The Diana- at your peril

Why do I say “at your peril”? the reason is that this camera can capture the most unbelievable shots that you’ve ever laid your beadies on. However it also has the ability to frustrate you beyond all belief. Let me explain why…

It takes medium format film. 120 to be exact. This film allows you to produce deeply saturated beautiful pictures. The camera itself allows you to wind only partially forward and thus overlap pictures.

I’ve even got a little gadget called a “splitzer” which can further segment your photo composition. If you google the splitzer you’ll find it… it’s really handy and you get amazingly abstract shots that will blow you away.

Here comes the but…. the film will cost you R65, depending on where you get it. It will cost a further R60 to get it developed. So there’s the monetary aspect to consider. The other factor is that this is only for 12 frames. Each picture you snap will cost you R10. So choose wisely… but choosing wisely is not the way that lomography works and that’s why it irritates me a little!! I’m not sure if you can tell? I’ll let you make up your own mind. Check out the pics below.

The Place to Be..

If you’re out there and you’re wondering which camera to buy.. let me put you in the picture on one of the handiest and funkiest camera’s around at the moment. I got myself the “supersampler” a crazy little camera that has four lenses shooting sequentially. It has two settings. You are able to set the lenses to shoot over a period of 2 seconds, or over a period of 1 second. this means that the variation between your shots is either more or less.. whichever you choose.

It’s an awesome concept and something which takes a little getting used to, but once you know where to point this little guy, you’ll be amazed at the results.. one or two of my most recent pics below. Hope you enjoy!

Redscaled

Now this is something that all of you have to try. It’s actually the film that is redscaled. What it produces is the most insane results that will blow your mind over and over again. What I can recommend is that you make sure that you have the camera set on cloudy. Whichever one you’re using- and make sure that you are shooting in bright light for the best results. If there’s not enough light your shots will come out horribly underexposed and then you’ll be shedding tears!! If you look below you’ll be able to see which one needed more light!

Hello Y’all..

Okay so i’m sorry it’s taken me a while to get back to you on this one, and I know that you’re losing focus because there isn’t too much happening on this blog site at the moment, but i’m taking things very slowly as you may have guessed. The reason is that my life is quite hectic right now. Work combined with night school may mean that I’ve bitten off a little more than I can chew. Here are some of my more recent shots that you may enjoy. I hope you do… taken with a fisheye and one of my new little lomo’s which I’ve conveniently forgotten the name of.. or maybe I haven’t and i’m just being evil. I’ve also acquired another little camera called the supersampler so get ready to see some of those up here quite soon. Four slices of panaramania… should be quite interesting!

Keep it real people..

Hope you enjoyed some of those.. hold onto your seats there’ll be many more!! 

peace.

Me and My Tree…

I’m feeling inspired, I’m feeling desired.

Maybe it’s the vixen, maybe it’s me but today I find myself underneath the wishing tree, it’s branches flecked with uncertainty. I’m looking skyward and wondering, why and how. Why did I end up like now?

The sunlight spaghetti’s it’s way through the canopy decorating me with leopard spots fit for a deity. The weight which atlas once bore, seems to no longer be humanity’s chore. The grass is on myside and deflects the words which are spat in chide. I watch and I wonder, I look bemused at the worlds rumbling thunder. Under my tree, there’s always space for you and me, it’s tall and it’s dark, it’s my garden’s ark. My sanctuary of sanity in the quest of conformity.

On it’s side I’ve carved hope, and in it’s wood I’ve put pride, on it’s branches is strength and on it’s leaves are the light. There’s a burning heart that’s willing to fight. There’s a burning heart that burns for the light.

I’ll put it on my sleeve before I let it die, I’ll show it the bark that has created this ark. What I hear is that this is the now, there’s no stopping or waiting, there’s no way to slow down.

It’s under my tree that I learn the way of the world, the bruises and hurt, the tears in your shirt. It’s where I know how far I can go and not how low. It’s the place where there’s the free show.

It’s my piece of me. It’s my piece of free.

It’s be all you can be.

The Plan

Okay, so if you’re wondering about what the hell is actually going on with this page, then you’ve unwittingly fallen into my trap. You see this inactivity is a direct result of planning. I thought that I’d run you through the plan for now just so that no one has any horrible ideas and notions of boycott. Who is this boy cott person anyway?

As some of you may or may not know, the biggest event in the world arrives on our doorsteps in a few months time. Because of this,  I have decided to get everything in line for a kick as view of the world cup. Basically like a doccy in stills- we will have a tangible outlet which is yet to be announced and the photo’s will be displayed on the web as well as the Lomo wall.

All this information will be available in the months to come…

do not worry my cherubs, the results are sure to be amazing.

I hope you enjoy it.

If you’re a Total Rookie

and you want to get started. These are some things that in my most humble opinion should be considered when getting into the game of Lomography.

You don’t really know what it’s all about but you’ve seen one of your friends camera’s and you think they’re really cool. You may have seen some of the pictures and you think those are even cooler and you want to get involved.

There are two main types of film that the Lomographic camera’s use. These are the 35mm film. Which is commonly available at any photo store. Namely Kodak, Fotomax and  other such stores. This film will set you back between R20 and R35 per spool. This will give you either 36 or 24 exposures. To get it developed will cost you in the region of R30 to R50 a film. It’s all quite painless really and what I usually do is ask the shop to develop it directly to a cd. This means that your images are able to be stored on your computer and sent to all your mates.

The other type of film is called 120 film or Medium Format film. This film is used by some professionals and gives you some awesome shots. HOWEVER- what I’ve found in my short experience is that this film is hard to find and even harder to get processed. I’ve actually walked into a shop and they didn’t even know what I was talking about. There are places that do process it but…. it’s expensive. I was being charged anywhere between R50 and R60 a film. It will then cost you roughly the same to get it processed. But wait… there’s more. You only get 12 or 16 exposures. So for the beginner I would steer away from this film just because of the logisitics of it. That said however- the shots that I have got from the 120 film are out of this world.

Now the reason why I’ve explained the film to you ad nauseum is that you need to know what camera takes which film before you decide to purchase one and are stuck with unneccesary hacks. Now the price of the cameras differ and this must also be a consideration (if you’re as poor as I am) because you don’t want to spend a whack of your booze money if you’re not sure whether you’re going to like it or not.

For a beginner I would therefore strongly recommend the following:

The coloursplash, The Holga 135, the diana mini, the fisheye 1 or the fisheye 2.

All of these camera’s are great entry level items and will allow you to do most of what Lomo has to offer. Once you’ve got your first few prints back and are loving the results and you know how to use your camera- They are all roughly around R700 to R800.

In terms of ordering your camera’s. Contact me directly via e-mail and I will let you know the exact price and delivery time. It should take under a week from date of payment.

Hope to hear from lots of you!! Lets start the revolution.