Film Forever

Earlier this year, I resolved to shoot more in film. For more than a year, my film cameras have been tucked away in the dark corners of my bedroom. My fisheye, frogeye and actionsampler are all broken and unusable. I can't believe my love for lomo started way back in 2003 (almost 10 years ago. WTH). Back then, I saw samples of lomo shots in a website called maganda.org. I checked the lomography.com website and I wanted to buy a lomo cam so bad. I spent some of my college graduation money to buy an LC-A. Buying the unit was one big adventure. Back then, there was no official lomo distributor in Manila - no lomo ambassador, no Fully Booked or Team Manila store to distribute the cameras. I forgot where I heard it from, but I somehow found out that Katya Guerrero (now Maculangan) was selling lomo cameras. I found her address in an obscure website but when I got to the location, I was told she moved out already. Finally, I found her new studio in Cubao and she gave me the LC-A unit for a steal, with an actionsampler and a small lomo bag to boot. In the same year, Ian Roxas formed the lomomanila ygroup, and the members organized the first ever lomo exhibit in Penguin Cafe at the Remedios Circle, Malate. Here are the pics I submitted:

I became inactive with shooting in film from law school onwards, but I was active again beginning 2006. That time when there was a lomowalk almost every month, the Lomomanila forum was up and running, and I could get expired xpro films for ten pesos each. Now, I can only get xpro films for at least P200.00. Of course, there are the processing fees you have to pay (this has been costly eversince). In any case, I'm willing to take the extra hassle of paying more and waiting for the films to get developed just to get good old film shots.

Last Friday, I was exhausted from the traffic, having spent almost two hours on the road. It was raining, it was, need I emphasize, a Friday, and Miley Cyrus decided to hold her concert when traffic was at its worst. I was ready to flop on my bed as I went home, until I saw the package from Digiprint which contains the CD of my scanned negatives from my LC-A and Yashica cameras. I immediately tore open the package and uploaded the photos.

Pics from the Pahiyas Festival in Lucban, Quezon last May 15, 2011:

In Zamboanga:







These are shots from my recent Boracay trip:

My Independence Day shot. Seemed apt since I was alone at that time. Independent, indeed. Hehe

For someone who has been shooting in digital professionally for more than two years, it's refreshing to play with film cams every once in a while. Now I'll make sure to bring either of my film cams in every shoot or travel.

I'm also glad the Lomomanila peeps are trying to revive the group again. Last Saturday (while I was in Boracay), they held the Newbie Sessions, organized by Zel and Ron. Now they're organizing a film swap with Lomo Taiwan. Deadline for film submissions is on July 23, just in case anyone's interested. Add the Lomomanila group in Facebook here.