Week 7This is what passes for a sidewalk cafe in Kingwood, Texas. Actually, it is a nice place and I like the breakfast and coffee. I just don't care much for 38 degrees C Texas heat. The view of Kingwood Drive and the parking lot isn't that great either but c'est la vie. Anyway, this table and chair outside caught my eye and I kind of liked the lines and shapes.
The Lomo LC-A is a somewhat low tech Russian camera with a sharp lens but no real creative control settings other than zone focus. Exposure is set automatically. A society, called the Lomograph Society, was formed to take advantage of this freedom in a creative way (and maybe make a buck). They market a new version of the Lomo and some other inexpensive cameras including the Holga.
Well, I am a radical and I refuse to participate in this mainstream "art" of the masses. I am forming my own society and calling it a societe because it sounds more high brow. The societe is based on the original 35mm point and shoot camera with automatic exposure control, the German made Agfa Optima. As best I can tell the model Ia that I have came out about 1962.
What would you expect to pay for this camera? I paid $6.01 in an Ebay auction plus $5.50 for shipping. It still looks good after all these years, including the leather case, and everything works except the leaf shutter sticks open from time to time, and that is not a good thing. I made it through this roll without a mishap though. It has a self timer, fixed aperture at 1/30 shutter for flash, and Bulb. I even tried it with my Nikon SB-800 speedlight setting flash duration in the hot shoe and that worked. There is a picture of me stylin' with this camera here.
The picture was taken outdoors in early morning with Kodak Gold 200 film in automatic mode. The zone exposure was set at "two heads" on the dial or 2 meters. I have no idea what the exposure was since it was in automatic and doesn't show any information other than a red dot that turns green as you depress the "magic release lever" and hold it for "approximately 1 second" thereby letting you know it has enough light. Actually, it has surprised me with how well it works. For this shot I cropped in Photoshop, turned it B&W with a blue filter if I remember correctly in a layer, and upped the contrast with Curves.
Idea based on Life Through a LOMO, pages 66-69 in the book 50 Photo Projects, by Lee Frost
I was digging the $6.01 price until I saw the $5.50 shipping tag. - StuMonkey
ReplyDeleteYou pay for quality StuMonkey. That package was shipped through the US Post. It was actually shipped from right here in Houston and I could have drove over there and picked it up but that would have cost more in gas than having it shipped.
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