In Love With Lomo

This is the very first post of what I hope to be a very satisfying creative outlet for me. Today I want to introduce an awesome camera that I purchased several months ago that I've had a blast learning how to use.

Ever since college, I've been wanting to experiment with medium format film. However, considering the expense and the lack of funds thereof, including no access to one, I have had little exposure...until now. First, I found an old Graflex that belonged to my father-in-law that I've been playing around with, but it's pretty bulky and hard to see through the lens. But then I found another neat little medium format gadget. Thanks to the little plastic handheld camera called the Diana +, it's brought about a whole new world of experimentation called Lomography. It's lo-fi, lightweight, low-tech and shows off the world in a whole new way. I bought the Diana camera for $50 along with 15 rolls of medium format film for a total of about 80 bucks. I've only used 3 rolls so far, and learning a lot with each roll. The thing about this type of photography, is that is so low-tech, it's hard to get used to. Meaning, I've had a good amount of formal and self-taught education on photography, and the thing about lomography, is that what makes the pictures cool is their lack of precision in both exposure, lighting, and color. The "happy accident" as they call it. With this camera, you may think you just took an awesome picture once you release the shutter, but when you get your prints back from the lab it looks completely different. The colors are over-saturated, and sometimes there's an errant flicker of red across the print from a stray of light that entered the back of the camera and burned itself onto the film. Other tricks you can do is take the lens off and shoot some pinhole shots. Kinda like camera obscura.

I currently get my film developed at my local lab and they do a good job. However, you can take it one step further. To get even more trippy colors on your film: cross process the roll (have the lab process the roll in the wrong chemicals). Of course, I could make the same results with Photoshop but that just wouldn't be as fun right? There's something a little more satisfying about achieving results in-camera rather than retouching later. But, my local lab won't do it anyway. It took some digging, but I found out that my old lab, Duggal, will do it. However, since I now live 600 miles away, I have to mail them the roll with a check for the fee, which is approximately $15. Of course, you are running the risk of your film getting lost in the bottom of a mail bin, but that is probably a low chance. They are a great lab and have done lots of work for me in the past on my 35mm stuff.

So, if you love to play around with new and exciting cameras, and are looking for a new toy this Christmas, I would definitely suggest checking this out. And no, I'm not getting paid for writing all of this. I'm just sharing my excitement for taking pictures. Here are some of my shots below (not crossed processed):
























Tech notes: Diana + camera, Fuji 100 speed 120 Film.