parasitegirl | Toy Cameras (Reply)

Any of you who have me friended on Facebook know this already: I am photographing my life more than ever.

When I went over to watch IronMan at Puppy’s place two weeks ago we both whipped out our Iphones and geeked it up for a bit.. He admitted to having been so into his iPhone that he didn’t sleep the first night he had it. Me? I dated Pretty Boy my first night with my iPhone, but I almost made myself motion sick on the train home by reading stuff on my iPhone for too long. I don’t have much in the way of OMG really cool apps…but Puppy was appreciative of the sheer geekiness of how I keep track of all my costumes and when I wear them via Touch Closet. Puppy, however, brought Toy Camera to my attention…and I have flooded my Facebook with images ever since.

(We also geeked out on Dexter, which he was very excited to tell me about)

About 5 years ago, Praveen got me into toy cameras. I hunted down where in Japan I could get a Lomo after I saw his pictures and had hit a few web sites devoted to them. With a trusty Lomo I attacked Japan. The Lomo is a camera that exists due to Classic Soviet Union Technology. It is a fun camera but it isn’t a “good” one. The lens configuration somehow produces odd color saturation (which is exagerated with the use of low speed cheap films) and uneven exposures with darker corners not unlike you get from pinhole cameras. After weeks of carrying my Lomo everywhere and photographing everything “from the hip” (my stealth train skills got good then) I branched out to an additional Holga (a cheap Chinese “Brownie” camera with more dramatic pin-hole exposure) and a Holga-Pola (Holga with a 120 Poleroid attachment, which I still use from time to time. This icon was shot with my Holga-Pola).

With my Lomo I shot Japan and much of one trip to Cambodia (I shifted to a nice Hexar Silver for Mexico, the Hexar is not a toy) and have gone through two Lomos in my time. The summer after I got my toy cameras I ended up walking around Madison with Scotty the summer he taught a class in pinhole cameras, we geeked out.

When Puppy brought the Toy Camera ap to my attention it was love at first sight.The iPhone camera is kinda crap when it comes to normal digital standards, but it seem to work well by toy camera standards. Toy Camera processes the iPhone photos you take in a way that simulates the uneven, leaky, exposures and over saturated colors of many toy cmeras like the Lomo and Holga. If you want you can specify the filter (sepia, low contrast B&W, high contrast, different color saturations) or, as I usually do, allow it to randomly pick a filter each time you shoot. I like the randomness. If it took less time to change settings I would probably tweek more, but I like just clicking away and seeing the results.

What I like about the toy camera (real ones and the app) is that they depict the Japan I feel with greater frequency than photos I take with well balanced digital or my Hexar. I’d really have to be pushing film and playing around in a lab to get a better camera to show the Japan I think I live in. My Japan is alternately garishly over saturated and dramatically dark. My Japan isn’t evenly exposed. My Japan surprises me by not developing the way I thought it would. My Japan involves many hours a week in transport. My Japan looks a little lonely somedays. My Japan is surprised to find me doing what I am doing. My friends haven’t seemed to grow exhausted by seeing Japan through my eyes.

The images, although the first few predate the toy camera.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94642&id=644629953&l=af7d0f78ec

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=105610&id=644629953&l=0c3dd6eaaf