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?

Miles Aldridge: I Only Want You To Love Me

Since the start of the summer, I've been waiting and waiting to have time to pop down to Somerset House to go and see Miles Aldridge's exhibition, I Only Want You To Love Me. Finally I got a chance to go during the rainy day which was last Friday.

Miles Aldridge is a photographer popular with Italian Vogue, amongst other big publications such as the New York Times and Harper's Bazaar. His subjects tend to be blank faced beauties, which to me tend to look as if they're resentful or resigned to their lot in life (especially when, as in some portraits, they're surrounded by scenes of domestic drudgery) and scream a 'Betty Draper' style vibe. The blonde bombshell (in a 'Kill Bill' style outfit, sat on the floor amongst the remains of a smashed tea tray dinner ) in one of my favourite portraits even seems slightly murderous!

 However, according to the exhibition, the artist prefers to see his subjects as in 'a state of contemplation' which invites us to consider the subjects' 'inner lives'. And the portraits really do get you thinking whether you think they're in a 'state of contemplation' or not. The vivacity of the images, with their highly saturated colours and bold scenes gives each image an almost otherworldly feel, absorbing you closer into the disturbing world of his perfect subjects.  However you choose to interpret them, the portraits are hypnotically fascinating and leave you wondering what's going to happen next.

The exhibition also showcased the amount of work that went into creating each image which I felt was rather unusual. Normally, you're presented with an end result. A carefully crafted perfection with no idea how the piece was created. Not so much here. On display were his hand drawn illustrations which showed us where some of the images had come from as well as polaroids from the shoots. The polaroids were apparently used so that Aldridge check how each image was going to appear before they were developed. Since his medium was film, he would not normally see the end result until the film was developed after the shoot was finished. These polaroids were fascinating as you could see the different scenes portrayed before the final piece was settled on.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition and would highly recommend it to everyone!
(Apologies for a lack of photos- cameras weren't allowed in the exhibition so the only snaps I could get were from outside).

While at Somerset House on Friday I also had a nice little surprise. I'd totally forgotten that it was Fashion Week! That meant that when I rocked up, there were plenty of crazily dressed people around and a couple of fantastic freebees to be snapped up.

 After a little bit of people watching, I opened the little cardboard box I'd been handed by the kind people at Birchbox. Inside were some lovely goodies to keep everyone going through Fashion Week, including a mini OPI nail polish and some delicious popcorn!

 For those interested, Birchbox is a company which will send high end beauty samples straight to your door which to me sounds like a great idea and worth checking out. Anyway as I'm sure you'll all agree, freebees are always a great way to end a day and I went home feeling culturally fulfilled and actually full after scoffing down all my popcorn..!