lomography?

Ever heard of it? I just found out about it today...

http://www.lomography.com
http://www.lomography.com/bmwx3/
http://williamburdette.net/lomography/

I cant even really figure out what it is - I guess a type of photography (lifestyle?) that was inspired by the LOMO camera brand? I really want to try it ... sounds like a lot of fun with great results. Those 10 rules ... pure genius ... its like a poem ...

What do you think?

Yeah I have been hearing about lomography for about 2 years now...
Never really understood about it either.
Just that it's an old school camera and the Japanese use it a lot!

Those craaaaazy Japanese. *runs away from mo0*

Very interesting, I am gonna google for more about this.

Yeah, it almost seems like they keep it kinda secret and mysterious, even on lomography.com. Like they never tell you straight out what it is, just let you make your own interpretations. Maybe thats the kind of people that do it and they want to start doing it. Very interesting in that respect I think.

i think they dont tell you straight out b/c you're not supposd to follow any rules...
but anyways, i was wondering if those cameras were rigged in some way to be ideal, or are they just generally cheap cameras. i mean, could i go dig up my mickey mouse camera from '90 and get similar results?

also, am i still able to take like any ISO film to a drug store and get it developed?

A little digging and voila >>>

http://www.lomography.com/content/about/story/base.html

Following the 10 golden rules of Lomography, lomographers shoot as many impossible pictures as possible in the most impossible of situations from the most impossible of positions. These lomographs are put together to make up vast walls of pictures with tens of thousands of images shot by what are often hundreds of individual lomographers, and then exhibited all over the world.

i have a "supersampler": http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00007I2KN.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg it has two settings, .2 seconds or 2 seconds and the curtain simply moves across four plastic lenses within that time frame. the black plastic rectangle is the "viewfinder" (represents one section on the four-sectioned photo) and to wind the film you have to pull that string with the black ring attached to it.

the camera is plastic, used to be sold only in toy stores, no batteries, no flash, takes 35mm film/can be processed anywhere, need ISO 400 if not 800 and to stay outdoors in the sun.. my first roll of 36 had about 5 ok ones and 1 or 2 great ones (it could just be me =P but i work at a photofinishing place, so we see the stuff kicking around), lots of guesswork, but i think you can get used to it - need to do some testing to figure out how to orient the camera, i.e. to make sure the first frame is where you want it (top or left) and that you're actually getting the subject in the frame.

the holga is another popular one, it's also plastic, and it's a medium format camera. square photos look nice, and the burning around the edges is a random result of the cheapness of the camera - turns out that looks good though =)

the world is FULL of bad lomography, but only the good ones get posted. it's tons of fun though. if you buy the kit, it comes with a nice photo book with some really funny instructional / (inspirational?) writing, here are some gems (word for word):

The SuperSampling Lomographer has a third and a fourth eye that defrost the situation, making everything trickle together into a mini-continuum...before it all gets packed back together into a single oblong artwork. Zzzzt Zzzzt Zzzzt Zzzzzt - just like that!

SuperSampling can save your life - everyday, while doing sport, while having sex and when you're off travelling. You haven't got a clue where you really are, what you're doing or what you should be doing, or where the whole thing is actually leading? Reach for your SuperSampler and sho-o-o-ot the soul out of your mortal remains

kinda like the holga. Hi everyone.

HA HA holgas. Yeah i never got what exactly what it was either

pretty cool stuff actually.. I want one now :P