TexasGirl Photography

Lucky girl that I am, Santa brought me the little gem of a camera you see above. I had been curious about it for a while, so I’m super excited to own one! I consider it part of my ongoing mission to find a point-and-shoot camera that can go anywhere (unlike, for instance, the Ultra Wide and Slim, which really doesn’t work well in low light) but that mission is a topic for another day.

Today I want to share with y’all some photographs from the day I took the Lomo LCA+ out shopping. I ran a test roll through it to get a feel of what it can do. . . . some of those results are below. . . .

Thanks to Lomography having an epic sale over the holidays, my box of goodies contained not only the camera, but also the wide angle lens, and a bunch of other accessories. The photo you see of my cat that’s obviously not framed properly is down to my not realizing I needed to compensate for the placement of the wider lens. In general, my strategy with a test roll includes mirror shots, lots of indoor shots, and double exposures (if the camera can make them). I was really impressed with how this camera performed, especially considering the exposure is fully automatic (unless you change the ISO thingie; I tried that too and was pleased with how it worked to overexpose film in a dark location so it came out well).

Onward to a recent weekend when I took my teenager and a friend to shop at the Domain in Austin. Mom is not a welcome third wheel, but that was fine with me because I wanted to photograph anyway. I walked around and around with the Lomo camera and put it through the paces: indoors, outdoors, mixed light, double exposures, etc. All the photos I am sharing with you today are using the standard lens. The ones I made with the wide lens are on a roll that’s still in the camera.

One bird two ways. I was slightly obsessed with this sculpture. But look, also, at how well the electronic eye of the LCA+ managed the light!

I will admit that I was very excited to be out and doing street photography. I feel like I do very little of it these days, and I miss it. . . but I am also out of practice and diffident, so I am nervous about it, especially when I’m on my own. For some reason I feel a lot more conspicuous when I’m by myself. What I need is somebody at least to talk to, as cover. I never used to have this issue; who knows, maybe it will pass eventually.

Anyway, my point in that confession is that I made a large number of hip-shots on this particular excursion, and I have to say that I was mostly very pleased with how the camera handled this. Zone focus helps! Plus it is small and quiet. Possibly I’m not fooling anyone, but I felt less obvious. The below photo was not one of these shots.

I made some multiple exposures, both inside and out.

The below photo is my favorite from the day. I don’t know how I managed to turn this not-looking-self-portrait in Macy’s into a magic trick, but it happened! I had no idea I was divided in half until I scanned the film. Metaphors are everywhere.

Some of the above photos are sharper than others. I attribute this mostly to my nervousness, setting the focus incorrectly, or just not stopping mid-stride for long enough. This last photo in the set there, however, I brazenly made using the viewfinder. I guess it helped that the guy wasn’t looking at me (although it would have been a better photo if he was).

Thanks for looking! All the photos you see here today are Kodak Tri-X.