Analog Love Letter: Good Vibe

The mid-2000s was the toy camera phase of my photographic career. The world of Lomography and toy cameras was new and exciting to me so for about a year, I was primarily shooting on a Holga or some other type of toy camera with a plastic lens.

What I love about toy cameras with plastic lenses is the soft and lo-fi look it provided. This photograph of my friend Alex is probably one of my favorite toy camera photos I've taken. It was shot inside the cafe area of the Arclight Cinema theater on Sunset Blvd. and what I love about this lomo photograph is that his posture, along with the Holga's plastic lens, gave this image an almost ethereal look and feel.

I was inspired by the lomo heavy scene of Flickr's early days and an exhibit inside the lab I was using at the time which was A&I in Hollywood. A&I is no longer in Hollywood and I'm not sure if they're still around. Last I heard they had a spot in Santa Monica and then Burbank. It's been a long time since I've heard news of them sadly. They developed the roll this photograph came from. I hope they're still around. Film processing labs are becoming scarce these days.

"Alex's aura" / 6x4.5 medium format cross processed Kodak Ektachrome 64T / January 2007

Analog Love Letter: Much Too Bright

This is a photo from my earlier days of film photography. I was using a standard Canon AE-1 Program SLR, and heavy in the Flickr scene when it was a big thing, uploading all my scanned film photos and joining the various analog groups on there. I discovered the very small niche scene of lomography and xpro'ing film which highly interested me. It was something new and exciting and I wanted to know more about it so the more research I did on the subject and scene, the more I wanted to go out and buy a toy camera and try out cross processing my film.

The day I purchased my first toy camera, a Holga CFN, I bought some film and promptly began shooting. There was a small house party of sorts and I went through my first few rolls of film that night when I took this photo of my friend Flor.

The CFN has a special flash built in which has colored gel filters on it so you're able to change the color of the flash at your choosing. That ability, along with the various color shifts that come with cross processing film, the resulting image possibilities are nearly endless.

For some people, the niche look of lomography and cross processing film can get boring and tiresome but to this day, I'm still shooting on various toy cameras and cross processing film.

"Too bright of a flash" / 6x4.5 medium format Kodak Ektachrome 64T / February 2007