. But the GR21's vignetting is so pronounced that any post-processing risks making the photo look more artificial, so I've decided to just leave things as they are.
#4
Riding the scooter to visit a client. I've always had a soft spot for manual transmission bikes — life just felt better on one. The trade-off, of course, is that you can't shoot at red lights when one hand is on the clutch. That thought alone is enough to keep me on the automatic.
#5
First-generation Gogoro with a resale value that might generously be 5,000 NT. Remarkable.
#6
The Gogoro Network: battery swapping as both its greatest strength and its greatest vulnerability.
#7
Even for urban commuting, the Gogoro needs a battery swap every day or two.
#8
The GR21 actually excels at close-range situations — which is precisely where wide-angle lenses belong. At longer distances, that's what medium and telephoto lenses are for.
#9
A familiar intersection near Li-lai Photo in Xinzhuang. I haven't been around this area much since I started working from home after my injury.
#10
A Yamaha YZF-R15M that made me look twice on the street. Up close, it's a lot bigger than I expected.
#11
The desk again.
#12
A utility pole under a spell.
#13
I came to pick up dinner and hadn't planned to order braised snacks — until I watched the customers next to me all ordering them, and then I ordered some too.
#14
Another utility pole under a spell.
#15
A chair that has been through something.
#16
In my shooting notes, I've always referred to this tree simply as "the tree."
#17
Protective filter test — this one has the original Ricoh filter attached.
#18
Protective filter test — this one has no filter. The tonal range feels richer to me without it.
#19
Running into the shade drops the temperature five degrees instantly. One time while cleaning the GR21's lens I noticed it was concave — genuinely startled me. A concave front element is extremely rare.
#20
My social circle is small enough that I rarely get to photograph other people, so I'm stuck using my own slightly-heavier-than-ideal self as a camera test subject. With a 21mm f3.5 in the frame, I can only say: things are not improved.
#21
A "slow down" sign that is probably not doing much.
#22
There is no perfect way to avoid the sun.
#23
I only learned as an adult that lane numbering in Taiwan actually follows a logic: on any given road, one side has odd-numbered lanes and the other side has even-numbered ones.
#24
Minimum focus distance test. Guangquan Extra Rich 5.1 Black Soy Milk — my one and only post-workout drink.
#25
Managed to photograph a Swinhoe's tree lizard at 30cm minimum focus distance. I'll take it.
#26
A spotted dove drying its wings in the park.
#27
I drive steady.
#28
The truly iconic brands eventually become the generic term for an entire category. Vespa is one of them. Rolex is another.
#29
My son said there's a person up there in the distance.
#30
Our car has never had window tint applied — seven years and counting, something we take a certain pride in. Window tint feels to me like a phone case: you get one because you see everyone else with one. It does something, sure, but not having one does something else — arguably better. Without tint, the view through the glass is always its most vivid, and your sightlines are as clear and bright as they can be.
#31
Took my son to Decathlon to buy football boots.
#32
I want a beer whenever I see beer. Though my actual preference is firmly Asahi.
#33
This 7-Eleven sign has been baked by the sun until it's nearly melting.
#34
A blind shot. I used to come to this beef noodle restaurant as a kid — about thirty years ago — and somehow it's still here, still run by the same family.
#35
The scale Shopee's pickup-point network has reached is genuinely impressive. As of April 2026, there are 2,792 Shopee pickup locations across Taiwan. Remarkable.
#36
Me, looking into the Ricoh GR IIIx 26.1mm f2.8. I did end up buying one — and sold it within days. The feel was just too different from the film GRs.
#37
An old companion — the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III (quite a name).
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That's this roll — Ricoh GR21 21mm f3.5 with Kodak UltraMax 400. Thanks for reading.
