Flickr star: mulberry_kei

On the heels of yesterday's Golden Half post, I want to highlight mulberry_kei, who has posted many of my favorite photos to the Golden Half Flickr group. Her Golden Half is very blurry, but it produces a pleasant effect.

Don't think, just shoot... dude

Possibly unintentionally funny video about Lomographers. Look at how creative and goofy (but, you know, thoughtful) they are!

A shoutout to my homies producing videos at Current.

About toy cameras

Once again, back to the infamous "don't think, just shoot." As a way of life, a doctrine? Unsustainable, insufficient. As a motor of development, a mental stimulant? Undeniable, imprescindible.

In a beautiful place out in the country

Glendalough, Ireland

Here's a photo I took using the "Kisekae" camera, which is a toy camera made in Japan by the totally awesome SuperHeadz. The appeal of the Kisekae is that you can cut out a piece of paper or photo and mount it in the front of the camera, which is transparent. I've been meaning to catalog the toy cameras I use beyond the Supersampler, because more than anything else, they're tons of fun to use. I've actually got a Supersampler image loaded in the front of the Kisekae right now.

This photo is definitely not my worst ever, and I think there's something sort of interesting going on here. However, the Kisekae is not the camera one would want in this situation! When you look closer, you'll find that the picture is quite blurry on the whole, where a piece of real glass would resolve more detail. (There's nothing more to resolve on the negative, because I'm scanning my own negatives now. Yesssss.)

forest for the trees

The camera wasn't the only thing that let this picture down of course. For starters, getting closer to those people would have helped a lot. I do think it's possible to make printable images with this camera, and I have one roll from summer (SUMMER!) that I know is worth revisiting. I'll scan some of the good shots from it and see what comes out. In the meantime, I've filed this under "useful failures."

Supersampler

The Supersampler (pictured above) is a simple device for recording four images on a single frame of film, over a two- or one half-second length of time. It has no viewfinder; as an afterthought, the designers included a rubber piece that would approximate one, but it falls off very easily and in any case it useless. The film is advanced by pulling a cord, at left. This builds up the tension that is released when the shutter is pressed, exposing the film sequentially.

Alcatraz

The Supersampler may be one of the most advanced Lomographic tools, as it explicitly incorporates elements of chance into the production of its images. In the span of two seconds an unexpected result can appear, whether it's because it's because of something happening in front of the camera or a surprising revelation due to the movement of the camera itself.

Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara

An evening at a Chivas game.

I don't really like using flash in very public places, as it draws attention, but I think being so easily spotted as a foreigner actually made it easier for me to be somewhat brazen with my camera this night. (Of course he would take pictures!) For purposes of discreteness, it helped that I was using the Golden Half, which is small enough to be slipped into a pocket, and also that my companions for the night had given me a Chivas jersey to throw on.

Estadio Jalisco is fairly old, but as Miguel, one of my hosts, told me, "es un templo de futbol" - it's a temple of football. Pele and Maradona both played there in their prime. I like the old-fashioned feel of these luxury boxes. This guy craning his neck to watch a replay on a TV above was the rowdiest fan in our area, at one point he was banging on the ledge with a metallic object of some sort.

Snapshot

I like to think of photography as an instinctive reaction - train a camera on a subject and you should be able to see the shot instantly. Of course that's not true all the time, but there is some unique power to the snapshot that's lost when you start mucking around with tripods. Let's frame it like this: if taking a picture is a matter of instinct, then the most important decision that a photographer can make is to simply have a camera with them! Some photographers carry a camera with them wherever they are. Viewed in this way, the interestingness of their images is then only limited by the range of situations that the photographer decides to enter.

Right now I don't value "refined" images very highly, or I don't like them any better for their refined qualities. I'm happy with the image above because I just barely caught it. A friend and I were sitting in the park enjoying some Chu-His, or Chizzle Hizzles, as he called them. I reached for my camera and got that one shot off just as the skater dudes were separating. (They were having their picture taken by the person at the right, can you tell?) It's far from perfect, but if I'd had any "gear" to deal with I wouldn't have gotten anything.

What a difference a Holga makes

Is there any?