Lomography

Manual cameras are romantic, digital cameras are democratic.

Just a little earlier in April, me and my friends went on a little road trip up to Cape Town. While we were there, we decided to make our way to the, quite famous, Old Biscuit Mill. This is a lovely market that happens on a Saturday in Observatory, Cape Town. You will find the most unique hand crafted items, the most stunning art pieces, the most scrumptious, innovative food (if food can be innovative) and anything else your heart desires. At the Old Biscuit Mill ….anything goes!

The little guy that caught my attention

So we were strolling through the stalls and shops, when we seen loads of people huddled into one store. We decided to see what the fuss was all about. We discovered a shop full of fabulous photography and unique cameras, from your modern digital cameras, to old school Polaroid cameras. But there was one camera that caught my attention. This camera goes by the name “Lomo” and it has the most funky, colourful, most beautiful range of cameras around.  After discovering this lovely little camera, I had to take it upon myself to find out more about the Lomo camera and the photos it takes….Lomography!

What is Lomography?

With today’s technology, everybody can be a photographer. This is because all cameras now days come with automatic settings. But where is the fun in that??? There’s no challenge…it’s basically spoon feeding!

I stumbled upon a blog, 1stwebdesigner.com, where the author explained the concept of lomography quite nicely. So I thought I’d share it with you:

“I once read from a book ‘Manual cameras are romantic, digital cameras are democratic’. To me it evoked the romanticism of old vintage film and polaroid cameras.  It evoked in me the romanticism of old vintage film and polaroid cameras. “Off colors, wrong focus, vignetting effect–this is what traditional photography defines as a ‘bad picture’, but for lomographers, that isn’t the case. They use these ‘wrong’ settings to their advantage, creating one of a kind photos.”

Traditionally, this photo would be regarded as a bad photo.
Not in Lomography though.

Lomography goes back to basic, fun photography. Its all about shooting lots of photos, without thinking.  It is spur-of-the-moment type photography. And so the motto adopted by Lomographers is “Be Fast, Don’t Think.” Lomography is forgetting about the traditional rules of composition and having a lot of fun.

According to Lomography.com there are 10 golden rules or rather, guidlines, to Lomography:

1.  Take your camera everywhere you go
2.  Use it any time - day and night
3.  Lomography is not an interference to your life but a part of it
4.    Shoot from the hip
5.  Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible
6. Don't think
7. Be fast
8. You don't have to know before hand what you captured on film
9. Afterwards either
10. Don't worry about any rules

Check this video out on the golden rules of lomography

Here's some examples of lomographic photos:

A collage of Lomography photos.

Lomography

A brief history of Lomography

The folks at lomo have created a timeline on their website www.lomography.com if you’re really interested about where Lomography came from and how it developed. I also found this really cute video on the history of lomography, so if you don't feel like reading take a look at this. I don’t have all the time in the world, and I think ya’ll are smart enough to understand a simple history as found on the Lomo website. So here it is:

“It all started when two students in Vienna, Austria, stumbled upon the Lomo Kompakt Automat – a small, enigmatic Russian camera. Mindlessly taking the shot from the hip, and sometimes looking through the viewfinder, they were astounded with the mindblowing photos that it produced – the colours were vibrant, with deep saturation and vignettes that framed the shot – it was nothing like they had seen before!

Little Miss Ombre'

A lot of people have been asking me about my new hair colour of late. So I thought instead of explaining it individually to each of you, why don’t I just share my experience and answer your questions on hereJ

Balayage what?

Below is a photo of a model with amazing sunkissed, beachy looking hair.  Anybody who didn’t know better, would say it’s naturally sunkissed. Probably assuming that her hair has naturally lightenend from being on the beach all day in the sun. I am here to tell you her’s and the rest of hollywood’s secret ;)

 First things first, what the flip am I talking about when I say Ombre’ (om-bray) or also known as Balayage (ba-lee-arge) hair? These are really just fancy words or hairdresser jargon for describing the technique they use to get that sunkissed look on hair. Think Leighton Meester, Rachel Bilson and Lauren Conrad.

I was reading on Vouge.au and they gave quite a nice little explanation. “Balayage is a French colouring technique that was developed in the 1970s. It’s a freehand technique where the colour is applied by hand rather than using the traditional foiling or cap highlighting techniques.” That’s right girls, no more ugly foils!!! Some also refer to it as Ombre’. This is a French term for a technique used to colour material that graduates from dark to light.

Ombre' originates from the dying of material in a way that the colour
graduates from dark to light.

Balayage is allows you to look fashionable and feel great without having to shell out loads of cash every month. Yes, noted, your first balayage session will be pricy. But after that, you don’t have to go back for months. The more re-growth the better! This look is also really low maintenance. So for people who have little time to go to the salon each month, this is for you.  And if you have naturally wavy hair, then you practically don’t have to do anything after you balayage colour to get the beachy look, besides a few hair treatments to ease the damage caused by bleach. Check the video out below, to see the balayage technique

 

  My Balayage voyage

So here I was, 3 days before my graduation, trying to decide who entrust with Balayage voyageJ  The decision was easy for me, as I have been going to the same hair stylist for a year now, and have only had good results. His name is Warren Shultz, and although a junior stylist at Bliss Hair Design in 9^th Avenue Walmer, there’s nothing junior about his skills and techniques for hair. He understands hair, and he listens to what I want. And he’ll tell me if I’m crazy too. Haha.

Yay for Champagne!

So I made my appointment for highlights…thinking that’s all it really was. Little did I know, there was a name for what I wanted, and a process for what I wanted. And that process took about 5 hours! Of which I hadn’t actually planned for, and neither had Warren.  But as Warren does best, he calmed me down, and made me feel at home. Home meaning, throughout the 5 hours, I was given a cuppachino, 2 Lindt choices, lemon water and champagne to to celebrate the conclusion of my 5 hour session at the salon. So all in all, I had a really fun time.

Firstly, Warren applied the bleach to my hair in the balayage technique. So no foils, no cap, just creative application by your stylist. He placed more bleach on the ends of my hair and gradually used less and less towards my roots, stopping about 3-5cm from my roots. After each section he placed clingwrap over the hair with product, so as to not disturb the other hair. I had so much clingwrap in my hair, I told Warren my hair smelt like a sandwich. (5 hours in a salon makes you think of weird things_haha)  Heat was applied to my hair for about an hour then washed out. I freaked out a little when I seen the resultant colour, which was yellow! But Warren told me that they still had to put a glaze treatment on, to take away the yellowness. Phew!!! (Graduation photo, graduation photo!)

To find out how it went and to see the results (of course you do!), follow the the link. 

Ashleigh who?

I am at 21 year old, living in on the sunshine coast of South Africa.Although my family origins lie in Scottland. Hence the surname, Mackilligan:)  I grew up in the world-famous surf village, Jeffrey's Bay. Home to the best right-hand surf break in the world, as well as the longest (1km).  This town is truly beautiful, and I am proud to call it my home-town. I am blessed to have grown up in Jeffrey's Bay. It allowed me so much freedom as a child. Being able to run around, play on the beach and cycle around the quiet roads are just some of the happy memories I have. Being part of a small community, I met a lot of people and made many friends. I have so much love for the friends I made from Jeffreys Bay. Truly genuine people.

A scetch of world famous surf break, Supertubes, in my hometown Jeffrrey's Bay

 My family is small, just four of us, and they mean the world to me. I am lucky enough to have my grandparents close by as well. And when I say close, I mean in the same street. The other half of my family are in Johannesburg and Scotland. I don't see them much but it’s always super fun when we all get together.

One half of the Fam-damily

When I started university, I had to move to Port Elizabeth. Being a small town girl, this was quite a culture shock, even though the city of Port Elizabeth isn't big, it was still so much different from Jeffreys Bay. I have learnt so much from living in the city, and that includes driving :) I am in my 4th year of my degree in Public Relations and Communication Management at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. I love people and challenging myself, creatively and intellectuality, so the art of public relations was the obvious choice. I met the love of my life, my best friend and a group of crazy cool people at university. So NMMU has been good to me in more ways than just academically.

My boyfriend, Brett (left) myself (middle) and my best friend Anemie (left)

Just some of my crazy varsity friends at Graduation.

I am born in June, and am Gemini in star sign.I have two different sides to me, other Gemini's can relate to this. At times I can be reserved, somewhat shy and polite, and take on the role as observer. This depends on the energies I feel from the people around me. The other side of me is wild, the life of the party, the fighter, the tell all to whoever will listen type of person. I like both sides to me, but I l always try and find the balance between the two.