First off this Christmas was pretty awesome and I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas as well. At the top of the list--it was mine and Noah's first Christmas as a married couple :D. Second on the list was (among all of the other awesome gifts everyone gave me) I got a ton of camera stuff -- all of which falls under the lomography category to boot!
To my wide eyed surprise and delight--my in laws got me the Diana F+ kit and some awesome filters (that I didn't even know existed) to go with my Holga 120cfn. My sister gave me some 120mm color film, Noah got me the DIY Twin Lens Reflex camera I've been drooling over on photojojo, and my mom gave me some money to buy whatever extra camera stuff I wanted (which will be going towards some film scanning masks so I can scan negatives into my computer for enlargement purposes, printing from my computer if need be, etc).
Needless to say I am SET with my lomography collection...for a good while at least ;). I got through all the manuals that came with the Diana F+ and started figuring out the workings of the camera today. Loaded my first ever roll of 120mm film in it and I'm ready to go! Noah and I are going out tomorrow (to sign the paperwork on our first car! :D) and so I'm gonna take it with me and see what I can find to take pictures of. Thinking the carousel at the mall might just be a must.
Super excited about this new collection. This should keep me super busy in my free time. And just in time for me to move across the country, right? Heh, that trip to El Paso is going to be nothing but "Hey! I wanna stop and take a picture". We may have to leave 2 weeks early. ;)
Ah, lomography. You've probably at least heard the word if you have had the delight (misfortune?) of getting me on the topic of cameras or asked me about the weird plastic camera I've been toting around. These 10 Golden Rules of Lomography sum everything up. My favorite rules: #1. Take your Camera Everywhere; #10. Don't worry about any rules.
Sooo I got my own account on lomography.com so I can be a part of the lomography community, post pictures, read articles...be a nerd...? ;)
I got a Holga 120 CFN camera from my father in law for my birthday this year and have been snapping photos with it (which I have been slack on getting developed due to planning my wedding, traipsing off to Germany for 2 weeks to visit Noah, etc, etc). I've really been enjoying that little camera but haven't used any 120 mm film yet (hoping to get some for Christmas! or shortly after if Santa decides not to bring me any). As a wedding gift, my friends Billy and Kelsey gave me a Holga 135 BC (which takes similar photos but has an awesome vignette--darkened corners--that the 120cfn doesn't have when taking 35 mm). Plus the camera body BLUE! I know, I really am a nerd. Been working on taking up a roll since they gave me that the other night and I can't wait to see the results.
Anyway, I really like this whole lomography idea. It really brings back the element of fun and surprise that tends to get lost somewhere along the way while studying photography and sometimes in professional photography work. It's about experimenting and just having fun; there's a purity in film and just capturing a moment with that simple snap and manual advancing of the film--that's all I know.
I hope to start developing some of my own prints again as soon as Noah and I get settled in El Paso. I think we'll have enough space that I can set everything up. Really eager to develop my own black and white 35mm and 120mm film.
Anyway, I'll be posting more about all this as I get pictures developed. It's a lot of fun to have a new area of photography to dive into. In all honesty it's been a while since I've found something this exciting in photography (school really kind of killed it for me there for a while).
So yeah, check out that link to my lomography.com account and make sure you check out the links to Billy and Kelsey's sites--great artists (and friends!), those two. :)
