LomoChrome Purple

Last year, I bought 5 rolls of 35mm LomoChrome Purple. I finally shot the first roll with my Nikon N55. Unfortunately, I can't adjust the ISO with that camera and the Purple ranges from 100-400 ISO. So, from what I can tell with my camera, if the film isn't DX coded, it defaults to 100 ISO. The colors seems to really come out the best in bright sunlight. Some side by side shots...

Diana F+ - 55mm Close Up Lens

I haven't been intentionally putting off my lens testing project, but I sure have been slacking since the debacle that was the last 2 rolls of failed film. It's making me very very nervous!

Today I went out & shot a roll of Fuji Velvia slide film with the close up lens. I attached a marked ribbon to my camera to insure the accurate 6" focal distance was met. It was pretty cloudy out today & that film is only 100 speed so I am hoping that it comes out alright. I want to develop one of those rolls of Velvia normal, but I'm not sure if I should cross process this one or not. Decisions, decisions.

Next up is the 55mm lens. I have a lot of film to use up so I'm also adding to my testing list the 2 separate flashes I have as well. Plus, I can not deal with the price it costs to develop & scan at the lab, so I'm on the hunt for an all in one wireless printer that hopefully can scan negatives as well. Researching is one of my least favorite things to do, so I'm not looking forward to it, but since my printer has died, it's something I need to do soon.

I really want to do some fun photography projects. I need to get some friends over to goof off in front of the camera.

Diana F+ - Adventures in Lens Testing

I am officially 2 rolls into my lens testing project. I shot a roll of 120 Fuji Velvia with the 110mm lens and a roll of 120 Efke IR with the 38mm lens. I dropped the IR off for developing today and now I am completely freaking out. I can not tell you how worried I am. I spent hours and hours looking up tid bits about IR shooting, and the most consistent answer I found was to shoot it at 1-2 seconds in full sun at f 16 with an IR filter and tripod. That translates into "partial clouds" on the Diana F+. I was able to borrow a proper IR filter (87C) from a friend and have my brother's old tripod. I took along my notebook to jot down notes. I was feeling prepared and excited!

Having just shot my last 3 frames this afternoon, I am completely convinced I totally fucked this roll up. First off, I forgot to advance the film 3 times on this roll! Twice today. I can't believe I did that. I don't think I've had that problem yet. Then the first few frames of the roll my shutter release cable kept sticking open. I forgot to check it first before I put it on, so it was in the lock position, and therefore stayed open after I released it. Doh! I think I was letting my careful preparation & nerves get the best of me. These are horrible, simple mistakes.

I am completely worried that I have overexposed most of the shots. I was keeping the 1-2 second rule in my mind, but the first few frames are at least 3 seconds due to the shutter release issue, and some of the last couple frames are double exposed on top of having a longer shutter time - 5 seconds. What am I thinking?

I really wanted to test this roll out at varying shutter times to get a better idea of what these shots would look like. I don't know why I thought 5 seconds or even 9 seconds was a good idea. The first day I shot was a bit hazy, but the sun was out & today was sunny. I am afraid these are all going to come back blank. That leaves me with 6 shots out of 12 I am holding out hope to come back nice. This is not a cheap hobby so I am really freaked out about it. Now I'm looking forward and at the same time dreading Friday when I pick the roll up.

Lomoland

I've decided that they named the Diana F+ because there are even more ways to fuck up your film than with your standard Diana camera. First off, I have that giant kit with all the bells & whistles. That includes a 35mm back, which I've already damaged, having it less than a year. I keep my camera in my bag all the time, everywhere I go. I don't have a case for it, b/c I just don't want to cover it up, but that has managed to get me a broken off tiny plastic lever that used to switch between panoramic & normal framing. Oopsy. I've still managed to get it to slide over, but it's a major pain in the ass. I was pretty mad at myself for that one.

Next, I've basically tried out all the lenses that came with the kit, however, I have been extremely bad about writing down what lens I used with what shot, and what settings I had it at, so it's anyone's guess when looking at the pictures. I just recently got 4 rolls of film back from the lab which span from last summer to last month. All are 35mm film, 3 redscale 100 & 1 expired color neg. I'm only now on my very first roll of 120. Thinking back I've never shot on 120 before so this will be interesting. I was very confused by the paper wrapper thing, but hopefully didn't fuck it up too much. I did fuck it up just a tad... Oh by the way, the 120 has no rewind? Agh! Horrible. Also, it advances by itself in my bag. Great. When you only have 16 pictures, you really don't want to loose 2 frames to accidental advancement. Do yourself a favor, don't advance the wheel until you're ready to shoot the next frame!

I've decided I'm not a huge fan of redscale. Half the time I forgot that was what was in my camera, and that the ISO is only 100, so a lot of photos didn't come out too well. I really should study up more on how to use my lenses more effectively & if I ever try redscale again, how to get better pictures out of it. I've seen other people's pictures using redscale & I'm quite jealous. I did manage to get some cool shots at least.

I had all these grand plans of photo shoots but so far, a year later, I'm still just snapping off casual photos. I hope the horrid price of developing w/ sprocket holes will motivate me into being more selective in what I'm shooting. I really like the idea of getting the film scanners Lomography has for 120 & 35mm film, but I don't have a scanner to use them with. It certainly would save me some money in the long run if I keep shooting as much as I do.

I'm not sure how to get a more round picture out of my fisheye lens. I think because I had such a wide back plate on, it prevented that cool circle. Also I must be a moron while using the telephoto lens. I really had no idea how far out & how far cropped it'd be. I took a picture of a building & when I got the film back, I was trying to figure out why on earth I took a picture of the tops of some random buildings. Whoops. I had completely cut out the subject of my photo & didn't even realize it. The close up lens for the 55m wide angle lens is still a strange one to me. First off, when you have the wide lens on, and you adjust the focus range to the shortest distance, then put the close up lens on, it bumps the focus range b/c it'll stay on better when the focus range is far. I'm not even sure what pictures I used it on so testing these lenses out should have been more of a project to me than it was. I should probably buy a cheap roll of film and do an actual lens test, actually write down some info, and perhaps read those manuals.

Anyway... here are some shots I like from rolls #3-6.

Roll #4:

Roll #5:

Roll #6:

That's all she is, new ways to wear old clothes.

I finally got the 2 rolls of film developed from my Diana camera. They both have a scratch all the way across the film. Grumble grumble... Heather wants me to do a scratch test to see if it's from my camera or the lab. I really hope the lab just fucked up b/c I don't want to figure out how to fix the camera. I was already annoyed at the lab b/c they "forgot" to charge me for one of the rolls of film so I had to pay more when I went to pick them up & they fucked up the scans. One of my pictures didn't get scanned. And a bunch of my pictures weren't scanned properly so the image is like part of one picture part of another. Super annoying. I also would've just gone to the LA Lomography store to try them out but I had a weird B&W roll I couldn't just get done at Target or wherever, so I brought all the rolls to this pro lab I use. They couldn't adjust their machine to scan my Diana rolls to include the sprocket holes... which sucks, b/c that was half the fun. So I have them scanned like normal pictures & a couple of them came out cute but overall I'm a little disappointed. I can't wait to try out some more & maybe some better rolls of film too (not expired crap film I got for free). Here are some of the fun times...

There was a photo I liked off the B&W roll of film I had laying around. It's from when I went out to Linda Vista Hospital w/ some friends & people from Yelp for a photo day. I forgot it at the time & found it months later.

I also went to the Norton Simon Museum. I really like that place & hadn't been in years. They have a Hiroshige exhibit right now. They also own a ton of Degas, so if you like ballerinas & sculptures, you should go.

The title of the statue on the left is hilarious: Woman Taken Unawares

The Mulberry Tree by Van Gogh. It's really beautiful up close.

Jan van Bijilert - Mars Vigilant (Man in Armor Holding a Pike). He looks pretty awesome.

Pietro Anotonio Rotari - Young Girl Writing a Love Letter. She's giving a most sultry look.

I saw these crows at work one day. They were snuggling w/ each other & at first I didn't think they were real. I took my camera out a bit late, but the one on the left was resting its head on the other one.

I went downtown a few days ago & love how much stuff is reflected in the buildings there.

I was also a good girl & finally used all my birthday gift certificates. Which mostly meant spending time on itunes finding something I wanted to buy. I bought quite a few things actually but a couple bands I got I'm finding I like a lot. No Singles by Japandroids has 'Darkness on the Edge of Gastown' stuck in my head as well as 'Roll Up Your Sleeves' off of These Four Walls by We Were Promised Jetpacks.

http://www.myspace.com/japandroids
http://www.myspace.com/wewerepromisedjetpacks
http://www.nortonsimon.org/