Capping the afternoon...

I do not do lomography. I photograph. I am a traditional photographer. I use any camera I can get my hands on. I believe that the best camera is the one you use when you need to take a picture.

I don’t hate lomography. I just haven’t tried it yet, and I have no plans of trying it. I also have no plans of buying a lomo-camera.

At a pinch, I guess, I can re-create the style digitally. But doing so would be against the spirit of lomography. One of the main concepts of lomography is to take the moment. The picture is the moment. I agree with that. It also means that the distinctive effects of lomography are not in the post-processing but in the effects inherent in the camera at the time the picture was taken.

I like the whimsy and novelty of lomo styles. These add a layer of fun into photography. The effects lead to appropriately fun and funny pictures. Though I like that, I guess, it’s just not my style.

What I’m saying is that I like to take a look at the serendipitous pictures taken with a lomo camera. Unfortunately, I cannot take these pictures. These are not my pictures.

I am still trying to find my signature. I know what I like, and where my strength lies. My strength lies in understanding the technology, and in pushing whatever tech I can get my hands on.

What I like doing is taking pictures with minimal or no need for post-production. On GIMP (or Photoshop) I only sharpen the picture, adjust contrast and brightness, and push the colors.

I also do panoramic shots. I would like to defend myself by saying that this is contrived, but not “photoshopped.”

I’ve been trying out HDR. But either I have not fully grasped how to do it, or I have not found a picture which has enough dynamic range for HDR. I end up with HDR pictures which have no discernible difference from the original. Maybe I need to push the colors more.

Another strength I have, and this is something I like, is the profile picture. I like the tight close up where the subject’s face occupies the whole frame. I like to play the focus on a particular part of the face, and draw the viewer to that feature.

I like the context of a whole body within the large space of a frame. I like to capture the moment when the person’s identity appears in the picture.

I like to capture the personality of the subject.

I know lomography can also do this. But when I had my first film-based SLR, I had tried so hard to keep the subject in focus. In contrast, some lomo cameras keep things out of focus.

Maybe one of these days, I will try lomo. Then again, maybe not. I still have a lot to learn in normal photography, that lomo will have to take a back seat till I’m done.