Let's talk about Lomography

With technology ever advancing, man has progressed from using typewriters to electronic tablets, gas burners to induction cooktops, fossil fuels to solar/wind/nuclear power, all in the space of just several decades. In fact, in recent times, the acceleration of technological developments and the increased average living standards in developed countries, coupled with the younger generations strapped with more dispensable cash, paved the way for larger consumer markets, which meant that some things that used to only be available to the professionals are readily available to anyone who can afford them. One professional tool that is no longer only possessed by those who use it to earn a livelihood is the SLR camera. The general public, with a bit of practice, can now take photographs with blurred backgrounds, special effects, and sharp detail. Furthermore, they can use Photoshop software, which can be easily downloaded online or purchased, to touch up pictures, all of which is enough to give professionally trained photographers a run for their money.

Then there is a sub-culture out there that likes to challenge modernity and trends; revive things once long lost in the past; rename them; and ironically create another trend through this process. Lomography is one of them.

Lomography can be described as artistic experimental photography, using low-tech and/or high-tech analogue cameras. Plastic toy cameras from many years ago, such as the Diana and Holga, have been brought back into the market scene, as their basic image capture without light adjustment and focus produces an image with unpredictable effects, such as 'dream-like' blurring, which, while were considered to constitute inferior photo quality in the past, are now considered to be artistic.

Some of the toy camera models have been revamped to allow enthusiasts to have more control over the image they want to produce, with optional accessories available (usually sold separately) such as flash, fish eye lens, and colour filters. Although photographic film has become progressively less readily available since the digital revolution, it is still the main recording medium used in lomography. In fact, the film component can become an artistic tool in itself, being produced by lomo brands in different colours options and varying degrees of colour saturation, which are designed to create colour contrasts and influence the sharpness and brightness of the images.

Like all hobbies that have experienced a resurgence in popularity though, such as card-making, knitting, and jewellery making, this revived hobby does not come at a cheap price. Despite toy cameras originally being intended to be inexpensive novelty items, the ones that are produced now, which target professional and amateur photographers, have massive overheads. The basic Diana model, for example, was available to retailers at a wholesale price of 50 cents US per unit, back in the 1960s, according to Wiki; the price for this camera with its low-quality plastic lens, today, costs over US$50 (US$53.60 on lomography.com, as at 14/1/12). Costs for the camera, accessories, and film aside, an ongoing expense would be that to get the photos professionally developed; that is, if you can even find a place that offers this service. Nowadays, few photo counters do this on site, so it takes at least a week to obtain your photos. Of course, for the impatient few who can afford it, there are home photo developing kits available online for purchase.

Being an avid photographer myself - though only in the love-taking-photo-at-every-opportunity sense, and generally of food (the true love of my life, as you know :P) - the idea of lomography wrapped me in its spell and had me longing to try it out. So naturally, when I saw a Japanese toy camera on sale at Kinokuniya (a massive bookshop in the city - think Borders, but with a larger variety of stationery and odd things (like the toy camera I found) and books/magazines from Japan and some other Asian countries) on one of my Melbourne trips last year, I had to buy it. It's the 'special limited edition' Vanilla Biscuit Camera, which comes with the Love Toy Camera Vol 2 bookazine by e-mook (filled with presumably photo-taking tips, a lot of which I can't really understand with my mediocre Japanese language skills):

Vanilla Biscuit Camera

As you can see from the picture above, the toy camera is simple and pretty small and light, fitting into the palm of my hand (and my hand is quite small, I'm told). It has a key ring attachment, so you could even use it as a bag charm and even smuggle it into camera-free venues (not that I'm advocating for that sort of conduct *cough cough*)! The neat thing about this little guy is that although it is a toy camera, it is fully digitalised; that is, it is a W58.7 x H41.7 x D15mm toy digital camera. The limited memory capacity only allows it to take up to 25 pictures on the highest quality setting (you could get more pictures if you select the poorer specs option - but I wouldn't push it), but there are some of the functions you'd expect on normal digital cameras: a self-take mode; continuous picture taking mode (up to 3 shots); you can select landscape or macro mode (though I have yet to try it out); you can cancel all taken images or delete the last image; and, get this, it can also record videos! No, really. Only for like 17 seconds and without sound, but, hey, it's a toy camera, what more would you expect from it? Another cool feature is that it can be attached via the included usb cable to double as a webcam. Not bad, huh?

This Biscuit Camera runs on a single AAA battery, and, because it has no removable/replaceable memory card, you have to be vigilant about transferring the photos to your computer (via usb cable, through the file transfer program you have to install with the included CD-ROM (Windows-compatible only, I believe)) or the pictures will be lost as soon as the battery runs out - which is very fast. I've only used my camera to take some snaps several times, and I've pretty much used up a pack of batteries already. Here are some of the photos I've taken with this cute little gadget:

High Tea at Palazzo Versace (Gold Coast)', New Years Day 2012 - Silver teaware

Orchids

Surfers Paradise Beach - Foot prints in the sand

Landscape + people

Timezone, Surfers Paradise - DDR - active movement

Food - Day time, indoors, direct natural light exposure (next to window)

Food - Night time, indoors, enclosed space with indirect medium intensity artificial light

For a tiny plastic thing that's intended as a toy camera (though obviously marketed towards lomography fans, as the magazine suggests), I'm actually quite impressed with the picture quality. From the pictures above, it's plain to see that it performs better in bright backgrounds, obviously due to the absence of an integrated flash. The lack of sharp focus and light filtering functions produces an aged photograph look, which is quite interesting.

What I don't like about it is that, due to the fact that the lens does not communicate with the viewfinder, what you see through the latter is not necessarily what is snapped. That is, if you centre an object in the viewfinder, it will probably end up being off-centre (like the orchid picture above). The size of the object that is taken in by the lens is also unpredictable, so I guess it is advisable to take photos from a far enough distance, so that the object lies in its completeness in the middle-ish of the view finder.

Overall, I think that it's a useful little tool for taking random pictures that have a unique, rustic look. I really like it, and am still intrigued by how a little hollow plastic casing can support so many functions! Although, I find it puzzling - quite paradoxical - that manufacturers should want to incorporate unrefined, basic photo-taking function with modern digital technology. The tiny memory space and high battery drainage means that it's obviously not something you'd want to take with you to an event where you want to simply point-and-shoot and have clear pictures that capture a lot of detail. But that's not the purpose of lomo cameras anyway, is it?

My sister went ahead and bought the chocolate version of my camera at a similar price from a different place, and it looks absolutely delicious, moulded into the shape of a block of chocolate! She hasn't been using it though, because she has a Mac. I can't wait to get my hands on some other lomo cameras - there's so many out there with different functions and special effect-creating accessories! Perhaps I'll have to wait until I have the disposable income to support this expensive hobby though...