Why is my vivitar UWS not considered a lomo cam? Why can’t I identify my work as lomography? To be technical about it, lomography according to wikipedia, is the commercial trademark of Lomographische AG, Austria for products and services related to photography, whose most popular product is the LOMO LC-A Compact Automat camera. From the LC-A Automat, Lomography has produced and marketed an entire line of their own branded analog cameras: Fisheye, Diana, Holga, Oktomat, Supersampler, etc.

Unfortunately vivitar UWS is not produced by Lomographische so it’s not considered a lomo cam hence my pictures are not “lomographic”. But to take away the technical aspect and blur the boundaries of lomography, this art of photography is simply put, a casual, snapshot photography. With any film camera you can achieve a lomography effect, which are “over-saturated colors, off-kilter exposure, blurring, "happy accidents," and alternative film processing that are often considered part of the "Lomographic Technique."

The world of Lomography has 10 golden rules, which defines their philosophy and approach to photography:

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

Pretty common sense huh? Take out the word "lomography” and you can apply these principles in whatever camera you are using. Currently models marketed by Lomographische AG include:

At present, the technicality of “lomography” is less strict and includes any analog cameras, which basically have the sole purpose of creating the thousands of Lomographic expression (whatever they are). Hence for the next posts I will be using the word lomography interchangeably and freely.

To learn more about the world of lomography, visit their site: lomography.com.

Related posts:

1. Tips to an Affordable Lomography lifestyle
2. Accessories for your camera
3. Finding a good lomography group

My much awaited camera has finally arrived! I’ve been drooling over this camera for months. I’m an amateur lomographer. I got into film photography when my friends posted their interesting pictures using their toy cameras. At present, I only have 2 toy cameras – the Vivitar ultra wide slim and this new acquisition, blackbird fly camera. I would like to buy the Supersampler too but my friends would always advise me to maximize my latest camera first before I buy a new one. I guess that way the novelty of the camera won’t fade quickly.

Why Blackbird Fly? It took me some long decision-making before I chose BBF. I’ve debated over Diana, Holga, BBF, and Fisheye. I don’t know much about the mechanics of a camera. I’m more of a simple point-and-shoot photographer. So what decided me was the pictures that lomographers took with these cameras. Holga is interesting but it’s hard to process 120 format films. Diana I thought function just like my Vivitar while Fisheye can become boring after some time. Although BBF is way expensive, I decided on this camera because I think I can do much with it. Furthermore, it looks cool!

The Blackbird Fly Camera is a twin-lens reflex camera: one lens is used to expose the film, while the other is used like a viewfinder. It’s a famous style of camera whose history stretches back to the 1920s. The Blackbird fly uses 35mm film. There are two ways to take a picture with the Blackbird fly. For quiet and reflective framing, you can hold the camera at waist level and look down, to compose your shot using the finder lens. For a quicker style of shot, you can use the sportsfinder, which approximates a viewfinder through a notch in the top of the camera. The Blackbird fly can take pictures in standard 35mm film format (24×36), but using a different (provided) mask, it can also produce square format pictures (24×24). You can even remove the mask entirely and make a larger square format image (36×36), which fills up the entire width of the 35mm film, including the side sprocket holes. For shooting during the day, you can alternate between apertures f/7 and f/11, with a shutter speed of 1/125. At night, you can switch the shutter to B-mode to let in as much light as you might need, or you can also attach a flash for even more possibilities. Variable focusing, from 0.8 meters, makes for a sharp subject. The Blackbird fly uses a wide-angle 33mm lens and also allows you to take multiple exposures on the same frame.

Detractors for this camera would always comment that it’s a very expensive toy camera when it is only made of plastic. As one photographer has said, it is what you can do with the camera not what kind your camera is, that’s important. For me since I’m not much of a technical photographer, I would really enjoy using this camera. Vivitar works great with slide films but I’m expecting that BBF will take great shots on both slide and negative films. I can’t wait to go on an excursion and take my BBF with me!

Ebay and amazon are the more popular stores that sell the BBF. They have lowered prices than the other retail stores. I bought mine at Amazon.com because buying is easier and I don’t have to wait for bidding and shopping is more secured.

To learn more about lomography, click here. To learn more about BBF, click here. I’ll be posting my BBF shots in the future. For my Vivitar album, you can view them here.

Related posts:

1. Blackbird Fly, sprocket style!
2. It's time to buy a new camera
3. My camera: CANON ELPH SD790IS