30 Stunning Examples Of Lomography For World Toy Camera Day by RedBubble

Really interesting stuff. :)

No toy cameras, but I try to shoot some film at least every other day. Some fine images above, no doubt about it. I like to encourage anyone who enjoys using the medium, as it’s good for everyone in the long run, and it would be a very boring world, indeed, if every photographer used a 5D II (as capable as they are). I prefer other makes of camera myself, but film photography is a very broad church. It’s (nearly) all very good.
Regards,
Brett

Wow! Thanks for sharing RB… Yet another photographic niche I knew nothing about!

wow some of these are great Thanks for sharing

Am I the only person who thinks that these cameras are a waste of money?
Apart from the odd one or two pictures, the rest are a waste of time with nothing nice about them.

Just my opinion.

I agree with Country Pursuit , we’ve come a long way , to waste time and effort on images less than what you aim for. Each to their own .
my two cents worth .

I love the effect of these Lomo-images but one would think how many misses do you get before you get ‘the one’. . .‘the keeper’ that people would go ‘wow – I kinda like that one!’ Congrats to the artists as you’ve created some great images with a camera that many wouldn’t consider using. :)

a wonderful selection of work to get new inspiration from

i love it when redbubble makes posts like this. Just 1 theme and a lot of examples

Sorry I don’t like them

artistry trumps technology EVERY TIME – a beautiful set of images which should shame anyone who owns expensive equipment but says ‘my photos never turn out properly’

Thanks for the inclusion, nice to know that some people have the foresight and insight not to be so precious about clarity etc and have the ability to see different cameras for different uses and effects. Thinking outside the square is always a good thing.

i adore this. “my humble contribution”http://jpgmag.com/stories/17890

Interestd in the fact that does it still count if the picture was taken with a hi tech digital camera with a lens attachment?
Sorry, but that is not a real lomo shot.
Just my opinion.

Each to their own, I must admit I got more pleasure in the 70’s and 80’s shooting with my Zenit, Lubitel and Pentax manual film cameras. Whether using an iphone or like Brett using a medium format camera, any creativity has to be good and I do enjoy trawling the various film and camera blogs and sites. The “Toy Camera” enthusiasts are not always after perfection, each time I visit the Lomography store in London, it is always busy, I may even join them. I agree with Richard, using software or a lens attachment to create a Lomo or Holga effect is not the same as the real thing.

Oh this are such glorious works! Makes me excited to use my Diana F! I love the tones and effects created in these, pure art, the old-fashioned way!

@ Country Pursuits
What exactly, is a real lomo shot? What you’ve referred to is arguably no less authentic, than trying to make a digital capture look like a cross-processed film image…

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to rush out and buy a Holga. But it is the image that matters. If you think, for instance, that a lack of sharpness associated with “lomo” equipment compromises quality, well, then, you may not want to acquaint yourself with, for example, Bresson’s or Capa’s work, as you will find some of their most significant images lacking in this respect…

@ jainiemac
We haven’t really come that far at all, in the last thirty years anyway. In some regards, photography in general, and that hard to define notion called “image quality” have regressed. Certainly, capturing images has become quicker and more convenient in many ways. But some of the finest cameras that have ever been made (and probably, ever will be made) originated in the 1950’s, or even earlier. How far have we really come? Not so much, really, in many ways that actually matter.

What is astounding is that I find myself in completely uncharted territory; never in a million years would I ever have envisaged being in a position of defending Holga or lomo devotees. Frankly I’m surprised at the judgemental and mean-spirited opinions of some of the contributors to the discussion.
Just my opinion…

nice!!!!

Country Pur, if you are talking about my shot here, it was taken with a digital camera through the toy camera so im not sure what you mean? Quantify

When I look at these images, it’s not the quality of the image in terms of clarity or colour or contrast that I am seeing, but the image.
To me, the majority of these images are featured because they contain the composition imagination and vision that make them art.
All of these could have been taken with the old Kodak instamatic that my parents had when I was a kid, but none of the snaps that my parents took ever looked like this (Maybe if either of my grandfathers had a hold of the instamatic, they might have produced something of the quality shown above).

If I could get even close to the same sort of artistic expression with my Nikon D80, I’d be more than happy.

Cheers,

Hugh

these are cool, and I love quirky different pics…. no matter how they are made… never had a camera until recent years so only briefly dabbled with film…makes me want to go and experiment :¬)

‘Art’ is what it is: if it ‘speaks’ to the artist and to the viewer, it is worthwhile – some of these images are very thought-provoking, and quite inspirational, e.g. ‘Film House’ (Artur Sikora); ‘Lomo – And then you let go … ’ (Thomas Spiessens); ’farm girl’ (Sally McColl); ‘dim walkways’ by (Lucia Fischer); ‘36 Apostles’ (thescatteredimage); ‘I heard myself speak’ (onetonshadow); ‘Right Turn’ (Mike Lewis); ‘Supersampler Bike’ (kirky 101); ‘Untitled’ (Samuel Grant); ‘Plane Lomo – Denmark) (Barnewitz); ’Deck chairs’ (Craig Roberts), & ‘Lion through the trees’ (momentobambino).

I am not a ‘camera buff’, but these images do capture my imagination, however they were captured on film, and I would find them quite ‘look-at-able’ on a wall in my home. Thanks for sharing! :)

“Have a Sunny Day!” :)

memac (aka Elaine Macdougall ‘Sunny Days Originals’)

These cameras are usually cheap to buy and create such dreamy images and the saturation of colour images are fantastic. I LOVE THEM! Dont get me wrong, digital is a great media to create images but each of these images are unique, with a digital you can recreate a photograph and usually get it right first time, but i love the experimentation and the rarity that these holga, lomo, diana cameras etc bring to the photograph. I say keep the old style alive! Pictures are great, loving the colour and composition. :)

@shuttersuzie, how many digital images do you shoot before you get a keeper? It is just so easy to shoot A LOT of images digitally and then toss the less than stellar efforts.

I think shooting with toy cameras is just another way to push your creativity. One thing film usually does for photographers is SLOW them down. It is not as easy to develop and print film. Plus one thing I loved about film is you had to wait for gratification. I know times where I FELT I had a great shot, but I had to wait until after processing and printing to know for sure. And, there are those wondeful times when as the image develops up in the tray and you fall to your knees and thank the photography gods that you got it.

I don’t really shoot film anymore, but I still print with some of the old (alternative processes). I love getting my hands in the work.

I say CHEERS for however you express your photographic skills.

Rene

What a great collection of images. Some friends from of mine have arranged with a local pub for us to display some of our lomography work so I’ve been playing about with my toy holga recently with varying degrees of success. It’s certainly a different challenge to using digital in terms of composiiton, (which in my very humble opinion is one of the most important elements of photography) and trying to be a wee bit creative and create some atmposhere in the shots. The randomness of things like light leaks, blur, smudges etc just add to the fun for me. One of my ‘better’ ones is below…

HAve just received a LC-A Kompact Horizon for my birthday and have several Hlgas that I love to play with .. there is a certain joy in shooting film – have even started started developing my B&Ws again thoguh need to improve my scanning ability so I can share … any suggestions for scanning process welcome.

A cool image taken with any camera, wether it costs $5 or $5000, is a cool image. It’s about the art and vision of the person behind the camera. Those that carry the belief that great photographic art can only be created with high dollar equipment are in my mind closed minded and only want to impress with what they spend, not what they create. Remember, art is subjective.

As a painter, I have no training in the art of photography, so take my comment as one with an untrained eye, HOWEVER………… I really like them, very creative.

Can’t see a lot of point really. In order to display images taken on any film camera, toy or otherwise, on a website, or publish and sell them as printed products one is going to need to digitize them in some way. E.g. with a film scanner. I suppose in some ways one could argue using a real toy camera to create these kind of images has more artistic integrity than using some form of filter or script in photo editing software and it might be an interesting thing to do just for the fun of it. OTOH re-creating these kind of effects digitally is probably more creative in a way. Actually my new Panasonic FZ100 came with Raw file editing software which as a “toy camera” effect built in which is quite fun. Actually I used 35mm for years before digital was invented and in fact just bought myself a good film scanner, but I mostly had pretty good quality cameras, even the first Russian Zorki and Zeniths I had (some of which I still have), whilst relatively cheap weren’t exactly toys. Actually I have a small collection of old cameras some of which I bought more recently on eBay but all of them are pretty good quality camera. Although I do have an old box camera somewhere which belonged to my late Aunt back in the 1950s I dare say that would qualify as a toy camera though I don’t know if you can get 620 roll film any more even if it would fit into my film scanner.

These are fantastic, thanks for posting. It’s possible a few have missed the point of creating an unreality with images. It’s the imperfections that give them character, individuality and artistic merit. Artistic taste is innate and should always be respected.

Couldnt agree more Andrew re people missing the point..our whole world is filled with reality and unreality, to only record this in the reality sense would be like taking imagination away from someone. I dont like some certain kinds of photography, but have the ability to still enjoy and appreciate them

A few of these appeal to me, including rue des gravilliers, paris by bigudi, The writings on the wall by madworld, and Airport, Paris by cykuck.

The toy cameras are just another avenue to creativity. I think if we “dis” the method, it’s not unlike an oil painter snubbing oil pastels, or watercolor, or finger painting, for that matter. Why? It’s all creative. The fact that it’s more difficult, apparently, to get something decent and interesting just makes it all the more challenging and fun, I suspect for the fans of the camera. Any camera is just a means to an end. And some like surprise endings!

Great post. Hope to see some more of these.

Great collection of images indeed!

@ Artberry
“In order to display images taken on any film camera, toy or otherwise, on a website, or publish and sell them as printed products one is going to need to digitize them in some way. E.g. with a film scanner.

True, that is now a well trodden route, and indeed it is what I presently use to share my own film images. But film still looks like film, even when scanned, if one is faithful to the original capture when post processing scanned files; yes you can emulate effects of it, but it is rarely quite the same. Superior dynamic range of negative films being one case in point, although digital cameras are improving all the time and if you have the dough, medium format digital offers the best of all worlds in that particular respect.

But many people still do make darkroom prints. Not so much with colour any more, true (although, I still don’t think I have ever seen anything in digital colour that surpasses a Cibachrome print). Black and white, on the other hand is a very viable option for traditional printing, and is likely to remain that way for quite some time to come. If you are after absolute quality, personally I still think this is way to go and I can see a darkroom in my own future eventually, (if I ever stop buying cameras long enough to afford it, that is). Even today a number of people still coat wet plates, so (except for Kodachrome) just about anything is possible if you are so inclined.

You can still source 620 rolls from specialist suppliers. There are a couple of RB members producing some good work with them. Otherwise, the option of re-rolling 120 film onto 620 spools is always there; a changing bag or dark room is all that is required to deal with Kodak’s little joke on the photographic world that was the 620 format… I’ve added you to my watch list and look forward to seeing some of your scans!
Regards,
Brett

What a surprise!
An artistic eye can.

Terrific, very creative examples of photography, Iove the mood that toy cameras bring to images…some really great work here, I love ‘and then you let go’ and ‘thoughtful’

T’riffic shots. I have an old plastic camera (a Leo) which I haven’t been able to get any information on, and thus inspired (and alone for the weekend) I shall crank him out.

The Mr Onetonshadow person is a long time exponent of the lomographic arts, and I love his “I heard myself speak” and “And then you let go”.

I think film for most of us is poo. I hate all that cr*p about artistic integrity, you can add artistic integrity and ‘warmth’ with Photoshop! I don’t think you have to spend shed loads of cash on a camera either, but these shots aren’t that great, but I bet they were fun to create so good on you all for having fun, but let’s face it you could EASILY have created as such with a cheap digital and some free software though I don’t know why you’d bother!. – There, my tuppence worth old man rant and no I’m definitely no photo genius!!! : )

@Brett Rogers
“If you are after absolute quality, personally I still think this is way to go and I can see a darkroom in my own future eventually”

Well I can see some point in using a quality vintage camera. I still have around ten old cameras myself the best being a Pentax MX although I also have an old Yashica 635 TLR in working condition and I still think it would be fun to put a film through them. But I suppose I do fail to see the point in using these plastic toy cameras because quality was never thir stong point.

I suppose there might be some novelty in using an old camera bought for next to nothing from a junk store or something. But actually if you go to the Lomography site they’re selling these things for quite a lot of money e.g more than £40 and in some cases hundreds, considering what they are the fact one can buy vintage SLRs for that sort of money on places like eBay. Surely it defeats the object of using a cheap camera if it isn’t actually cheap.

I suppose the other thing is the digital world is pretty well stocked with it’s share of toy cameras in any case, e.g. a lot of cameras in mobile phones particularly the older or cheaper ones still have something of the genuine qualities of a toy camera. So in some ways it does seem a little crazy to me that people go out their way and spend quite a lot of money on these old toy cameras.

That said when it comes to learning photography I suppose these old toy cameras still have some value. Because unless one is using a DSLR or Bridge camera which can be quite pricey, the average point and shoot digital compact doesn’t give much if any manual control so are not really the best things to use to learn about exposure control, apertures, shutter speeds depth of field, focal lengths etc which are still important for creative control. I suppose it’s easy for me to fail to see the point in toy cameras but OTOH I’ve been taking photos since I was about 8 year old in 1967 and did have the benefit of using toy cameras for real, in fact my first ever camera was a variation of the Diana which took 127 film and I took my first photos on primary school trips to Cheddar caves and Bristol Zoo. Maybe I should dig out the negatives I could never remember what I photographed but they always had interesting abstract qualities lol

I disagree with most of what you’ve written (above), but your last statement seems difficult to refute!
Regards,
Brett

Sorry Artberry, by “above” I was of course referring to Messr. MARTISTIC… I am more likely to be found with a Hasselblad or a Rolleiflex most days, and don’t own a Holga or similar camera and have no plans to get one. I own plenty of Japanese cameras, but I’m usually found with German ones, and German optics. I’m probably as snobby an owner as you would ever meet, in this respect, (although I sacrificed a lot to get my kit). So, I think the equipment makes a difference too, (and history teaches us that most of the all-time greats, or those considered such, tended to use the best they could afford – this must tell us something).

But, I wouldn’t claim an image captured with a Hasselblad must be superior to one made with a Holga, any more than I would argue the reverse; it’s what the photographer does with the equipment at his or her disposal, whatever that is, which matters, much more than what it was captured with. I think you and I both see this, but it is apparent that other contributors to the discussion have not been prepared to look beyond the equipment… Thanks for the thoughtful and considered response.
Regards
Brett

reminds me of when i had my old praktica MTL5B. my first camera and not knowing much about aperture, shutter speeds light sources etc being around aged 13-14 at the time alot of my images ended up with the distorted vignetted look ( could sell em for a fortune now :P) . The point is its about the creative artistic images that these old plastic cameras could create. heck ive seen some of the best time lapsed long exposure shots taken on a pinhole camera.
though i dont have the time really for doing film shots anymore id certainly love to tinker with something like a lensbaby or holga lens on my canon just for the fun of it

There are some really food images here. Nice collection!!

You know what? Today with our modern camera’s many of us edit our photo’s to look like the old fashion ones… :-)

Brett, I certainly agree about German Optics. Well one reason I’m on my third Pansonic Lumix is partly due to the Leica lenses. I’d also agree a picture taken with a Hasselblad in theory may not be artistically superior to one taken on a Holga. But there is the aspect the Holga is a bit of a one trick pony capable of one anachronistic ironic trick wherase a Hasselblad is a very versatile work horse capable of many things in the hands of a good photographer/artist. I think generally one would rate a photographer or artist on their ecclectism and originality. Well lets face it if a Holga doesn’t teach someone they need a better camera they should probably consider a different profession. lol

I love the light leak effects! Nice examples.

Of course half a bottle of whisky and you can achieve the same results with any camera lol

@Artberrry but the cost of the whisky alone is worth more than the camera. Keep it simply and avoid the hangover buy a crap camera and see what happens! ;-)

Brett, thanks for your warm comment : P. I was trying to make the point that cheap toy cameras usually result in poor images. Most of us do use digital cameras and these have speeded up the learning curve on composition and style no end. I admire and applaud those of you with expensive equipment and the knowledge base to use these effectively and of course the tools do not maketh the artist, but do help make something good into something fantastic! I must say that I was not saying that the intent of the artists here was poor, but the tools used to create the images. If that is the impression I gave then I apologise!
By the way, how do you know I’m not sitting on a huge pile of the photographic equivelant of Davinciesque genius? I’m not and I don’t pretend to have the photographic knowledge, skill, talent or inclination to create the wonderful images that I have seen from these artists.

Thank you so much for sharing this collection and kudos to all the featured artists. People either love or hate toy cams and their results. Personally, I adore them. This collection is beautiful and I could ponder over them for a good long while. I’d love to see them blown up HUGE in a wide open gallery. Fun!

@Pilgrim. I don’t know, if you go to the Lomography site and see the prices on these cameras in their store e.g. £40 and up you could get quite a nice bottle of whiskey for that. The point being it can be a struggle to take good photos with any camera particularly if conditions aren’t perfect. But doing one’s best with what one has and can afford seems very real. I suppose in a way Lomography takes the “P” out of photography which is why it starts with an “L” for LOL :) But it’s no longer really about the fact one can take remarkable photos with basic or lo-tech equipment which was the original value of these cameras. It’s become more of an ironic anachronism. Because the real photographers and artists of the future are using the toy cameras of today e.g. mobile phones, cheap digital compacts etc. Whereas in a way this fashion seems to have more to do with nostalgia and novelty of toy collecting than real art or photography. In saying that obviously people have different ways of looking at things. But it kind of goes against the grain for me because from a creative standpoint I’d be more happy with something I had deliberately created to look old or low tech. Whereas using something which is really old and low tech would seem too easy lol

Just think – for a couple of bucks (a used Kodak Brownie) you get a camera that has automatic edge darkening, background and foreground in soft focus, grain texture , no adjustments necessary and the surprise when you get your pictures back.. Besides, the number one ingredient in a super picture is the photographer.

Some of these are truly inspirational and just amazing.

beautiful tone colors, amazing :)

Love all of these. Interesting comments and takes above. Those leaning towards the negative, I’m not sure what planet they’re on- all of these are ‘perfect’ in their own right. Congratulations- who are the others to sit in judgement;)

Great range of styles – something for (nearly) everybody.

WOW, these are absolutely amazing……Love every single one of them~!