Week Twenty - Go Lomo
About eight months ago, I was perusing the Urban Outfitters website and came across a Lomography camera at £30. I had no idea what it entailed, but it was a nice mint green colour and the photos looked pretty hipster. Plus it was reduced quite heavily, so I convinced myself it would be a bargain. And it was, apart from the fact that I haven’t used it since.
So what better place to crack out the Diana F+ than in than Malaysia, to complete the second Malaysian edition challenge.
With some rare forward thinking, I ordered some 120mm film from Amazon before I left (£14.99 for three roles, which is a lot cheaper than I expected to pay), and when we finally reached Penang - after a missed flight from Kuala Lumpur due to a delayed flight from Borneo #firstworldproblems - I took one look at the incredible colonial architecture and realised it would be a crying shame not to take advantage. Its rich cultural heritage is every beard-sporting topknot-rocking denim-jacket-lover’s dream.
The buildings are influenced by 171 years of British presence, alongside local, Chinese, Indian and Islamic elements (to name a few), and together they create something unique and incredible to see. Everywhere you turn is another piece of infamous street art, or a beautifully aged brightly shuttered building in a state of almost disrepair.
Another great thing about Penang is the food. It’s everywhere, and it’s delicious. From traditional laksa to the Indian influenced roti canai, you will not be disappointed with anything you order from the street stalls and food courts (unless there’s something fundamentally wrong with you). So, in short, I love Penang and I hoped I’ve convinced you all to visit it at least once. Excellent.
Now back to the Lomography. With our time in Penang cut short by a day (thanks Air Asia, you scoundrels), we had just one day and night to explore this incredible city. So naturally, we spent the first hour of it in our room as I googled the Diana F+ manual and tried to work out how to load the film.
It was tricky. I didn’t know what I was doing and there was a huge bit at the beginning that didn’t do anything. It didn’t seem to make any sense, and it tapered off at the end. Nothing about it looked right, so I made the executive decision to cut it off. Then I tried threading it on to the spindle to feed it through and realised it was now too wide (guess that’s what the tapered bit was for then).
I binned the first roll (sorry photographers, I know not what I do), and started afresh. I needed more substantial advice, and so I resorted to a handy youtube tutorial (thank you hostel wifi). Once I’d watched the idiot proof guide and successfully loaded my film, I was ready to go, and already confident that I might be able to save at least some of the film from the last pack (which was obviously entirely forgotten about five minutes later).
After I’d finished with my faffing, we stepped out into the unbearably hot streets with two cameras and a shed load of water. I entrusted Matt with my mirrorless camera as I took charge of the Lomo. I must admit, there was something unnerving about handing over my £300 baby so I could carry round a piece of plastic, but he’d survived over three months traveling alone so I had new found confidence in him operating expensive machinery.
The advantage of physical film rather than the digital wonders we are used to these days is that you can fumble around with different settings, looking like a total pro, without the crushing reality of being able to see just how terrible your photos are. I clicked away happily and confidently, thankful for the extremely easy to use dials at the front (honestly, they are so simple - they have pictures of the weather so all you need to do is decide whether it’s blazing hot sunshine, cloudy, or night). I caught a glimpse of myself in a window and realised I was pretty good at this whole fake photographer thing. A bit like when you decide to go for a run for the first time in forever and you pass a fellow runner and they give you the nod, totally convinced that you’re one of them (heh heh heh suckers, little do they know I’ve only been running for 5 minutes and it’s probably only another 5 minutes until I’ll walk home and eat Doritos in front of Netflix).
The day went swimmingly, taking us from beautiful architecture to vibrant and mouthwatering night markets, and I captured as much as I could whilst being mindful of the 12 photo limit to the film.
Below I have included each photo I took (some are better than others). You’ll notice I’ve thought long and hard to give each photo the most cringe worthy title I can think of, and captioned them with anecdotes, honest critiques, and a few self-deprecating comments. You’ll also notice that there was some film overlap between Penang and the Perhentians, and then you might put two and two together and discover that I wrote the previous two posts out of sync. (But hopefully you won’t - shhh). Enjoy!
1. Do you speak Hokkien?
A piece of famous street art in Penang. There are a lot of similar artworks around the area. This one is a young boy offering to teach Hokkien. There are different types of the Hokkien language around Taiwan, China, Indonesia to name a few countries. What’s interesting about Penang Hokkien is that it is noticeably different from the Hokkien spoken in Southern Malaysia, and it’s a little hard to grasp. Bet you didn’t think you were going to learn anything when you clicked on this post.
2. Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup
I’m actually pretty pleased with this one, although the vignette (black bits in the corners) certainly helps things along.
FYI - I had to google the names of the Powerpuff Girls. Its important you know that my everyday knowledge doesn’t span quite to that depth.
3. House and Trees
I took this on a bit of a whim, but it actually looks pretty good. I’m beginning to feel like a bit of a fraud, my tools are making me look better than I am.
4. Boardwalk Boating
This photo, although nothing extraordinary, does come with quite a funny story. After I’d taken this, the rubber lens cap for the camera fell out of my hand, rolled across the boardwalk and slipped perfectly in-between two planks, falling into the water. We waited patiently for it to appear, like a tense game of pooh sticks, and Matt ran into a nearby kiosk to ask for a pole or a net. The people in the kiosk all rushed out to help, trying to find something to fish it out of the water. We watched as the cap drifted further out, and I was willing to accept I’d lost it forever. And then, a man carrying a plastic netted basket leapt across two boats and expertly retrieved it from the water. Everybody clapped and cheered as he held it in the air - a genuinely touching moment.
5. Satay Street
This is my favourite photo of the lot and happened totally by accident. It is a mixture of a photo I took on the street in the day time, and a man cooking satay at a night market. I couldn’t remember whether I’d rolled the film on after the last photo (clearly I hadn’t) and I took the photo of the guy anyway. But it seems to have worked in my favour as it’s turned what would have been two undeniably shit photos into something that actually looks pretty good. Don’t you just love it when carelessness pays off.
6. Rocky Boat Picture Show
Note to self, you are not ready to use your lomo camera on a boat moving at speed...
7. Wrong Shutter Speed Island
...Or in intense sunlight whilst standing...
8. A Mutilated Matt
...Or in moderate sunlight sitting in a hammock.
The boats actually look ok. Matt, however, does not.
9. Sea-ing Stars
This photo is fairly unmentionable, but I do like the blurred streaks of light that are probably only there because I did something wrong. (I’m assuming it has something to do with the sun reflecting off the water, but that is a horribly uneducated and almost certainly inaccurate guess).
10. Photo Pilfery
I can’t take the credit for this, firstly because I wouldn’t want to, and secondly because, as the title suggests, my camera was in the hands of somebody else. Matt actually took this shot of his cousin LoLi.
Even though it’s incredibly dark and you can only just make her out, I still think there’s a certain charm to it.
11. Unknown
Presumably so terrible it wasn’t even worth developing.
12. Unknown II
Ditto.