Category: Lomography

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1466780835000_1258498I have been asked to take photos at my best friend’s daughter’s wedding. I have known the bride-to-be since she was a baby. My niece as I call her is a wonderful young woman and it has been a joy watching her grow and thrive. She serves overseas in the Air Force alongside her fiance so planning this small, family wedding has been interesting.

As much as I hate the idea of taking wedding photos I couldn’t say no. I have a lot of respect for wedding photographers and the ones I’ve met love what they do. As for me….I have never wanted to shoot a wedding….NEVER! I have my reasons for avoiding wedding photography mainly the thought of being responsible for the memories of one the most important days of someone’s life. A few other reasons come to mind as I write this…..I cringe when I see wedding guests with their camera phones and iPads. It also burns my butt to see a guest step into a perfect shot ruining it for the photographers. We all know weddings cost a fortune and photography is one way that people try cut costs. Most people do not want to pay a photographer what they are worth and wedding photographers often struggle to get full payment for their services. Personally, it is disheartening to have friends annouce that I was going to take photos at their wedding assuming that I would say yes….it happens a lot. But for this young lady I will put it all aside and make sure her day is perfect.

I have started mentally planning and my first stop is Pinterest. I do not own a quality digital camera so I will shoot this event with film and Polaroid. I decided on Polaroid so a wedding album can make the trip back to England with the newlyweds. The bride has a quirky, fun personality with a natural crown of hair and winning smile so I think a film and instant photo approach will be fun and different. I currently have Polaroid, Fuji Instax and Lomo’ Instant cameras and plan to take them all. I am considering adding a new instant camera to my collection and the InstantFlex TL70 2.0 is on my radar. I am getting super excited about working with a twin lens instant film camera! I will upate this post once I get it this weekend and test it out at Thanksgiving dinner. Wish me luck and stay tuned for pics!

 

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I have always wanted to visit Cuba! It is a dream and will help me expand my street photography experience….the architecture, the vintage vehicles and the people it all appeals to me on a visceral level. The colors, the sights and sounds…it the kind of thing that makes my photographer’s eye twitch. So the bestie and I are going….she writes a lifestyle colum for an online magazine and I blog. It is a perfect combination and she is the perfect travel partner. So I am going to document my research and the cameras I am taking with me. I have to start this now so my head doesn’t explode before I get there…getting it all down will keep me sane.

Cameras

I plan to take 4-5 reliable film cameras and one Polaroid…my new Minty. I am starting to stockpile film so there is no mad dash to get enough before the trip. My most reliable cameras are the Holga 120CFN, the Holga 135BC and the Diana Mini. I think it is a good mixture of 35mm and 120mm film choices. Unfortunately, my La Sardina’s failed the test when I took them on a family cruise. There were too many issues with film loading and rewinding with all four.

Research

There are so many articles to read…people share their experiences and it makes my heart sing. I can’t wait to see and document it all. I am over the moon excited…my soul needs to be fed and traveling with my bestie is the best way to do this. We are Army girls always ready to go with the flow. We let the locale dictate the days…we don’t have to have fancy digs and plan to live like the locals.

My travel research beings with the first link a subscriber sent me. Where to have film developed in Havana….I will check out this photo lab and may get some film developed while I am there. I will see how it flows. This photo lab seems like a a good place to check out. I will give a comprehensive review on the services#309 Calle Obispo, Habana Vieja, Ciudad de Habana. That’s the main east/west street down the middle of Old Havana, running down from Parque Central to Plaza de Armas.

Fashion

Cool, casual and comfortable is my goal and I want to blend in and look like a local. It is not hard in Cuba…the population covers the color spectrum and mostly look like me. My Pinterest page will be my go-to for storing my ideas so take a look if you get a free minute…my plan is to update it as often as possible.

Join me on the journey from planning to touchdown and let me know what you think along the way. Any tips? Send them my way.

 

 

 

 

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HipstamaticPhoto-555132247.974488I started my Holga journey because I was bored out of my mind after graduate school. I needed something to kickstart my creativity. Film photography is a form of therapy for me and I can lose myself in the camera and the beauty of life around me.

Hipstamatic sparked my interest and after some research I started hunting Holgas, Diana’s, La Sardinia’s and all the different film formats that produced the gritty, grainy artistic photos that I see in my head. My first set of developed prints made me want to cry but I toughened up and soldiered on. I studied my technique, my awful mistakes and the light leaks that destroyed more than a few of my prints. My mistakes made me start paying attention to what the heck I was doing. I will write another blog on my common mistakes this blog is for the light leaks.

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Why Tape Your Holga

The Holga is a cheap, light-weight camera from China that comes with a plastic lens and  a plastic body. Light leaks are natural to the Holga and there is really no way to avoid them unless you tape the entire camera and what is the fun in that. I can understand how  light leaks can be intimidating to someone new to this type of photography but I encourage you to embrace the unpredictablity. Let yourself be surprised by your images.

The first time I developed 35mm film in my Holga I realized I needed to tape up the back of your camera, or light will leak in through the film counter window and over-expose every single shot. Along with my other mistakes I’d ruined an entire roll of film but hey… that’s part of the game of experimenting with your camera. 35mm film doesn’t have paper backing like medium format film does so it has no protection from the light seeping in from the little red window at the back of the camera. Without covering this window your roll will be exposed to light in every shot. A common solution is to seal the window off to keep everything nice and pitch dark inside the camera. I use electrical tape to make a flap so I can tell when I have gotten to the first shot while loading and how many shots I have remaining. I get some leaks but my shots are not completely blown out.

Toni and Holga
Me and my first Holga!

I also cover the bottom of the camera and the metal clips on each side. The cilps are worthless to me a lesson learned after I put my brand new camera around my neck for the day and the weight of the camera was no match for the cheap clips. I watched in horror as my hours-old Holga slipped off my neck and hit the cement. It works….I played with it for hours and coaxed it back to life.

I am not an expert at anything. I research and share my journey with others. Have fun and let yourself go. Follow the Golden Rules! Share your experiences and your photos.

 

Next up….My common mistakes and what I learned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Blog Revamp! 

HipstamaticPhoto-532235655.059912I am passionate about Film Photography, Blogging, Travel and Journaling so it is time to combine my interests. Join me on my journey and allow me to bombard you with CAMERAS, FILM AND PHOTOS! I carry a camera or two everywhere and want to share my highs and lows with you. It has taken a lot of soul-searching and thought to get to this point and I am really excited. The research alone keeps me busy and fully engaged. I love the journey! I hope you are as entertained as I am.

I want to reach as many people as possible and creating custom content is the first order of business. Successful relaunch requires a total Blog Revamp, Search Engine Optimization research, along with plans to start a YouTube channel. Your comments and observations are valuable to me so feel free to share.

Welcome to Life In Lomo!

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images Film photography inspires me! It makes me slow down and think. I have to pay attention t0 the lighting conditions, my settings,  loading the film and most importantly taking the lens cap off. You can laugh…the first few times I did. Digital cameras and cell phone cameras have made me complacent and I am determined to go back to the basics and get this right. Yes, I am a home grown photographer and I am proud of it.

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My journey into photography started when the photography world went digital. I started with film and didn’t know what the heck I was doing. Digital cameras made everything so easy but the work didn’t nurture my soul. It was a job that I loved but I was not passionate about photography until I started collecting vintage cameras. I was in Tbilisi, Georgia on a humanitarian mission and we used our free time to go to a few street and flea markets. The quality and the cleanliness of the cameras I saw as I wandered from stand to stand was amazing. But….I am a Soldier and my spidey sense let me know that word had passed ahead of us and everyone knew that an American was buying cameras so the prices tripled. I had to cut my shopping short because I am nobody’s fool and I know the game. I went home with 15 or 20 cameras because we switched it up and went to different markets. I paid around $25 U.S for each camera and felt good about it.

images-1Fast forward to 2016, I came across a cheap Diana F+ and a Holga for less than $80 bucks, new in the bo mind you, and it was on. I have made mistakes and I share these stories to remind myself to slow the hell down. I didn’t do any research before I loaded my first roll of expensive a$$ 120 Lomography film. I didn’t know how to load the damn things. I didn’t know where to get them developed. All I knew is that I had to do something before I lost my mind. Well, it was an expensive lesson and it taught me to slow down. Twenty rolls in and I have finally figured out where to get the film developed. I have learn that you don’t shoot multiple shots of anything or it will come out of your pocket. For sure I have learned to take the darn less cap off….and it still happens if I am in a hurry. I also learned that those cute little clips on the side of the Holga will cost you a brand new 3 day old camera.

All those lessons and those most important thing I learned was that I love it! I am going to stick with this hobby and master it. Maybe one day I will be an expert….today is not that day. So I want to hear your stories and your lessons because this is all about sharing. I am not an expert and I don’t have a particular direction. I am taking it slow and relishing the journey.

 

Leave a comment…Join me in the journey. We can share the ride!

 

LIVE LIFE IN LOMO!

 

 

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LomoThe summer season is winding down and my thoughts are turning to fall. It has taken me all summer to get my head out of grad school mode. It has been hard….re-focusing my after a commitment like graduate school was tough. So I channeled my energy into analogue photography and it has helped me find peace.

 

I started reading up on Lomography and my curiosity went into overdrive. Lomography is the style of pop photography based around the quirky cameras by the Austrian camera manufacturer known as Lomo.  There are several camera types that fall under the images-3lomography genre. Among some of the more popular, are the Diana and Holga. These cameras, and (all of them in the Lomo line) are usually poor technical cameras. They are inexpensive, plastic and often have light leaks, poor alignment of their lenses or other defects, which makes it a cool signature look. They are inexpensive and can be found on Amazon and Ebay for less than $100.

 

I carry one or two cameras everywhere I go and follow the Golden Rules of Lomography… “Don’t Think, Just Shoot” motto! After all, Lomography is all about having fun while taking good pictures, so memorize them by heart or break all the rules; either way, be ready to throw your photography inhibitions away!

 

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The Golden Rules of Lomography…who doesn’t love Golden Rules?!

Be prepared to shoot in the moment! Carry your camera everywhere and observe life as we live it. Find beauty in the simple things. Most of all have fun!

Break the rules and use it anytime you want. Research ISO’s and film combinations and shoot in low light. Inside or out, day or night. Do your research and most importantly….take a chance!

Lomography photography is not an influence on your life….it enhances it! Embrace your art! Your camera is hungry for thrills and spills, whatever the weather, whatever day of the week it is and whatever time it is. So keep shooting restlessly and relentlessly; give your memory a kick in the ass with your lovely, crazy, beautiful, artistic and silly Lomographs. Esse est percipi est Lomographi. Use your camera whenever you’re alive!

Shoot from the hip! Try different angles and see what pans out! Don’t look through the viewfinder; forget about safety margins and unnecessary shyness! And why should a photo always be taken whilst standing up and looking through the viewfinder? If we did that all the time, every photo would be from the same kind of perspective. How about holding your camera below the knees for your next shot? Or as high as you can hold it above your head? You’ll end up with all manner of crazy photos you never realized were possible…..it may take a few rolls of film, get them developed and see where you ‘eye’ takes you!

Don’t think….Shoot! Your best shots won’t be the ones you plot and plan! Shoot when people least expect it….capture the beauty of life! I discourage posing and stiff smiles…..I want to shoot the living, breathing beauty of the world we live in. Shoot blind without a care in the world.

Be Fast! Hold your breath, be brave, take a chance, move, shoot, have fun and act fast – that’s Lomography!

Be patient! You will not get the instant gratification that you are accustomed to with lomography photography. You shoot, switch film and go on. The results come after you have handed your precious film over to the lab for processing. Yes, you have to wait! But when you get the film back you can proclaim yourself an artist!

Don’t worry about any rules! You don’t have to know what you captured on film…be patient and trust your instincts. See the beauty in your creation lol….the good the bad and the ugly. Adjust your shots, learn your camera and practice!

 

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Next up…Shooting with the La Sardina in low light.