[HOLGA 120+] Chapter 3: Athens

Picking up from where we left off in Chapter 2, we return to Syntagma Square in the evening. Syntagma Square is also known as "Constitution Square" which was quite a fitting name given that the Greek parliament sits right there.

By now, a sizeable crowd had built up! We asked around and found out they were demonstrating against the Greek austerity bill that their parliament was about to vote on. There were people holding banners and stuff...one particular banner, the one in the lomo above, was criticising the IMF haha

There were large Greek flags on sale as well! Almost bought one but it wouldn't fit nicely into the luggage. Decided not to buy coz I felt it would be a hassle given the many more cities we are going to visit.

We too a bus service right to the countryside at Sounio where the Temple of Poseidon stands! It was huge so I had to stand rather far back to get this photo. It is situated on a cliff top and the view from there was awesome! The cliff was really tall and since it was the evening, we waited till sunset!

Here's a close-up of the Temple of Poseidon!

That concludes the Athens series of lomo pictures! As you might notice, we are only at film number 14 out of 36. Yes. I've planned to film Greece on one roll of slide film! The other pitstops are Mykonos and Santorini!

Be sure to catch the next blog post!

[HOLGA 120+]: Chapter 2: Athens

Chapter 2 is here! Nope not referring to the salon! hahaha!


ok LETS GET LOMO-ed! 

Took this on the way up the Acropolis where the Parthenon was. This was the outer wall of some kind of Greek Forum where (probably) the great philosophers/statesmen had discussions. Its easy to imagine now...Greek people sitting in rows wearing their toga listening to the speeches. Socrates (smartest Greek of his era, known to the other Greeks as "the gadfly of Athens") probably had been there too!

This was probably taken on the way down the Acropolis. The return route took us past a huge (still under restoration) groundwork and pillars which might be a Greek temple. There were many tourists here, making photography difficult. But, these three adventurers here found a good spot...on top of some pillars! lol

Reached the top of the Acropolis hill at last! Behold, The Parthenon! If you go to Athens, this UNESCO World Heritage Site should never be missed! It was under restoration when we were there. The exterior was majestic, and this lomo doesn't show the scale of it. I had to stand rather far back to be able to cover this side of The Parthenon. Very windy and dry but hot temperature during Greek summers, so sunblock lotion is important!

Back on ground level! We saw, on the Athens map, a structure called "The Temple of Olympian Zeus" and decided to explore it. However, it was closed (due to weekend closing maybe) and its actually ancient temple ruins.

A modern building, i think. I guess this is some sort of official ministry/headquarters? Not really sure though. Took a photo here as the building looked nice with its Greek-styled pillars.




That's all for Chapter 2! In Chapter 3, the Greek Island Hopping Adventure begins!!!

[HOLGA120+] Chapter 1: Athens

Ok some showcase of lomography now! Holga 120+ refers to the upgraded Holga 120N. A Superheadz 35mm adaptor was used which allowed 35mm films to be taken. But the main purpose for the upgrade was to take delightful SPROCKET photos!!!

First lomo taken on Holga 120+!!! okay not much to shout about but the sprockets are so cool haha. The overexposed portion on the left was due to that part being exposed during loading of the film. I captured a frame here to be economical hahaha.

Took another frame for this scene, which was from the balcony of the apartment my fellow adventurers and I were staying at in Greece. A quiet neighbourhood here with a small neighbourhood park downstairs. A mini mart nearby was our water point. Water...turns out to be very important for Greek summers. The hot and dry weather.

This is the famous Syntagma Square, also the site of the Athens riot last year which occured the day we left Athens for Mykonos. This was taken in the morning, nothing much going on yet. Syntagma Square market sells many kinds of mediterranean snacks and nuts.

Fellow adventurers in Syntagma Square!

This was some kind of drain on top of the Parthenon hill. Notice the nice light leaks on the left.

On our way to The Parthenon!!! Could see The Parthenon itself from the bottom of the hill. The hill turned out to be a very long trek up.

Will upload Chapter 2 very soon! Thanks for reading! Have you visited Athens before? Leave a comment below!

[HOLGA120N] Chapter 1

The first roll of lomographs I took! It was exciting to manually load the 120mm film canister into the Holga. As medium format films come wrapped around a plastic rod and medium thickness paper, the only way to load the films without exposing them to light was to do it in a very dark place (managed to do it in a cupboard).


I brought it to my uncle's house and clicked away on the Holga! Very fun! I tried double exposures too by superimposing a frame onto the previous one. Holga 120N is one of a few lomo cameras that allow this.


That roll was processed at a photolab in Serangoon Central. Service was good but VERY SLOW and made me think twice about going back for more processing jobs.


Behold! Here is the first roll of photos taken on the Holga 120N!

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The first roll of film was totally blank! The photo lab guy didn't even bother to cut the roll into the customary six or seven strips. It was disappointing...not because of the wasted $5 processing the films, but all that effort taking the photos went down the drain. But valuable lesson learnt here.

RULE ZERO:

SUNLIGHT = LOMO

NO SUNLIGHT = NO LOMO

(unless you got a flash attachment on the camera)

I read up A LOT on film exposure after that, but shall not go into too much detail here. In summary, light comes in sixteen levels, from Exposure Values EV1 to EV16, with EV16 the strongest. An object is in EV16 under direct sunlight with clear skies. EV15 is direct sunlight with some clouds, EV14 has more clouds, and so on. For a Holga, at an f11 aperture setting, the lowest EV it can effectively operate in is about EV13 to EV14 for a roll of ISO100 film. The first roll (ISO100) was taken with indoor settings with indoor flourescent lighting. That may look bright to us but its actually at EV7 or EV8 only! That's many many times weaker than sunlight, and therefore resulting in a blank roll (at ISO100).

If you intend to start out on lomography, this is the MOST BASIC RULE to remember. But of course, you should always research on the optimum light conditions for your camera, as different cameras have different aperture values.

Yes, one of the 'so-called' rules of lomography is "dont think, just shoot" but when you get lousy photos, it doesn't hurt to research a bit and prepare #LIKEAPRO before going on a lomo excursion.

Welcome!

Lomography is the art of analog (film) photography on toy cameras! The photos on this blog are all taken by me! All pictures are taken on FILM with toy cameras with the following process:


1. Take pictures with lomo camera
2. Bring it to a photolab for processing of films
3. Scan the films (this is the ONLY digital part of the process, the rest are manual)


A bit more about my methods.


Cameras

The lomo cameras I use are:

1. Holga 120N (the basic edition)
About 65mm focal length with f11/f13 aperture. Its a medium format camera meant for loading 120mm square films. After dabbling in medium format for a few rolls, I've since upgraded this with a Superheadz 35mm adaptor that allows loading of 35mm films...to awesome effect as will be shown in my blog soon.

2. White Slim Angel
About 22mm focal length...essentially a vivitar remake. I like this camera as its easy to carry around and very handy! The downside is the 'Wide Angle Trap' which users of this camera need to beware of haha

3. Waterproof 35mm Camera
Got this as a present from my good friend! I have yet to try this out yet but it looks like a cool camera to bring out...with that submarine plastic casing haha.




Films


In digital photography, the camera costs more than storage. A good DSLR costs thousands of dollars but SD cards cost tens to hundreds of dollars. Its the opposite in film photography. A lomography camera can be super cheap. Holga 120N can be bought from eBay below $50. But each canister of film would average about $10. Add in processing and scanning (roughly $15) and you could almost buy another Holga in no time at all.


There are too many films to choose from, with different effects after processing. But its important to keep trying out different types of films for the fun of it lol. In general, there are two main types of film. Negatives and Positives. Negatives are called 'negatives' because the image you see on the film after processing are in 'negative' mode. In other words, bright colours would appear darker on the film and vice versa. The colours are also in 'negative' mode. Positive images on the other hand would appear as they would in the real world. The usual thing to do would be to frame the positives (transparencies).


Films offer very high 'resolution' in digital terms. A 35mm film has the equivalent of 25 megapixels and a medium format film has the equivalent of over 50 megapixels! Its also hard for camera sensors to beat films when it comes to colour. The very big downside is that you can't 're-shoot' badly taken photos, and there is no way to 'preview' the image you just took on film.


Its important to plan ahead before embarking on any film project!


This is getting to be a very long introductory post. Shall continue next time. Meanwhile I will upload LOMO PICTURES!!! BEHOLD THE WONDER!