A short vlog-style video by Eunice Lai documenting a photo walk in Hong Kong where her film roll was accidentally double exposed with prior images from New York and Pittsburgh. The video mixes on-street shots, market scenes, and reflections on why film’s unpredictability — double exposures included — can produce unique, irreplaceable images; practical notes include scanning/development speed and small local details.
Questions this video answers
January 11, 2024
8 Hong Kong dollars
Three hours
New York and Pittsburgh
Serendipity
Chapters
Foreign.
Good morning, everyone. Today is a random day in Hong Kong. The weather's not that great.
It was.
It was supposed to be sunny, but alas. But today I'm gonna be doing a little photo walk challenge because lately my film photos happen.
Coming out pretty.
Pretty ass. And I'm not too sure why with my new camera. So today I'm gonna be going around and taking more photos, and hopefully some of it turns out okay. And maybe at the end, I'll look.
Over it and we'll try learn from mistakes, because, you know, it's a learning process. Hello, it is editor Eunice in the future, and I come with some unfortunate news. So I got my film back, and it's been double exposed. I have no idea how it happened, but my. I guess my roll of film, it was still rol. So I used it again. So now it's like photos from this photo walk and some photos that I took in New York and Pittsburgh. And I don't know. This is the worst. I'm so sad because I know, I know, I know I took some cool photos this time and last time. So now this video is just gonna be a commentary of my photo walk as I use my amateur opinions to talk about the double exposures and just the photos I took in general.
For this photo, I was just trying to get a photo of this guy sitting by a ledge outside his shop. But here I got this double exposed photo of a family that I took in New York. It's nothing special because it doesn't really match well together.
It's too awkward taking photos of people.
Next, I tried to take a photo of this guy by his little. I don't know what those are. Street. Street stalls, maybe. And once again, it's nothing really special. I don't think the double exposure really added anything to it. But I also took a photo of this two workers kind of talking to each other. And in this case, the double exposure does work because it kind of splits where they both are, which creates a cool contrast. And I. I don't know. I still really liked the photo on its own. And I wish that this double exposure didn't happen.
Just got run over by a car.
I then took some photos of these crates at the fruit market. And I guess it's kind of cool because it overlays a grocery deli photo of New York so it shows the difference between the east and the West. And this one's kind of cool because it kind of looks like the fruit stand is standing in the middle of the streets of New York. This one I'm a little bit upset about and I couldn't even find the photo it was double exposed onto. But I don't know, it really makes you treasure the moment he smiled for me.
Yeah, hot people are not that bad. They seem kind of scary sometimes, but some of them are good.
Trust.
I got a little snack.
It's called Bako.
I think it's just white sugar cake.
No nutritional value whatsoever. But it's really yummy.
And yeah, I just continued snapping away without knowing everything is going to go horribly wrong. This one's pretty clean while this one's a bit more on the messier side. But yeah, I don't know. This entire experience has really made me treasure film photos and the experience of taking it because you never really know what you're going to get until it comes out and I think that's the beauty of it. This next one is actually my favorite oopsies photo because I think it works really well. The photos actually blend together pretty well and I think it just gives each other more texture. Like the lantern now has this beautiful branch texture and the people don't really overlap on each other as you can see. You can clearly see this guy's face.
I'm currently lining up to try Tek Mal.
It's a local classic.
I don't have it often because I'm.
A little bit of a fake local.
But yeah, the line's really long so let's see that. So I stumbled upon the Hong Kong brand and products Expo and I think you have to pay to go in. So I'm just gonna try see if I can get any the shopper photos outside. It was pretty interesting though, like they're selling like rice cookers and scales and all that kind of stuff so.
So I did end up going in because admissions was only 8 Hong Kong dollars. And I got some photos that were, that were exposed and some that weren't. This one was kind of cool because it's half taken at a candy shop in Pittsburgh and the other half is in this food store. And you can see on the right it's clearly selling food so it kind of looks like it's selling this soda little shelf. And finally here are my shots that were free from the wrath of my Selena steaks.
I'm like the youngest person here cuz everyone here is over the age of like 40 buying a rice cooker. Okay. I'm near the film store now and I have a few frames left so I want to try use it up and I'll use it to practice zone focusing. You know, like when you set this focus ahead of time and you kind of just go really sneakily. Like where you go really sneakily and you just go like, yeah, I'm gonna try that.
This one. Cuz I thought it was a bit funny. Everyone's facing towards the wall, like it's a guilty shame to be smoking. And my very final shot, I kind of like it because I really caught an action in the moment. But I really need to improve upon my sniping skills, if you know what I mean.
I'd like to make an honorable mention to this photo. So in the background you have this lady wearing a sansa hat grinding meat, which on its own, wow, amazing photo. Wish I could have it. But this double exposure is kind of cool because it kind of looks like she has an audience watching her. So these people are like me, just watching her grind her meat. And I don't know, I think it's just stands out, especially the guy on the right where he's staring straight at her.
And here's where I get my film scanned. I love this place because they develop everything in three hours, which is absolutely amazing because I know some places take up to two weeks. And yeah, I really like the quality of their scans. It's good, it's efficient. And it's cheap too, if you made.
It this far into the video. Thank you.
But yeah.
Was it a failed photo walk? Yes and no. I mean, yes, because I know there were some cool photos there, as I said, and I just really wish it could be its individual shot. Like it would be perfect. I don't know. But no, because, you know, it created some really cool, interesting effects. And in a way it was experimental and it kind of let me learn a little bit more about double exposures because I. Well, upon closer inspections, I can see what becomes more obvious and what doesn't. So when I want to do it intentionally, I'll have a better idea of how to do it. But this whole experience, like, it just, like it just shows why I love film. It's just so cool. It's a high risk, high reward thing. I know that's a really cliche thing to say, but this is a prime example of high risk, high reward. Because there's just some really unique shots in there that no one can ever recreate. Because even if they go to the same locations, they're not gonna be in the same two locations. And the photos are not just gonna match like that. And it's just. It's just so unique. And I also did not get this unfortunate but fortunate surprise until after I got my film developed. And that process just takes time. And, yeah, it just shows you the value of time and patience and just spontaneity. You guys didn't ask, but I have this really stupid tattoo on my back which says serendipity, and I definitely think this is a little bit of a serendipitous moment. So, yeah, my tattoo came true.
