Two years ago, I had wanted to dabble into Lomography. Talking to my photographer hobbyist friends though, I was convinced that 1) lo-fi was the way to go, but 2) I’d be better off with a film SLR than a toy camera. And so our first foray to Hidalgo was not for a cheap plastic camera, but to find a good bargain on an old film SLR. Then there goes the rest of the story of my adventure into the fun world of photography.

Then a week or so ago, I found myself gravitating towards Lomography again. I was fascinated by the dreamy photos that Lomographers usually produced. But more than that, I was attracted to the process: point and shoot. Capture the moment. Don’t worry about how to take the shot, or what settings you’re supposed to use. No editing required or needed. There is a carefree sense to it since you won’t know how the shot went until after the film’s been processed. It would either make you be more careful with each shot, or if you were more like me, just be excited about how it would turn out. After all, lomo to me is about the here and now. The resulting photos will just be a wonderful way to commemorate those moments.

I found myself browsing through Lomography sites and flickr pools, until I focused on online toy camera shops and zeroed in on the perfect toy to start me off in another wonderful adventure. Before my birthday month ended, I dragged the boyfriend to Oh! Shoot for a belated happy birthday gift to myself: my Pink Dress Superheadz Super Fat Lens, Ultra Wide and Slim.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. What is Lomography?

I guess you can say that Lomography is a movement within photography and art circles that promotes the culture of snapshots. From the Lomography hub, it is said that Lomo started when two students discovered an old Russian camera which they had then used for this new style of experimental and artistic photography. Lomography as a brand came about, reproducing many lo-fi cameras of old for worldwide distribution, and coming up with new models too. Though digital cameras were already sprouting at the time, lomo lovers remained true to their love of film.

The ten golden rules of Lomography (before you react violently, “what? how could there be rules? Read first.)

1. Take your camera everywhere you go
2. Use it any time – day and night
3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but part of it
4. Try the shot from the hip
5. Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible
6. Don’t think (william firebrace)
7. Be fast
8. You don’t have to know beforehand what you captured on film
9. Afterwards either
10. Don’t worry about any rules

While adopting the ten golden rules, lomographers the world over live by rule #10. And that’s what I love most about it.

As I read up on Lomo for this post, I came across this post from the Lomo Flickr pool discussion board. The post author, Gimel Vav, raises an interesting distinction between Lomography which is a brand, and toy camera photography as a whole. I think that’s what my friend Edsel tried to explain to me before. How certain renegade photographers preferred to use cheap plastic (hence the term toy) cameras to show that you didn’t need expensive, high-tech gear to produce quality images. There have been photographers doing that even before the term Lomography was coined.

But whatever you choose to believe, for me Lomo is just that – lo-fi photography. You deal with moments, there will always be light and composition considerations, but what’s important is that you take the shot.

So on the very hour I bought my Pink Dress, I got a Fuji Velvia 100 film (pricey), slapped it on and started shooting. I knew it was meant for bright light, being an ISO 100 film, but I didn’t care. I just snapped away. As a result, I didn’t get the full Velvia experience. None of the vibrant colors I have hoped to get. I’m not sure though if it was my error, or maybe the film was not processed correctly. Nonetheless, I am happy with the results. Truly, I am. I am even more motivated to keep on shooting with my toy camera.

Here were my first images (sorry I haven’t installed any image viewer plugins on this blog yet):