My Lomo film camera’s been pretty reliable so far. This fuzzy photo taken sometime this winter is the sole exception.
The streaky peach stripe wasn’t invited but now that it’s here, it’s not entirely unwelcome.
Nearly two months later, I’ve finally developed the first film I shot with my Christmas present to myself, a Lomo LC-A camera.
I asked the lab not to color-correct my images, since Lomo cameras are known to produce ultra-saturated, barely realistic colors. The man behind the counter said a certain amount of correcting was mandatory based on the processing machines of today (Rats!) but beyond that he said the technicians would let things alone.
I’m curious as to what would have happened had I let them correct the color as they saw fit. The images I got back were specifically un-saturated and a little pink. But they were dreamy and aged like I’d hoped for, so I’ll experiment some more before I lay down my final verdict. For now, I’m optimistic.
From my trip to Florida to visit my family:
The Colony Plaza is where the men behind Disney World stayed when the theme park was first being built. It was the only adequate hotel around there at that time, before Orlando exploded into the tourist trap it soon became. The Plaza had been slated to be torn down recently, it’s abandoned and the windows are blown open, mattresses and TVs litter the parking lot. But three years after I first fell in love with it, it’s still there, and I hope it always will be.
Given that I grew up in the cold north, anything southern, especially edibles like fried chicken and cheap waffles, I find to be fully fascinating.
Back at home, this image is more what I’m used to:
Knee-deep snow, and a dwarfy dog who’s good at tricks and bad at behaving.
It’s not something I’ve done before, but this year I did gift myself a Christmas Present.
Some of us hunt for the ultimate denim jeans, or the perfect pair of trainers – filling our lives with formidable contenders but somehow never meeting up with that one true champion.
I’m becoming that way with cameras. The cover story from this issue of Monocle magazine last spring put many of my personal feelings into perfect focus – that the output of digital cameras never seems to glow with the rich warmth of that from old-school film cameras.
Digital vs. analog, flash vs. non-flash, clarity vs. surrealism, my camera-oriented allegiances have wavered and ruptured violently over the years. My office closet is now littered with the sad corpses of cameras I wanted desperately to rescue me from myself but that never quite did.
So this December, my best guess for what might finally end this camera-based turmoil turned out to be the Lomo LC-A, a 35mm device some consider a “toy camera”. From glowing descriptions and photographic examples, I began to trust that if armed with such a camera myself, every image I captured from then on would appear as if snipped out of some vibrant Steve Zissou-like scrapbook.
Being that the LC-A in its peak form and specs is now out of production, I bopped over to e-bay and ordered a slightly vintage, mint-in-box device from St. Petersberg, Russia.
24 days later, and a full week after Christmas, my lustworthy Lomo arrived via air-mail. I’ve mooned over every layer of the box and tape, paper, string and packaging that it arrived in.
I’m smitten as well with the way it looks, how the name-brand is printed in Russian rather than English lettering (butches it up a bit, I feel), and I appreciate the rock-like sturdiness the device suggests when I grab it in my hands.
I need now to take a test roll to determine whether I can salute the camera’s actual photographic capabilities, or if the LC-A is destined to die in the closet with the previous generations of fallen contenders.
Please, please, please…let this be the one!
A preface to this volume including further information on its founding editor.
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