dianaschnuth

Sure enough, I blew through that roll of film in my Lomo in no time. The last third or so of the roll I took in the laundromat this evening. I’m very curious about how this stuff is going to come out. I tried to use different focus ranges and even set the aperture once to see the difference between autoexposure and manual. If they come out, I should have some really keen lomographs. 🙂

I think I have one free roll of developing from Snapfish, so I’ll probably dig out one of those mailers and send out my roll of Lomo film tomorrow.

…Which reminds me, I think I still have a roll of film MIA to Signature Color. What was the last thing I photographed? Not Dayton, because I used my digital (and Amy took the pics at the museum with her digital). ::looks back for photo-worthy events in LJ:: Hmm. I dunno. ::checks checkbook register:: Oh, yeah! I went to the zoo with Aaron on our vacation. The check was dated for 8/2, so hopefully they should have my film by now. Jeez. Maybe I’d better check and see if my check has been cashed yet… and by whom.

PS – My layout is really almost done now. Check it out. w00t!

Well, in the midst of my website obsession, and shortly after the wrath of Hurricane Charley, my Lomo arrived from Florida. Surprisingly enough, after all the stink I made about wanting one, it has been sitting neglected on the kitchen table until today.

Today, in the midst of our other random errands, we purchased a three-pack of SR44 camera batteries and a three-pack of Kodak High Definition film (but only because I had a $3.00 off coupon). Now, according to the Lomographic Society website, a little red light was supposed to come on in the viewfinder if the batteries worked—unfortunately, I failed to note that in order to make said light come on, you have to actually press the shutter release. So, I was quite perplexed and ended up messing with the battery contacts and loading film before I realized that all I had to do was push the button and the little red light would come on. ::sigh::

Anyway, I now have a loaded Lomo, and have taken almost half a roll of film. I intend to keep it in my purse and hopefully find some spontaneous photos to capture. I understand that the first roll or two of Lomo film always sucks, so I’m not setting my sights too high for this first attempt. I’m just hoping that the film I loaded advances OK and that the shutter works and that the camera doesn’t suck too bad. For $100, it better not suck.

After surfing around awhile, hoping to find a used lomo for cheap, I instead found an interesting photo manipulation technique. I first found a Photoshop action to “lomo-ize” photos—basically pumping up the saturation and vignetting (darkening) the edges. Honestly, I wasn’t impressed. But then I found a link to an article on Dooce’s page, and this made me sit down and play for a while:

Here’s a nifty photo I took of a bee on some flowers:

Here’s the same photo after tweaking it with Dooce’s not-so-secret recipe:

Works well on portraits, but I think it looks pretty spiffy here, too.

One of the blogs I check on a regular basis is [daily dose of imagery]. I’ve been noticing that, in his technical photo info, he sometimes mentions a “lomo,” and he’s even won an award for one of his “lomographs”.

So, finally, I’m like, “OK. What is this lomo thing?” I go to the lomography page that Sam linked from his page, and it’s weird. I follow some links, check out eBay, check out PhotographyReview.com, check out the Popular Photography forums, and find mixed reviews. What I did find for sure is that the lomo:

• is a Russian-made compact 35mm camera
• has a fast wide-angle lens with manual focus and adjustable speed/aperture settings
• has a lens coating which makes colors more saturated
• receives mixed technical reviews from photo-snobs and art-snobs
• seems to have a two or three-roll learning curve before producing “good” images
• is currently more expensive than it should be, due to its cult status

Therefore, after obsessing over the lomo for an entire day, I have decided to purchase one—but only if I can get a new or gently used lomo for around $60. New, they cost $199.99 with the instruction manual and case. I’m not down with that… but if I can get a relatively cheap point-and-shoot with adjustable settings that can fit in my purse or pocket, I’m all about it.

Beth, was that four-pane motion-capture camera of yours a lomo? That’s not the model I’m going for, but I saw that the actionsampler looked kind of like the camera you had back in 2001 or so.

Hot. Tired. Kitty on lap. Don’t really feel like posting. Going to anyway.

Got my sunset and fireworks and kitty action pictures back from Dale Labs today in a record five days. Mailed them off last Wednesday, received them today (Monday). Most impressive. The turnaround, that is, not the images. Those are just ehh, IMO. Hang on—I’ll scan a couple for ya.

*runs upstairs to pick out a few good pics*
*cleans up rainwater on floor inside open front door*
*grabs pics, scans on Aaron’s computer*

OK, then. We’ve got a couple decent fireworks photos, a couple cute pics of Mei, sunset down Ventura Drive, and a couple pics off of an old roll of Aaron’s from last year.

So, I might send off my two rolls of Wildwood pics tonight or tomorrow, and see when I get those back. That was some crazy fast turnaround time. And good prints, too. I think I’ve finally found a photofinisher-by-mail that won’t screw me over.