photo obsessions

i'm a sucker for a new photographic obsession. last may, on a trip to singapore i bought my nikon D60 and when i got to manila and found my friends were all into lomo, i bought a couple of analog lomography cameras--a diana+ and a fisheye. soon after that, in munich, i stumbled onto a store with the lomo stuff and bought an octomat as well. that meant that i was schlepping a bag around with no less than four cameras in it at any given moment. that was madness. and it tapered off a bit (i don't carry the lomo cameras around anymore as much as i probably should). but it was mostly because i discovered through the viewfinder photography or TtV, as it's usually called around the internet. and that called for, yes, you guessed it, another camera. one which has a viewfinder large enough to use your DSLR to take a picture of that viewfinder. it helps if you mask it off somehow to make it dark enough for your DSLR to autofocus (you'd need extra arms to hold it all if you didn't use autofocus).

but, in case this is all gobbledy-gook, allow me to back up and explain.

my diana+ (and my rockin' pilgrim sunglasses)

first the lomography thing. lomography is a photo trend wherein people take old cameras made by the "lomo" people or holga or other old russian (read: soviet) cameras in general (why oh why didn't i buy some of those when i was in russia in '94?). these were cheap plastic cameras made and sold in the 50s and onward. they are extremely simple and have all sorts of light leaks and quirks which make for some really interesting and unpredictable photos. you can add to the effect by loading them with slide film (preferably expired) and then "cross-processing" it in the chemicals for regular film. you might have seen "cross-process" effects in Photoshop or Lightroom presets that are called this. they often given a bluish or reddish cast to the photos. but you can get it naturally by using an old fashioned film camera and cross-processing.

what got me intrigued about the lomo thing was an exhibition i saw in manila with displays of photos that a whole army of lomo fanatics took during one day at the wonderful serendra shopping centre at manila's fort bonifacio. the way of displaying multiples of the photos in big expanses was just so cool, as were the colors that you get using cross-processed expired slide film:

photo exhibit in manila

who wouldn't fall in love with this?

now the diana+ and the real holgas all use 120 film, but the fisheye and my octomat use ordinary 35mm film. here are some of the pictures i've taken with my lomo cameras, as well as a cheap penguin-shaped camera that came with some candy (those are funnily enough, some of the best ones).

fisheye sabin

diana+ - double exposure and film not advanced

expired slide film - cross-processed

penguin candy camera

expired slide film - cross-processed

octomat

from one shutter depression, this takes 8 photos over 2 seconds

expired 35mm slide film - cross processed

diana + - shot of cameras on the table

including the cyber-shot that's in the sony-ericsson phone

and our old SLR Canon AE-1 program (a classic)

if you want to see some really awesome lomography, check out my friend liane's photostream on flickr. she really knows what she's doing. me, i'm just playing around. some of her photos were part of that exhibit in manila that got it all started for me. 

for lomo enthusiasts, the beauty is in the unpredictability. film that doesn't advance, light leaks, double exposures. all of the "mistakes" are what makes it fabulous. and there's something really appealing in that. a chaos that i'm drawn to. plus, it's like the old days where you actually take your pictures in to be developed and have to wait for them. awesome. there's something that just feels good about waiting (however impatiently one might do that). we don't wait often enough for gratification these days.

which brings me to TtV photography. in a way, you get some of the appeal of the lomography thing...unpredictable, grainy, out-of-focus shots, but with instant gratification, since you actually take them with your DSLR.

the first camera i tried out the TtV thing with was this beauty:

and after reading a few tutorials online, i fashioned this contraption and took some pictures:

and took this:

the only editing i tend to do with TtVis cropping, because when you download your pictures, they look like this:

but otherwise, i leave them alone because what you want is the blurriness, the dirt that's on the viewfinder on the old camera and the generally speaking, the quirks. with this really old camera (it's from 1901), i love the shape of the viewfinder, but most of the "right" cameras for TtV photography are square, like it comes out with my rolleicord, which was the next acquisition. since i wanted to do "real" TtV photography. the problem is that i haven't really been able to try it out properly until yesterday because it's been so cloudy and you need good light for TtV.

for my rolleicord, i made a contraption out of a box that a bottle of calvados came in. i painted the inside of the box with matte black paint, then secured it at the right size around the camera with a couple of pieces of duct tape:

my rolleicord and my contraption

rolleicord with contraption in place

picture by sabin of me taking a TtV picture with my Nikon D60

with the rolleicord, my pictures look like this before i crop/straighten them:

and like this after:

it looks like i've applied all sorts of processing, but i haven't done any at all, aside from the crop & straighten. that's what's cool to me about TtV--getting the processing effects naturally. i've been a little fed up lately with some of the over-processed photography i see out there. some part of me feels it's dishonest, at the same time as i am strangely drawn to it, because it's FUN to process your photos. this way, with TtV, i can satisfy both parts of my divided personality--the naturalist and the geek who loves software and gadgetry.

the beauty is that you don't HAVE to pay $300 for a used rolleicord TLR to do TtV photography, you can pick up an argus 75 or a kodak duaflex, which is what most people out there are using. you should be able to find one at a flea market for $10-25 (they made tons of them). i have yet to try my $10 brownie 620 , but there will be other days of sunshine and i expect it will work just fine too. you also don't have to have a macro lens for your DSLR, you just have to experiment and get your contraption the right length so your kit lens will do the autofocus thing.

so, what are you waiting for?

lomovisions from dawn 'til dusk

for any of you who might have your interest piqued in lomography, i wanted to link to this article from last sunday's inquirer magazine in the philippines. it's a feature story on the lomography exhibit that i saw when i was in manila earlier this month (which i wrote about here).

my friend lee, who has been helping me out as i find my way with my fun lomo cameras, was one of the photographers whose pictures are part of the exhibit. it was such an expiring exhibition that it got me into a totally new hobby! i love when something like that happens! and i can't wait 'til i have enough pix for my own lomowall!

doesn't it just figure?

so, as soon as i invest in a better digital camera, it seems that i learn that the latest, coolest trend in photography is something called lomography. which is, in effect, taking pictures with old crap cameras and expired film, although there are new cameras (the diana+, apparently the primary one is called) with fisheye lenses and such. however, ideally what one should have is an old soviet camera.

here is a photo (taken with my new nikon) of a lomography exhibit i just saw this evening out at serendra:

way cool stuff with fisheye lenses and strange colors and light effects. it's clear i must try this. why oh why didn't i buy one or more of those old soviet cameras back in '94 when i saw them in russia?

it's big here in the philippines, so i'm going on a mission tomorrow. luckily the stores are open late, since i'm working all day!

lovin' the lomo thang!!

i've been having a ball with my lomo cameras. not everything has turned out on the initial rolls, but it's SOOooo much fun. even the waiting for films to be developed is way fun!

here are some samples:

expired fuji sensia 100 slide film cross-processed in C41 chemicals.

that's what gives it that cool red tint.

ducks using the octomat

my very first shot with the octomat

expired fuji sensia 100 film, cross-processed

expired fuji sensia 100 cross-processed.

taken by sabin with her penguin-shaped toy camera that came with some candy.

bicycle store in frederikssund

ordinary 120 film, taken using the diana+

ordinary 35mm film in the fisheye 2

expired fuji sensia 100 cross-processed in C41
i think my camera store messed up this processing, but i love the effect

expired fuji sensia 100 cross-processed in C41
i think my camera store messed up this processing, but i love the effect

this lomography thing is way cool. i can highly recommend it. it's just so much fun to see what the simple mechanics of the camera can do. if you want to learn more, check out www.lomography.com and you'll see pix way better than these first ones of mine. the blurry pic of the bookshelf that i posted a few days ago was a lomo photo as well, taken with my diana+ camera.

pure creative potential: film swap

on the flickr blog the other day (thank you flickr front page), i learned of a flickr group called "film swap." people shoot a roll of film in their analog camera, leave the tail sticking out then swap with someone else and double expose the roll - two different photographers, two different sets of eyes, many different subjects, preferably two distant locations. once i read about that, i knew i had to try it. so i loaded up my old canon AE-1 program and asked if anyone in the blog camp 365 group would like to do a little film swap with me.

the film swappers in the big film swap group are pretty advanced and into lomography, and naturally so am i (stop snickering there in the back), so i loaded it up with expired (in 2007) fujichrome sensia 400 so we could cross-process it in the C-41 chemicals in the end.

so basically it's got like this mind-blowing exponential creative potential going on. slide film, negative chemicals, analog cameras, two different photographers in two vastly different locations, expired film, and double exposures. one photographer's eye imposed on another. i'm so excited about this i can hardly contain myself.

and i'm hopping up and down happy that the lovely shokoofeh of a new simple something fame is who i'll be swapping with on this first attempt! she has the most amazing, artistic eye and that alone is mind-boggling. but for me, the whole notion of views of iran layered on views of denmark and vice versa adds so many layers of meaning to the creative potential that it very nearly takes my breath away. i feel like an entirely new topography will open up and you know how much i love topographies!

i've finished my first film and just loaded a second one. i made some mistakes with the first...i didn't set it on double the ISO as i should have, which may mean that shokoofeh's pictures don't shine through as much as they should. i was also so worried about losing the tail of the film when i rewound that i opened the camera a little bit early and spoiled the first 5 or 6 exposures. but hey, i learned two things and i won't make those mistakes again. and so i'm sure this second roll will be even better. i think i'll send both to shokoofeh. i really can't wait to see how this turns out.

 * * *

psst. for those of you who sew and quilt and aren't so into photography, there's a very cool new project here. i'm going to be doing it as well. after all, sometimes one should use the stash and not just stash the stash.