For the love of lomo

I feel I have become a bit obsessed with lomography lately. It is a worrying obsession and one which I can't really afford to maintain! I have at least 25 cameras now, and I take photos everywhere I go, and I mean everywhere. One day last month I shot an entire roll of film just on my journey to work, and trust me when I say Harehills, Leeds is not one of the most photogenic of places. There are a number of things I like about lomography which I am going to list below.


1) Their products, although overpriced sometimes are stylistically beautiful. Even the packaging they come in is beautiful. Dave just treated me to a Fisheye No. 2 Ripcurl Edition with his piggies (I will explain in a moment) and it is a great example of the beauty of the products.

2) The generosity of the lomo-folks at LSI. Despite some of their cameras being very very expensive, they do great deals every so often and if you play your cards right you can do really well. On their site they give out "piggy points" (each one equal to £1 for use in their online store) if you win a competition, write or translate an article or sometimes just because of the season. I have just worked out that since I joined lomo at the end of 2009, I have spent £582 worth of piggies. That is a lot of free s**t! I am just waiting for delivery of my new beaut - LC-Wide.

3) The community on the website. I have never been a big fan of having "online" friends because I am not sure I used to see the benefit. I even critically thought that people with such friends in blogsville or in forums etc were a bit pathetic really (very sorry bloggers!). Now I understand the magic of an online friend base, especially where there are common interests - for us lomographers it is analogue photography. The community at lomo are so friendly (it feels great to come home and have 100 "likes" on your photos), kind (upon meeting an online friend he gave me and Dave 4 free Polaroids) and fun (the lomo events are a great laugh).

I do feel a bit daft for being so involved in what is essentially a big website but to be honest I don't care. It is a really great common interest for me and Dave and writing articles for them is enjoyable and leads to piggies for me so it seems like a great use of my spare time. My laptop has been poorly this last week or so (hence the lack of blog entries) and the main reason I have been sad about it (not the uni work or talking to my real life friends on Facebook or even spending on ebay) is that I have missed lomography.com. When I got my laptop mended on Thursday night I had 2 new albums to upload which have become really popular really fast and then on Friday I was made "LomoHome of The Day" which is an award you can win and you get 50 piggies to spend! I now have my beady eyes on the new Russia Day Lomo LC-A+ which is a limited edition red leather one. You can read more about the Russia day here. I have always wanted an LC-A+ because although I love my original LC-A, the new version can do MX and has a higher film speed setting. I wanted a limited edition as well so it looks a bit different and used to want a white one (though decided that knowing me this would get filthy!) I am definitely going to buy the one from the winner of the customisation competition if I like it or the Russia Day one. It is hard to resist a camera with a tiny sperm painted on the viewfinder though! What do you guys think?