It has been an intense and busy few months, and I have added more hobbies and interests. I haven’t written for months.

Today, I am trying to continue my film photography project, which I listed in my 300 list:

“300 Things to Do Before I’m Too Old” – Lynn By Linh

While I was inserting the selected photos from my Sydney trip in May into the album, listening to music, this song came up, and I don’t know why it urged me to open my laptop and recap this moment — so spontaneously.

It’s so true. I recently read some articles about expressive art therapy, and both visual arts and music help me on my journey. And there is a connection.

Sydney

The trip was planned to visit my best friend in Sydney at her partner’s invitation. I can say Sydney is a lovely city, which gave me my first experience of autumn, which I had never had before. A mixture of nature, modernity, and arts.

I planned to visit the Jewish Museum as it’s mentioned in the book The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku. Pity they were closed during that period.

Although I spent some time there, had a lot of great times, met my best friends, explored the city on my own, and met my now ex-boyfriend, I could not escape work totally, as my manager kept texting me on different platforms. So I couldn’t enjoy my time properly, even though it was my annual leave. I can say it’s the least fulfilling trip I have ever had in recent years.

However, the city itself and the weather made me feel incredible. And the trip has taught me a lot of lessons about myself, about love, and about friendship.

I would love to find time to write my chill itinerary of my Sydney trip one day — when I can get over my procrastination.

Film photography

I have liked film photography for a long time. I got my first film camera more than 10 years ago when I first discovered photography as a way to overcome my depression. I underestimated the difficulty of it, so I got a manual one, which I never touched again. Then, a few years ago, I got another one and tried again, but with a PNS version.

I lost one roll while traveling back home, so only some were left, and I printed out the selected ones for my film collection, but I also store them digitally here:

What I love about film photography:

• The bittersweet feeling because the color of film is nostalgic.
• The feeling of not needing to adjust the photos until they look perfect.
• The feeling that it’s so costly, so you only capture valuable moments.
• The feeling of capturing the moment without the pressure to perform.
• The feeling of waiting for the results after the darkroom. It’s either good or bad, but it still means something.

There are a lot of reasons I could give, but all of them circle around the feeling I have when I do film photography.

I don’t know much about film photography, and the process of bringing these through customs since films may be destroyed, etc. For me, I just grab the camera, find the frame I want to capture, and shoot. And I am just a beginner, an explorer, a lover.

I hope even as this world is transforming and developing, the film photography still exists for us. It’s costly, but it’s worthwhile. Because I am sure I flip through and look at my film photography album more times than I look at old photos from my phone.

Maybe it’s just me.

Thank you for being here.