Partying with the Diana F+

As the first Lomography camera I bought my Diana F+ holds a special place in my heart but I must admit that she has become somewhat pushed aside in favour of cameras I have more control over. As much as I love my Diana F+ I felt with her 35mm back on that she could be unruly when it came to getting the shot I wanted. Looking back through my Portugal photographs I see so many missed shots because of the difference between what you see in the viewfinder and what you actually shoot. I've been wanting to move to 120 on my Diana F+ for ages as well so I wanted to give the 35mm a good send off. Which is why I took her down to London with me to take some party shots at my friend's 30th birthday. I had planned to use my Ringflash and the fisheye lens to create some cool shots however I totally forgot to take the correct flash adaptor. Thankfully I had the Diana Flash with me so I used that instead.

I'll admit I wasn't expecting much from these shots. I expected the usual half cut off faces, blurred focus and the colours to either bleach the shots out entirely or leave the shots underexposed. So you can imagine that I am pretty happy with these. The blue and orange shots have such deep colour. I think they're brilliant. I didn't realise I had this particular mask on for the sprockets to be exposed. To the point where I was undercharged by the Lomography Store in Manchester (they've sweetly let me off as I've become something of a regular but I'll ensure to pay for this service in future). This is the first roll I've had back with exposed sprockets. And in fact the first square shots I've had. This has been an experience all round clearly. And I am most pleased with it.

Whilst the 35mm back for my Diana F+ is taking a break I am super psyched to shoot with 120. Just as soon as the weather comes good. I'm thinking portraits.

Laters,

P x

Manchester's LomoWall

Back in May the folks at Lomography put out an article asking for submissions for a Manchester LomoWall. The wall itself was to be the first public LomoWall outside of London, 30m long made up of approximately 14,000 photographs. As part of a bigger, ongoing festival the over riding theme was water however they were accepting photos that reflected the area in general as well. Yours truly submitted some photographs and found out a couple of weeks back then they'd been used! Pretty exciting right?

Naturally this meant I had to go to the launch party for the LomoWall and see if I could spot my shots amongst the thousands.

Looks pretty amazing right? I feel pretty proud to have so many of my shots on the LomoWall. I think there's about 10 or 11 of mine up there though they've used each shot at least 6 times.

Despite being varnished I imagine the LomoWall will soon disintegrate what with the glorious Manchester rain. I hope they get permission to do another. I think it'd be great as a rolling summer feature here with a different theme each time. The after party was pretty fun. Free booze and cookies. It was really hard to resist buying something but I managed. Plus I got a voucher for a free workshop so I might have to use that to try before I buy sometime. Andy is planning on using his to try out the Lomokino as he's into his film making y'know.

I should have some more photos of the LomoWall soon. Took some shots on my LC-A+ but haven't had them developed yet. Expect those this week though.

Laters,

P x