Lomography: Baby Fisheye

About a year ago now, I was bought a baby fisheye lomography camera for my birthday. This is a miniature film camera that, using special film, takes circular photos which have a bulging 'bubble' effect. Now, I've been really cautious with using up the film as there were only twenty two shots on the roll and it's notoriously hard to get processed.  However, a little while ago I finally finished it and recently I managed to find somewhere to get it processed.

Using the camera was definitely a process of trial and error. It's not digital, so there's no way of seeing exactly what you're taking and the shutter speed was so manual that it was either set at 1/100 (fine for very bright, sunny conditions) or at 'it will stay open as long as you keep the button down.' This has lead to some interesting results to say the least. A fair few of my photos came out completely black (which is frustrating since it cost £17 to get the film developed!) where as others have come out so blurry I can't even work out what they were photos of! Some of the photos however have come out quite well- they have a very soft pixel-y effect which is definitely novel. Essentially however, more came out badly than well.

But I think I've learned my lesson. I know now for the future to:
1) Only really shoot in bright conditions- trial and error with the shutter speed is interesting, but definitely not worth wasting half the film on.
2) Make sure to wind the film on accurately! I found that some of my pictures were half in, half out of the shot and I think this was due to 'overwinding' the film.
3) Get close to my subjects. The camera instructions do say to do this, but I don't think I appreciated just how close they really meant!

I've decided that I'll buy some more film and have another go and see what results I get. Despite my results being far from perfect this time around, there was just something that bit more exciting about shooting photos and waiting (and waiting and waiting) to see what they'd come out like. And who knows, maybe I'll do better next time?

Baby Fisheye!

As I may have already mentioned, recently it was my birthday and I was lucky enough to  receive the cutest present ever- a baby fisheye lomography camera! I've seen the effect produced by this lens before and have always wanted to have a go myself, so this little beauty is perfect for the job. Not only that, but the effect you get from lomography pictures when they're developed is truly unique- they often show evidence of light leeks and and are over saturated. (Okay okay, this is normally not a good thing in photography, but since we're all digital now, it's exciting.)

Since I've only just become the proud owner of this baby and I have to wait to get the film developed, I haven't got any pictures to show you yet, but I promise I'll put some up in the future! Anyway, isn't half the fun of this kind of old fashioned photography waiting to see what the film comes out like?

Look how cute it is!! 

This is the film I have to use- it's extra small and can only take 24 shots, so I'm going to have to choose carefully what I snap at! The pictures are going to be very trial and error, especially since controlling the exposure time is done simply by holding down the shutter button for longer.

Here's a picture of what my photos could end up looking like. (This is just off the box the camera came in.)

If you've taken any photos using a camera like mine, please comment below with hints and tips- any help would be appreciated!