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

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

Fisheye

I got this little beauty early last year; it was a late Christmas present from my friend Steven. Definitely one of the best Christmas presents I’ve ever had!

I’d been interested in using a fisheye lens for a long time but had no idea where to start so I ended up looking at a few discussion forums for any helpful tips and suggestions.

I’d heard such mixed reactions online about the Lomography Fisheye One that I wasn’t expecting an amazing first roll of film. But, hey, it’s a learning curve, and you never know what you’re going to end up with unless you experiment.

Lounge on the Farm Festival 2011, Canterbury, Kent.

When I got the first roll back I was stunned. Considering I’d used the first half of the film on a wintry, rainy, overcast and miserable day in London, I was expecting everything to look incredibly drab, dreary and underexposed, but no. I got stuff like this:

The last half of the film was used in my garden when spring sprung (sorry…) and on a beautifully sunny day when I went to visit my little sister in Kingston-Upon-Thames. They looked pretty sweet too:

Needless to say I ignored all the criticism I’d read about the fisheye. I’ve only had a couple of minor hiccups with it and I’ve used it the most out of all my film cameras. This baby has been everywhere with me.

Eventually I’d like to get a Fisheye Two as well (purely so I can do double exposures and use a proper flash) but until then, I’m happy to have this baby as my weapon of choice.

Katy

Diana Mini

Diana Mini

Sadly my film cameras have had to go in to hibernation because I can't really afford to use them all at the moment. I figured in the mean time I'd do a post on each of them so I don't forget how wonderful they all are.

This is the Diana Mini and I think it is one of the prettiest cameras I have ever laid eyes on.

I got mine in 2010 while on holiday in New York and although the first roll of film was a little temperamental I fell head over heels in love with the results.

Here's one of the first photos I took with this camera. To this day I have no idea what happened here. I remember the camera refusing to wind on and the film getting ridiculously jammed up, but hey. Accidental double exposures are awesome!

The ace thing about the Diana Mini is that you have a choice of which format you want to take photos in. You can choose the square format: 

Or you can choose half-frame, which looks like this:

Because you get 2 photos on a single print you, technically, get twice as many photos. I like using half-frame because sometimes you can tell a little bit of a story with your prints.

People seem to think I planned this one. I think they give me a bit too much credit, most of the time I'm making this up as I go along:

I still haven't figured out the focus ring. I don't expect any of my film cameras to be particularly sharp, as if I want a perfectly focused, sharp image I'll use my digital camera, but whichever way I turn the focus ring it seems to make no difference to the image.

I don't mind though. I like the soft focus, it makes everything look slightly dreamy.

And sometimes it's quite nice when things go spectacularly wrong.

This one is my absolute favourite.

 The image on the left is the carousel in Bryant Park in New York and the image on the right is the sun rising over London 10 hours later. 

I guess the moral of the story is that making it up as you go along is perfectly okay.

Katy