love at first lomo!

i've been curious about lomography for some time now, and decided to attend the free workshop last march 7th by the lomography gallery store in new york city's greenwich village. the workshop was called "portraits of women" in celebration of international women's day.

the workshop was free for all the ladies, but they charged $10 for the guys, unless they brought any ladies along with them. i dragged my sister along so i don't have to sit by myself during the lecture. she saved the day for me, too, because i realized too late that i had stuffed everything in my giant purse EXCEPT for my camera. i had bottled water, bottled lipton green tea, snack items, an umbrella (although the forecast said it was going to be warm, which it actually was), basically everything i usually tote for a trip to the city EXCEPT my digital camera.

i panicked. for me, leaving the house without my camera feels like forgetting to put underwear on. so i felt...naked! haha. and besides, this was a photography workshop, for crying out loud! (albeit a lomo-related one)

so thankfully, my sister did bring her shiny-green, new sony cybershot 10-megapixel touch-screen camera. it was super-slim, so it fit nicely in her small crossbody bag. it saddened me that i keep forgetting things nowadays. signs of old age!

my purpose for attending this seminar was to get the lowdown on lomography basics, and to see what the "gift" was to the attendees as they had advertised in their website. oh, did i mention that this wonderful workshop was free?

it was easy getting to the venue from the port authority bus terminal in new york. my sister and i boarded the A-train to get off at west 4th street. while inside the subway, we were standing close to this girl with unkempt blonde hair and a worn-out bag that had a pocket shaped like a huge camera lens. i whispered to my sister, "maybe she's going to the workshop, too." my sister whispered back, "she looks like she hasn't taken a bath!" haha. she went off the train before we did, so she wasn't a workshop attendee like i thought.

the lomography shop was a short walk from the subway station, and we got there just in time to get good seats. the store's interior is transformed into a "lomo wall" with colorful lomo prints. my heart skipped a beat when i saw the snowcat edition diana F+ camera i was lusting after! and then my heart palpitated when i saw that it cost $105! haha.

they loaned people their diana F+ cameras with flash for the workshop (if you don't have one already) and gave us a free roll of CN120 film--two things i've never used before!

the workshop gave us a background of lomography's history, how it all began in austria and how it's now celebrating its 25th anniversary as a photographic faction...a cult, if you will, of people who get the warm fuzzies finding beauty in blurry.

i met diana, holga, lubitel, oktomat, and various other plastic princesses that rule in this lomo kingdom. our facilitator was very enthusiastic about introducing the largely "newbie" crowd in the workshop to what lomo was all about.

she showed samples of what each camera can capture, sharing tips and tricks on how to photograph women in a flattering way. she also preached the lomo motto: "don't think, just shoot!" [watch a snippet of the lecture below!]

i learned some new terms like cross-processing and light-painting. i was transported to a time before digital cameras, when photography was about those old-school 35-mm cameras that you take to the photo processing store to be developed. you didn't know for sure how your prints would turn out. part of the beauty is the sense of surprise. the last plastic camera i ever used was the polaroid i-zone pocket cameras that used "sticky film." the pictures come out in miniature, "neoprint"-like form but with adhesive backing, so you can stick them wherever!

we were then made to walk to nearby washington arch to practice what we just learned. i actually had to ask for assistance in installing the film inside the diana camera. i didn't want to destroy the film before i actually had the chance to use it.

i was all smiles with my loaned diana camera around my neck as i snapped away by the arch. we were told that these cameras are supposed to be used in close-range to your subjects. i had difficulty manually turning the film after each shot because the knob was too hard to turn! i also didn't know that the film only had 16 shots so i ran out quickly while at the shooting venue because i kept snapping away while we were still at the store. haha.

after the workshop, we were given a 10% coupon to use in the store. i wanted to get the snowcat camera, but after finding out that the diana cameras need a special back cover (bought separately, $50) so you can use 35mm film, i decided to postpone my purchase. i considered the cheaper cameras that produced funky results, either the fisheye or the golden half. ultimately, i decided not to spend anything in that store altogether, until i made up my mind which one i wanted and within my tight budget, haha. after all, my sister and i found out that the nearby urban outfitters shop also sold lomo products and films! i got a lavender silk scarf from that store's clearance bin for only $5...that's it.

my sister and i realized that the "gift" was the free film we used for the class. should've gotten hersey's kisses from the bowl at the entrance. haha. my sister and i might end up in the lomo website when they upload the pics from the workshop. but given the short-range characteristic of lomo cameras, you may have to zoom in to see me in any of the photos. haha!

i loved this hands-on workshop on lomo. it's the other extreme of photography, with digital photography on the other end. i agree that sometimes sharp can be boring. there's an other-worldy, ethereal beauty in lomo photos, imperfections and all. i have yet to mail my film to that photo-developing website. i'll post the photos when they're processed.

[thanks again to my sister for stealth-shooting part of the workshop and for giving in to my vanity pose requests, haha!]

p.s. i was a little flabbergasted to find out too late that author neil gaiman was about 10 blocks away from where i was on that day for a booksigning of his new children's book "blueberry girl."