Nothing special happened today, nothing at all.
A few days ago I was wafting the net when I came across a few interesting things...
Firstly, it all began with my search for fairy lights online, as mentioned earlier. Anyway, from there, I found myself trying to find a Lomo camera or some other means to photograph things with a vignette look like this:
Sorry, these things tale a while as I always find something pointless to distract myself with...
ahh yes, lomo camera:
Now don't get me wrong, this is great and all, but I'm not writing to advertise, this isn't even the main focus of tonights blog sesh!
After a few twilight hours spend looking up the almighty Lomo camera, I noticed that it was quite easy to mimic these effects with the use of the average SLR camera, that's if you're not afraid of smearing vaseline all over it!
My, oh my, how I seem to blab on about irrelevant things...
Later that blissful night, came the research of 'the Polaroid camera'. Yes, I am talking about the typical camera of the 19- (honestly do not feel like being sidetracked yet again in order to look that little piece of information up). Long story short, the user receives instant photos with a shake of the film. Anyone for a photo?
What I'm trying to say with all this blabbing on about things you do not care about is in fact the humble little photobooth seen above. No, not that little Asian photobooth where nine people try to squish themselves into an unimaginable space and then fight over editing the costly photos with the time ticking away in the corner of the screen. I'm talking about the vintage photobooth which supplied customarily three or four photos in black and white. None of this editing taking place, just the camera taking a snapshot of people lives. Then, the thrill of waiting for the adequately-sized photos to be developed and carried home without smudging the still-wet ink.
After finding various photobooths around the world, namely America, I realized it’s not the booths themselves that intrigued me; it was the people inside them. I don’t mean to say that I like looking at other peoples photos, well not in a creepy kind of way. At that moment in time, in the claustrophobic space and with the stripy wall behind them, people were happy. As if forgetting all their troubles upon entering, photobooths provided them with an escape route from reality; a place where fully grown people could act silly, that’s right, plain old silly. There would be none of this typical judgement, and with the low price of around $4 for a strip; they left with a smile spread across their faces and a lifelong memory. It’s amazing to think that something so bland as a booth could do this to people. If you just take a look, or even a quick glance at photographs created from them, this was in fact a machine of unity, happiness.
Yes, I know I sound like a preacher right about now, and I swear that was not my intention but these things are just so interesting to think about, especially in the middle of the night when you have nothing more to do! You say sleep, I say pfft.
Furthermore, after this initial discovery about the photobooths I discovered something far greater, something which was similar to something I was once going to do. A clever little man had found a way of bringing joy to complete strangers! With imagination, he found a popular area with a bench in site which received a lot of daily pedestrian traffic and attached a camera. A disposable camera mind you, I doubt anyone would sacrifice their expensive SRL camera for such social experiments...maybe a friends?. Camera tied up with string, and a note beside it… he left it for a day. This avoided the always awkward conversation of “Excuse me sir, may I take your photograph?” especially when it was directed towards strangers. By the end of the day, the camera had not been mugged and there was a roll full of fun other people had! Check it out here!
That is all for today,
au revoir. xo
You don't need to spend all that money on a camera for that effect, you can easily do it on photoshop
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