Surprising Studio

LC-Wide (Kodak BW400CN) - ACDC Lane - Cherry Bar.

So, Melbourne. You have been been impressing me lately. Yes, you are getting colder, but you have resisted too much of that silly rainy windy mess that you are known for. Among other things you have opened some pretty amazing doors lately, including of the physical variety... the physical art/creative studio variety. 

I have longed for a little while now to have a place where I can dedicate my time to my creative artistic projects, my post-grad coursework and my Lomography freelance work. A few of weeks back I responded to an advert of the Creative Spaces website for a desk space in a communal studio just a couple of blocks from my house in Carlton. After meeting the awesome bunch of people who share the space, they decided that I fit the bill & I was welcomed into the world of Bouverie Studios! Hurrah!

The past few of weeks that I've been working in the studio have been super productive & very much worth the extra rent. I recommend anyone who doesn't feel like they have the space or solitude they need in their current working space to seek out a studio space, it very much worth it for your own peace of mind & the best outcome of your work. I'm surprised just how much I can get done on nights & weekends, more than I ever did working out of my bedroom in a share house.

What has surprised you lately?

x 

Mel

O'lovely!

   

O'lovely - LC-A, LC-Wide & Diana Mini (various film types)

Back in January I had the pleasure of joining the wonderful O'lovely girls, Laura & Shakira for a photo shoot, here in Melbourne. The theme was 'runaways', so we spent the afternoon shooting at a local train station & getting up to general hijinks.

O'lovely have just arrived back from recording new material in New Zealand... so keep an eye out at the links below for new music.

O'lovely at Triple J Unearthed
O'lovely My Space
O'lovely Facebook

x
Mel

Spotty Melbourne

LC-Wide (Kodak BW400CN) (colour spots added in Photoshop)

I'm a big believer in being authentic in analogue film photography, especially when portraying the end result truthfully. I'm not big at editing my film shots, I pretty much just remove dust & straighten the occasional photo. However since doing Blogshop in Sydney back in December, I've been inspired to add a little something to a few of my film photos. I don't think this will become a regular occurrence but it was fun &interesting to play around with a few effects & such in Photoshop.

These photos are from a selection from I took in Melbourne back at the end of last year... & these three just seemed to work well together to me.

How do you feel about post-processing / digitally editing your film photos?

x
Mel

The Lovely, Chanelle Davis

LC-A & LC-Wide (Kodak BW400CN, Kodak Ektar 100 & Lomography Slide 200)

The excellent & amazing Olivia invited me along to shoot with the beautifully talented Chanelle Davis a couple of weeks back. Liv shot DSLR & skirted around her with my LC-A & LC-Wide. It was my first real shoot & I have already learned many lessons from the results I got... but it was a super fun day & I can't wait to hang out with these awesome Kiwis again soon.

x

Mel

Oh, LC-Wide!

LC-Wide (Kodak BW400CN)

Forgive me Visa, Forgive me MasterCard - for I have sinned! I promised myself that I wouldn't buy any new cameras this year & I did very well at this, until a couple of weeks ago, when I caved & purchased the Lomography LC-Wide. (Trust me, now there will be no new cameras for a very... long... time!)

I always have a few nervous rolls of film when I start with a new camera, it can take a couple of rolls to really feel the camera's mojo & by the time I shot my 2nd roll of film in my new LC-Wide... I can confirm that it's love!

I love my LC-A, but I must say that the LC-W is doing it's best to win a place in my heart. The wide lens is... W I D E & I was a little scared off in the beginning about having to get so very close to my subjects when shooting, but to be honest I am really liking some of these 'people from a distance" shots... something about the wide lens works so very well with the little lane ways of Melbourne.

Getting used to only 2 distance settings after using a LC-A for such a long time has been interesting & even though I've not used the square frame, half frame or MX options yet, I can't wait to really see what this camera can do.

In other Lomography news, the Australia/NZ Lomography crew are setting up a Lomography stall at the Melbourne Finders Keepers Markets on April 20th & 21st, so if you're in the fair city of Melbourne next weekend come along & have a look & play with all the cool Lomography cameras & gear. (You may even see me hanging around, so come say Hi!)

x Mel

Talking of changing seasons

Diana Mini (Lomography 800CN & Kodak BW400CN films)

The season change is coming, daylight savings is finished, the clocks have fallen back & colourful cardigans are again making their way into the wardrobe of every girl (& fashionable man) in Melbourne.

Loves of the week include: new yellow shoes of awesome, DesignLoveFest, Blogging from the Heart & Liv.

x Mel

Friends in Black & White

LC-A (Kodak BW400CN)

I often forget how much I love using black & white film in my LC-A... a wander around the streets of Melbourne & a couple quiet drinks with some work friends easily changed that.

The season is slowly changing here, the nights are getting cooler, the mornings have a slight chill, jackets & cardigans are slowly emerging from closets. Soon the light will become scarce & I will be pushing 400 & 800 ISO film through my cameras & watching the leaves fall.

x Mel

NYC - Cityscape

LC-A (Various film)

New York City, three small words, one big city. The NYC skyline is memorable, formidable & unforgettable. It seems at times, that each & every building was created entirely to inhabit the city, that it any of these buildings were plucked from NYC & transplanted into any other city in the world, that they would be out of place. They only have one true home.

We have all seen this skyline in numerous films & photographs, a heavy bridge of buildings skirted by the rivers and ultimately the the bay. There is a certain romance & stupor that this cityscape evokes, a feeling of home, of loneliness, of longing & fantasy.

NYC, an island of beauty & buildings; souls & hearts : financiers & artists.

x Mel

NYC Guest Post: Fotodudenz

“In the gift shop” Hasselblad Xpan & 30mm, Kodak BW400CN

"Hi, my name is Matthew, some people know me as Fotodudenz and two people know me as Wideboy. In September 2010 after years of deliberation I finally made it to New York, girlfriend, 3 film cameras and one digital camera (purely for the video) in tow. Mel has asked me to share a few images and write some words about my experiences.

My biggest fear about shooting film in the USA was how many X-ray machines my films would have to endure as you pass through the overly paranoid TSA at the airports. I visited New York on the 9th anniversary of 9/11 and they were extra paranoid. I just took a minimum amount of film with me and bought more when I arrived, you can’t go New York without visit to B&H!"

“Canal Street Station” Voigtlander Bessa L & 12mm, Kodak Ektar

"When you arrive you’ll probably be jet-lagged to all hell so make the most of it and get out there and shoot! The early morning light is amazing, when the sun comes up it peeks its way through the gaps between the buildings and make these amazing slithers, it also reflects back and forward off the windows and makes pockets of amazing soft light. It’s also well before most people in New York get up and you pretty much have the streets to yourself.

If you’re into shooting people New York is awesome, most of them seem to not give a fuck but use your common sense, oh and don’t worry, they’ll tell you if they don’t want to have their photo taken. I had a few conversations with people I took photos of, the most interesting was with the couple who are in “The Sunbather and the Ice Breaker”. I was taking a photo nearby and he yells out “So do you like photos?”, he showed me photos of Coney Island in the winter and there was snow on the beach! Surreal. I must go back in winter. She didn't give away too much about herself, she looked like she had spent a lot of time in the sun. We were there on September 11th and she told me that she hadn't been to Manhattan since 9/11."

"The Sunbather and the Ice Breaker" Hasselblad Xpan & 30mm, Kodak BW400CN

"What to see: The all of the obvious places like The Statue of Liberty, The Guggenheim, Central Park, The Empire State Building, The Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges and Grand Central Station. Don’t leave anything until the last minute, I got sick on the second last day of my trip and I didn’t get to see some stuff, oh well, I’ll just have to go back sometime. Check out Coney Island, it’s about an hour south from Manhattan in Brooklyn and if you’ve got heaps of time, Montauk, East of East Hampton."

“Tucker” Hasselblad Xpan & 30mm, Kodak Ektar (I think)

Matthew can be found at www.fototheque.com & on Flickr.

LC-A: A History in Film

Welcome to LC-A: A History in Film! 

This is a rundown of all the film I have used since I first received my LC-A camera 18 months ago. Please feel free to ask any questions that come to mind, or if I have missed anything out that you would like to know, then please drop me a comment.

I hope this post can give you an idea of what kind of results you can achieve by using different film with your LC-A, it is by no means definitive, but I hope it can help you in your choice of film.

Fuji Sensia 100 ISO Slide Film (cross-processed)
[more photos here]

Sensia 100 was one of the first films I ever used in my LC-A... I wanted to try out slide film, found a couple of expired rolls at the local photo lab & took my new camera out for a day. I was so impressed with the beautiful pinks, purples & blues that you get from cross processing Sensia 100. One thing I found though is that if there is a strong light source in the frame that the shadows become very strong in the photos, so it may be worth shooting it at 50 ISO to lessen the darkness.

Rollei Crossbird 200 ISO (cross-processed)
[more photos here]

I was blown away with the results I got from Rollei Crossbird in my LC-A, the amazing yellows & greens and rich dark contrasts. It really is a perfect match for the LC-A, along with the fact that it's packaging states that you process it in C-41, making it easier to convince your local photo lab to cross process it for you without batting an eyelash! 

You can see my Rollei Crossbird review on Lomography.com here.

Fuji Superia 200 ISO (colour negative)
[more photos here]

Fuji's colour negative films are renowned for their colour balance & fine grain. I have to say that I was surprised with the beautiful quality these photos have, a light vignette without cross processing & lovely colours. This film is a delight to use & a wonderful choice for when you want a little more speed than a 100 film with a lovely fine grain. 

Kodak T400CN 400 ISO (black & white colour negative, now sold as BW400CN)
[more photos here]

To say that I love Kodak BW400CN is an understatement! It is one film that has never let me down, and has always given me consistant results. In the LC-A it gives balanced light & shadows, beautiful details & if well focused, beautiful crisp focused images. Another reason to love this film is that it is a C-41 development black & white film, so you can develop it cheaply & easily.

Rollei Redbird Redscale 400 ISO (colour negative)

[more photos here]

Rollei Redbird is a delight to use, if you are prepared to break the rules a little. I know it says its 400 ISO, but rate it lower, at between 50 & 200, you will find more than just reds & oranges, soft to bright yellows, lime to blue greens & beyond! I love redscale, but with higher ISO films it tends to get a little too grainy for my liking, so I tend to push these kind of films a little lower on the ISO & the light & detail they pick up are amazing & make for stunning photographs. With the LC-A especially, I find if I use the non-automatic aperture or zone focus, you can get wonderful results in portraits & close up shots. 

Kodak E100G Ektachrome 100 ISO (slide processed)

[more photos here]

Bright saturated colours? Fine grain? Excellent light expression & capture? Oh Kodak E100G Ektachrome, be still my beating heart! This is sadly a film I have not used as much as I would like too, but it is a stunning film & although I have only ever had it processed as slide film, I'm sure that you would get just as wonderful results when cross processed. I think that after the results I have had with this film in my LC-A I will continue to slide process it. The colours are truly amazing & consistant, it is an expensive film, but well worth trying.

Lomography XR50-200 Redscale 50-200 ISO (colour negative)
[more photos here]

Similar to the Rollei Redscale 400 ISO film, this film from Lomography has been promoted as a wide spectrum ISO film & is incredibly good at it! The further to push the ISO down, the more yellows, greens & blue you get. It is also a wonderful film to use in the LC-A if you want some unusual results without using slide film and cross processing. It is cheap to buy & process, from my experience once you start using it, you can't stop.

Lomography X-Pro Chrome ISO 100 (cross processed)
[more photos here]

The Lomography range of slide films really are wonderful to use & with the LC-A they will give you rich bright colours, textures & vignettes. X-Pro Chrome gives your traditional 'Lomo' effect & is wonderful for using on bright sunny days. You can push down the ISO a little to capture more light, but I tend to stick to it's 100 ISO rating. You can guarantee that your results will always be quite fun & colourful.

Lomography X-Pro Slide ISO 200 (cross-processed)
[more photos here]

Like X-Pro Chrom 100 from the Lomography range, the Lomography X-Pro Slide 200 will give you the traditional 'Lomo' effects, but with a little more light capture & a sea of yellows, greens & blues. A aqua blue overtone tends to be present in this film when cross processed, while with works well for many photographic scenes, it isn't everyone's cup of tea. I personally love it for street photography, where it brings out shadows & highlights, for this reason if you want to catch more mid-tones in your photographs, it would be best to go with a colour negative film in your LC-A. 

You can see my review of Lomography X-Pro Slide ISO 200 on Lomography.com here.

Kodak Ektar ISO 100 (colour negative)
[more photos here]

I had so many people tell me how wonderful Kodak Ektar was, they said that it is the saviour of colour negative films, I was doubtful... then I used it in my LC-A & discovered the slide like quality to it's colours & textures. Again I haven't used this film as much as I would have liked, but can't wait to use it more in the future. It has a beautiful blend of super fine grain & rich colours, along with the zone focus of the L-CA you could do wonders with this film.

Another tip you might find helpful is, if you own a LC-A without the +, you don't have a little window on the back door to see what film you have in your camera. If like me, you tend to forget what film you have in your camera at any given time, then you might find the Washi Tape & Sharpie Film Discovery Solution helpful.

I have also written a Diana Mini: A History in Film post that you may find helpful if you use the Diana Mini, Holga 135BC or similar 35mm plastic cameras.

x Mel