Analogue Buys: 5kgs of Lomographic Goodness

4:30 PM , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

When the courier came on Wednesday morning with a 5kg package from Vienna, I really was over the moon. I signed the papers with shaky hands, said thank you to the DHL man, and run back waving a cutter like I was in some freaky rapture-moment, like those crazy people from some rural Indian village.

I couldn't believe the ActionSampler was so lightweighted, the Fisheye had such a pretty packaging [the cutest ever], the Diana Mini was that mini, the Pop 9 Gold was that shiny, the LC-A+ Russia Day was that... wow. It just is too tiny, too red, too lightweighted, just too much.


Obviously, this one is the camera I'm most thrilled about. I can't wait to take it somewhere cool and see what it can do. I love the red leather it is wrapped in and the cyrillic logo. The cable release, being this short, might only be useful for the B mode, it doesn't seem that useful for selfportraits, but I can't tell yet.

I must admit I was quite worried about the lens: its description read that "it comes with the original Minitar lens", but I wasn't sure it what either the Russian lens or its Chinese copy [though this dubt is just due to my paranoid nature, as you would expect a Russian lens from a camera named "Russia Day"]. It actually was the Russian Lens, that's the first thing I checked once I opened this box!

All the other plastic cameras arrived are fun and colorful, and I'd love to spend some days at the seaside just to try the ActinSampler and the Fisheye out! If I could only find somewhere to store all my cameras and rolls now...

Latest news: Lomography just published another article of mine! I wrote it some time ago and almost forgot about it! Here's the link to my article, Animal Experimentation with the Diana F+ and Diana Instant Back, I wrote it just for fun but it would be great to have some feedback! Too bad Lomography.com published it with enlarged pictures, now you can't almost tell what's in them!

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Holga 135BC: Last Summer

10:33 AM , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments








Last summer in July Marti and I packed up our stuff and went to the seaside. We spent there three weeks or so and had the greatest time. We always were at the bathouse, sunbathing, photo-snapping and joking with the guys. Nights were filled with friends, laughs and alcohol. A tablecloth-theft also occurred, and the same night we also accidentally stole a violet plant. But having no vase to put it in, we decided to plant it into a plastic cup. We didn't notice there was still some Negroni in it. We found the poor thing dead the morning after in our bedroom.

Going home was always quite adventurous, being wasted most of the time. We've spent whole nights chatting in the bedroom we shared in the attic, once safe and sound-ly at home. Dirty laundry and shoes on the floor, smeared make-up on our faces and sand all over the mattress. I've never seen a room that messy ever before.

Gine came for some days, John came for some days too, and we had lots of fun, met amazing people, and we both lost it all in the end. Everyone did loose a lot, and I guess we're all to blame. But time goes by, and I don't care anymore. 

I don't regret a thing, I never do, it was fun back then, now it's gone. Oh well.

All pictures taken by me on Holga 135BC on Fuji Velvia 100 cross-processed
[except photo #3 taken by Marti]

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Analogue Buys: Massive Lomo Shopping

1:51 PM , , , , , , 2 Comments

It's been a tough time, lately, lots of terrible things just happened, and I needed some distraction. I already had a cospicuous amount of piggies, and as Lomography recently announced some changes to piggy spending rules due to start today, yesterday was definitely the time to treat myself with some massive Lomo Shopping!

I'm about to blog about my soon-to-be [I have shipping-panic, so I'll keep my fingers crossed 'till the package comes] latest addiction to my camera/film collection, so feel free to leave before the boring thing starts ;-)

I had recently published a wishlist, but didn't stick to it much. Top of my wishlist was the new Lomo LC-Wide, but it was out of stock, so I had a hard time choosing a valid substitute. I've never owned any LC-A/LC-A+, so the LC-A+ RL was the perfect candidate, but then I realized it just looked too plain black. I know every LC-A aficionado out there will jump on their seat, call me a superficial, but I didn't want to buy a camera which looks too much like other small black camera I already have. That's why the first item in my shopping cart has been the brand new Lomo LC-A Russia Day, which is the same as a LC-A RL but wrapped in some seriously charming red leather and stuff.

The second camera I bought is a Diana Mini, just the basic version as I already have one Diana F+ and a Mr Pink (and a Diana+ too), and I have three more flashes, so there was no point in buying the flash version. I didn't really need this one, but I didn't need any of these cameras anyway. I wanted a LC-Wide because of the super wide 17mm lens, obviously, but I also loved that it could be a half frame camera too, and that's the reason why I decided to get a Diana Mini. Also, I love my Dianas, but they're a bit too clumsy for everyday use.

I already own a Fisheye Lens for my Dianas, but it don't like its results on 35mm film [my lab doesn't process 120 film], and I have some ideas for some pictures, so next in my cart was a blue Fisheye One. I know, you cannot shoot double exposures on the Fisheye One, but whatever.

Finally a camera that actually was in my wishlist: the Lomography Pop 9. This golden baby takes 9 identical pictures, has a built-in flash, and seems to work fine in close-ups. Did I mention it is golden? ;-) I already own a SuperSampler, but never got to use it due to its weird cord-thing. 

My interest in multilensed cameras led me to get the first camera developed by Lomography: the ActionSampler. The clear edition seems to be one of the weirdest cameras ever produced, and my SuperSampler is chrome, so no way I'll ever buy another chromed plastic toy.

I also bought two Agfa Le Box disposable cameras for outdoor use [no flash], one for my freak experiments and one for my sister: I've been trying to get her into photography for years but she never get hooked. Maybe this time, with a cheap disposable in her hands, she might finally get caught.

As I filled my cart with 7 cameras, I couldn't stock up on film as much as I would. I mentioned in my previos wishlist that I wanted to buy tons of black and white film, but I can't seem to find a decent photolab, so I merely bought a single roll of black and white film [Foma Action 400], and focused on slide film instead. 
I was curious about Lomography's own slide film, so I got one pack of XPro Chrome 100 and one of Xpro 200 [each pack = three rolls]. I wanted to try films I've never used before, so I picked 1 roll of AgfaPhoto Ct Precisa and 1 of Kodak Elitechrome ED 200, but then, as I only have one more roll of  Sensia 200 in stock, I bought one of them too.
I have plenty of negative rolls, but was curious about the Fuji Superia Reala and the old Agfa Vista 400, so I decided to give both of them a chance [also because they were expired, i.e. a little cheaper].

Last item in my cart was the black L-Case, which I didn't mean to buy at first as it prevented me from buying more slide film, but then I realized it was definitely better to have some case to safely carry my LC-A around.

Looking at this huge lot of stuff you might think I'm either super rich or helplessly broke. The whole thing costed €609, which is a crazy price I would never pay for such toys [and even if I would, I couldn't]. Luckily, I've been translating microsites for Lomography Italia for some time now, and adding all the articles I've written and translated, the piggies-giveaways and everything else, I had so many piggies that I only payed €64 for all these things! :D

I have four more microsites to translate, then I guess I'll just start writing an article every now and then, though the new rules on piggies-spending are a bit of a pain in the backside, so I guess it won't be soon before I'll buy anything from their shop, but I'll keep saving up for the LC-Wide... I can't wait to receive all these items! 

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Holga 135 BC: Summer 2010, A Strip

12:26 AM , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments


Last summer M and I went to the seaside and stayed there for three week. Our friends J and then G came for a visit too. I only shot one roll of film, an expired Velvia 100, but took a lot of pictures with my Diana F+ with the instant back. I'm quite fond of the pictures produced by my Holga 135BC... though I had to wait 'till December to get them developed [and I also had the usual fight with the guy at the photolab to get my roll cross-processed in C-41 chemicals].

As usual, they didn't print all my negatives [don't you ever get me started on that], and I couldn't quite figure out what shot #22 was all about. Tonight, after finishing my last batch of Lomography.com microsites translation, I finally managed to find a free online tool to reverse negatives. Nothing too professional, I had to do some iPhoto editing as the picture could barely be seen, but there he was in shot #22, J. I haven't seen him since last summer. We no longer talk, it's a pretty long and sad story. So glad to find him in that shot. It's kinda hard not to miss our long, random, drunk loose talks. Our days were utterly surreal, I can't think of a single lazy sunday afternoon that didn't eventually turned out in something crazy, risky, and possibly illegal too. I could write a book about it. I might do that someday.

Now, back to the now. Last Sunday we went downtown and after a yummi brunch we went to visit a Baroque exposition. Not being much of a fan of 17th century art, I was lucky enough to find some medieval German glassworks. And some illuminated manuscripts. And a series of paintings that really inspired me. I snapped a few pictures with my beloved red Konica Pop, mostly architecture and us having brunch, but that was just a simple 400 ISO colour negative, nothing too exciting.

I forgot to mention that I acquired a new marvel box some time ago: a green Konica Pop! It's so lovely and everything seems to work fine, I still haven't tested it yet as I'm saving it for a Fuji Provia to cross process. A green camera deserves some "green film", doesn't it?

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