Holga 135

The Holga is pretty much responsible for my love of Lomography. My sister got a Holga 120 CFN a few years ago (which I stole so I could try it out) and not only does it look incredible, but the results can be awesome.

Taken with a Holga 120 CFN in 2009.

The Holga 135 uses 35mm film rather than 120mm film. This makes it the tiniest bit easier to get the films developed when you’re done. I got mine while holidaying in the States in October ’11. I chose the red one because, duh, who doesn’t want a bright red camera?

My first roll with this camera was a double challenge because I was a) using a camera I’d never used before and b) using black and white film for the first time. 

Black and white was weird for me because although I do a lot of black and white conversion in my digital work, primarily my main reason for taking a photo of something is because of the colours. With black and white you have to think about how the photo is going to look once the print is in your hands as obviously a picture that looks amazing in colour will look pretty terrible in black and white.

Film: Kodak Professional BW400 Black and White film

I wasn’t entirely happy with the first roll for many reasons. Mainly because everything looked so boring and bland, also because I was having difficulty getting used to the lens. I did, however, discover that the focus ring actually works on this camera (on my Diana Mini turning the focus ring makes next to no difference).

Nevertheless, over the past couple of weeks I've been trying again, but this time using a colour film. These turned out slightly better. I think this camera is going to be a learning curve. Sometimes it’s amazing and other times it feels deliberately frustrating. That being said I still got all of these beauties:

I really love double exposures.

Film: Fuji Superia 400

Overall I'm a lot happier with this film than I was with the first one. I shall have to persevere. I'm sure it'll all be worth it :)

Katy

Change

I seem to be changing my style of processing once a week so I thought I'd post some example of what I've been working on this week. 

I'm really happy with these results.

Sometimes I think I'm quite lucky to have millions of old photos that I've never done anything with to work on.

I think that last one looks pretty.

Also, I actually have a film to get developed tomorrow!

I'm a little apprehensive given that I still have no idea how that particular camera works, but hey, learning curve and trial and error, right?

Mostly error in this case.

Katy

Thursday

Thursday was spent in very, very chilly London.

Started the day off at the Royal Academy for the David Hockney exhibition. Despite not knowing much about Hockney I thought the exhibition itself was really nice and varied as there were many different mediums on display: paintings, photographs, iPad drawings, charcoal sketches, film, etc. However, there was a small child next to me at one point who claimed he was not inspired by Hockney's work, so it all comes down to personal preference.

All the babies I saw were loving it though.

You can tell I normally leave the exhibition reviews to my sister (the History of Art student) can't you?

After that we headed over to the Halcyon Gallery on New Bond Street to check out the Chihuly exhibition. This time I'll let the photos do the talking.

Can I have that last one in my future house please? 

These are silly but turned out pretty cool.

Ended the day at The Fortune Theatre to see The Woman in Black which was fabulously spooky and made me jump out of my seat a ridiculous amount of times. I loved it.

Hope everyone else is having a lovely extended weekend :)

Katy

Actionsampler

The Actionsampler is the newest of my cameras; my parents got it for me at Christmas. This had been sitting in my wish list on Lomography for a while and I was interested in trying it out purely because it was so unlike any camera I’d used previously.

The Actionsampler has four lenses, so you press the shutter once and it’ll take a series of four pictures on a single print.  As I've never had a multi-lens camera before I felt I was changing my attitude towards taking a photo. Before, I was only taking photos of things that were stationary and trying to keep really still while I was taking the photo, but with the Actionsampler you’ve got to think about movement, so I ended up taking a lot of photos of things that were moving, or I’d be moving while I was taking the photos.

Of course, you can stand still and take photos of stationary things. That looks good too:

I’ve only used one film in here so far but I have so many ideas for it. I can’t wait to play some more and get some crazy shots of people being silly.

The film I used here was Lomography CN 400. It was the first time I'd used any Lomography brand film because I've always gone for the slightly cheaper and more easily available alternatives. I'm so happy I finally started using it as the colours are incredible.

I will eventually be doing a post about my Holga 135 and my first play with black and white film but I want to use another film in it before I post it.

Katy

Blue Skies

Went for a lovely picnic with my family in Mote Park on Saturday morning as the weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was so nice to explore parts of the park I haven't seen in ages.

There's something about this weather that makes me want to listen to a lot of Will Smith and really cheesy pop-punk all the time.

I love it.

That last one is my favourite.

Sometimes I do have to remind myself that I am in fact in Maidstone.

Katy

First Day of Spring

The first day of spring is one of my favourite days.

Goodbye winter blues!

Katy