To start off this blog post, I need to welcome and introduce you to a new member of my camera family. This is Diana.
Diana is a Lomography Diana F+. She is a medium format, toy camera. She's made up of all plastic (even the lens) except for a few key functioning parts that are made from really cheap metal. I decided to get her because I ran into a problem where I really wanted to bring a camera down to Mardi Gras but I don't own a camera that if I lost it or broke it, it wouldn't have been a big deal (no offense to you Diana). It also aloud me to use more creativity then a disposable would have. I really wanted to document Mardi Gras as a whole with this camera, I brought a disposable camera to take fun candid shots with, but Diana was for journalistic shots.
I read online a lot about the camera so I knew your first few rolls are basically like an experiment and it will take some time to get the compositions right. Most of my shots turned out somewhat, and then there are a few that I accidentally shot a double exposure. Most of the time double exposures can turn out really cool, unfortunately with mine I think it made them not cool.
Below are the photos that turned out enough that I felt were worthy to share. All shots were taken using Kodak Tri-X 400 film and developed and scanned by Photo Visions. I usually do my own developing with black and white film but I wanted to send theses out to be done professionally. I'm still planning to make prints in the darkroom with them for a future gallery show.
The parades are one of the biggest events during Mardi Gras. The parades last all day and go through the whole city. The floats were some of the biggest floats that I have ever seen, some of them about 60+ feet long and 20 feet high. The amount of beads that gets thrown during these parades is unbelievable. You also have to pay attention, because you can get knocked out from FULL bags of beads just getting thrown right at you.
Both of these photos accidentally turned out to be double exposures (The first parade photo also was an accidental double exposure). The first two I don't mind the double exposure, but the third one I think I completely ruined what the original image was supposed to be. But when you're taking pictures on a camera that you have to wind the film and its Mardi Gras, so you've been drinking all day, a double exposure or two is bound to happen.
Beignets. One of the top things I wanted to do since this was my first time in New Orleans was to go get beignets. We went to Cafe Du Monde, the number one place in New Orleans to go get them. They were amazing. So good.
Portrait of a Louisiana State Police motorcycle trooper.
In all, it was an amazing weekend. Had a blast at Mardi Gras with some of the best people and friends I know!
For those that have never gone down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, I would say it is something EVERYONE needs to experience AT LEAST once in their life. I have been very fortunate to get to do a lot of really cool things in my life so far at my young age, but Mardi Gras in New Orleans has made its way up towards the top of that list! If you notice the title of this blog post is 'Mardi Gras 2016!', because I'll be back next year for sure!