The Amazing Two

My dear baby Nana,

On 26 June 2015, you made me a mother. On 26 June 2016, you turned 1 year old and today you are turning 2.

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Where does all the time go?

In this year, you learned how to walk, run, jump, talk, sing, speak, communicate, draw, read books, make friends, bite and push other kids, greet, said sorry and thank you, being compassionate and expressing yourself. You are developing your own little character throughout your first birthday until today. You are demanding, sometimes annoying but yet you are very loving. You impress me every single day on all the tiny little milestones that you achieved. I’m truly grateful that I’m there, to be with you, to witness all of them and to teach as well as learn together with you.

You speak Malaysian English, Cantonese and a little bit of Mandarin. By age of 2, you can speak a short sentence with 3 different languages. You are truly Malaysian.

You still hurt yourself every now and then because sometimes I’m not fast enough to run towards you and protect you. You are very petite in size as to compare to your age and sometimes I get comments from strangers as if I starve you and ate all the food myself. Sometimes we eat out when I’m too lazy (or frustrated to cook). There you might have eaten some msg or whatever seasoning that isn’t good for your health. Sometimes I ignore you because I’m too tired (or lazy) to response. I just wanted to let you know that I’m not a perfect mother. But I’m trying to be as good as possible, to love and to protect you with everything I have.

Thank you for calling me “mummy mummy mummy” endlessly. Thank you for giving me a pat on my shoulder when I told you “mummy is sad”. Thank you for letting me sleep in a little bit more in some days without waking me up and greet me with your charming smile with your best “good morning mummy” greeting every morning. Thank you for kissing me good night before you go to the bed. Thank you for loving me wholeheartedly every minute every second until you need to peak on me when I’m on the toilet doing my business. Thank you for running towards me and hug my leg when I’m in the kitchen cooking our meal just because you wish I can sit down and play with you. Thank you for giving me a thumbs up on the food I cook for you. Thank you for testing my limit and challenge my patience. Thank you for giving me joy and laughter. Most of all, thank you for being my friend and spending these beautiful moments with me.

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26 June 2017.

Happy 2nd Birthday my baby girl. You are and always will be my baby.

Love,

Your mummy mummy mummy.

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Images taken at various places using Lomo LC-A+ & LC-Wide loaded with various film.

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Developing My First Contact Prints

It’s amazing to watch your pictures appear slowly, fading in like magic after long hours of staying inside a dark room. The feeling of getting your first photo developed is indescribable.

I’ve been shooting since many years ago and this is the first time that I developed my own roll of film. Black and white isn’t my thing, I don’t know why. Perhaps, I enjoy looking at bright and colourful pictures more. That’s one of the reasons why I’m into Lomography as well. When there isn’t any colour on your pictures, all that’s left is the composition of the objects that you shoot. It’s not easy to shoot a “breathtaking” black and white picture, in my opinion.

Carrying my Lomo spirit — I don’t think, I just shoot! All that matters is that I’m going to develop the film on my own later inside the darkroom! Feeling so excited, we started the developing process at 2pm. I’ve forgotten how many processes I’ve been through and how many chemicals we used — the washer, developer, how many seconds and ‘shakes’ I made. Finally, after a few hours, here are my first contact prints ever!

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And here are the results of the pictures I took that day using Olympus XA:

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It feels great. It’s like watching yourself giving birth to a baby. (Well, I might be exaggerating a little but it’s the best I can do to describe my feelings that very moment, haha!)

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And we had some time chilling at the old Bok Tjuv while waiting. 🙂 Nice space.

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We spent one whole day shooting and developing. It’s really tiring and you need a lot of concentration and patience, but it’s really a memorable experience for me and the credit goes to my developing teacher, Dihyang! Special thanks to Sengkit as well, my shooting partner of the day.

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Interested in developing your own film? Check out this page for more information. 🙂

Love,

Eva Eva