Taking photos isn’t just done by walking around on your own like some sort of a pedophile. Taking photos with other people is more than double the fun ! Especially when you don’t know the other people, but have similar interest, you’ll really enjoy yourself. Talking about experiences, camera, photograph, because if you already know the people your walking around with, yes its fun, but you’re only gonna talk about the same old crap. So try going out meeting new people…..
I myself have made a few friends during my life changing discovery of my Lomo obsession. I have made great friends at Lomography London, and met people in there too. I know it might sound to you I’m just constantly promoting Lomography, I’m not I only showing what Lomography have actually given to me. Keeping on the Lomo subject I have also made some very nice friends on Lomography’s own community “Lomo Homes“. So I think that cameras is a great way to socialized not just capturing moments…….
[He might look crazy but he is very friendly, he's also a photographer so that explains that...]
You don’t know how to interact by taking photos ? Well there’s a few way to do this, one of the way is easy but I’ve got to admit a little scary is when taking picture in well known public places you’ll always see at least one or two other photographers there. Go up to them (not in a scary way of course) talk to them about the cameras, that is why you’re both there right ? Because you’re taking photos, yes ? What’s the worst thing that could happen ? You’re in a public place, the person ain’t gonna grab you and run off ! If the conversation doesn’t work out the, who gives, try talking to someone else. Another way is that I found is the more enjoyable way for me, is go to an organized event or meet ups. Something like the Lomography Workshops or Lomomissions for example.
I have in the pass participate in a few of these Lomography workshops before, which was fun, but i just wish the people in it were more relax and just talk about the camera, photo, jokes, whatever. They tent to either come in groups or by themselves, no problem with that, however they make no attempts to interact with other groups/individual that are there, even though that’s the point of these workshops. This made the workshops not as fun as i hoped it to be, but yesterday I joined the group in LGS London (LGS = Lomography Gallery Store) in the Lomomission one – The Wien in London. Walking along the river with complete strangers. The best thing is this group is the friendliest group yet ! We all……wait for it……. Interact with each other, this was great ! This made the Lomomission amazing fun, I made friends from it and that just make photography more the fun to do.
So remember if you’re ever lonely, like me, because none of your existing friends enjoy photography. Go out and find new friends, its not as hard as you think and it’ll make photography more fun. You’ll get to know more about it also from exchanging knowledge you each know about photography……..
Last Christmas I went to Carnaby street with my cousin who wanted to buy his Girlfriend a present. He said she wanted this camera and since I do photography and he knows nothing about it he asked me to go along with him. It wasn’t till we got the the Lomography store that I realized it was the Lomo LC-A+ he wanted to get. At that time I have incredibly little knowledge of Lomography and their cameras, But I did see in the store the Lubitel 166+ which i fell in love with ! I walked around for a bit thinking if I should buy it, already convinced that I want it. That day I bought myself a Lomography camera which set off my obsession.
Since then I’ve been taking a lot of photos not just lomographic but photographic also, I’ve fallen in love with Analogue cameras and it have completely changed that way I take photos and live my everyday life. I have not yet once left my house with out at least one or two cameras with me, started at Christmas. I have made this video which to me is very important, it just shows what I have done since Christmas and not only that it also shows how me and my new friends really have connected within the space of 3 months. It just also shows what some one can accomplish if you’re passionate about the things you do.
So if you do like photography but only always just shooting on a digital I really think you should try out a bit of Analogue. It really is something, Because with Analogue I personally feel that you get more involve in the actual photographing itself. Rather than just seeing the image, think that its too exposed and just take another shot straight away or just taking a plain photo because you just going to Photoshop it, Photoshop is brilliant and I love to use it with my digital work but it’s not really “Photography” to me that is. I think if you’re really want to truly get into the world of photography, it’s getting involve with taking the photos itself and taking it so it looks interesting, rather than just taking something plain and making you made interesting by editing it. From my experience you can also experiment more when shooting with film that when shooting with digital, one of the example is my older post.
These days Analogue or film cameras are not really being used as much as in the past, this is a big mistake ! Because when you use a Digital camera not only most of the time your letting the camera do all the tricky adjustment for you, but you also just looking at what you’ve just taken if you don’t like you re-take it. This make you less involved with the photography aspect itself, you end up just taking an image rather than capturing the moment. the wonderful Lomography Society is one of the many groups trying to keep Analogue alive and this is one of the 100s of reasons why i love Lomography.
Lomography cameras are simple, low tech and easy to experiment with. Why not go out and try some maybe put a filter in between the Lens and the film. Maybe find a sheet of plastic cut a bit out and draw a patten on top before putting it in the camera. Give it a try do what you want with it. As i discovered its great fun and you can really get some good affects with it.
This is just the start ! This quick video is simply one short experimental stop motion i have done on an analogue camera rather than a digital. I wanted to make sure that it was going to work as well as a digital first, because the lack of viewing the image. However that makes it all the more fun ! This video is the end result of the experiment, as you can see it works. I have now planned a few more project that I am going be be working on. These project are going to all be an Analogue stop motion video and will all probably not be no longer a minute to two minutes, purely because the cost of films.
I have decided that i am going to make this first video longer and re-edit it and it’ll probably be done within a week or so.
