The Ten Golden Rules

Lomography.com is a web site dedicated to the use of inexpensive film cameras which produce inconsistant and sometimes unexpected results. The site has identified and documented their ten golden rules for Lomography (the act of photographing with these cameras) and it just happend to be something I have also followed for a number of years (obviously there are other people out there as smart and me, and a lot who are smarter). Here is Lomography's list which I couldn't agree more with.

The Ten Golden Rules:

#1. Take your camera everywhere you go. (I hate going out without atleast a G11 in the car)

#2. Use it anytime Day and Night. (Especially in the digital age when there is no film cost)

#3. Lomography is not an interference with your life but part of it. (Photographers photograph its what we do. The act of photographing is just as important as the final print. You go through life looking for what you can see.)

#4. Try the shot from the hip. (doing this more and more, maybe it will change when I get a Fujifilm X100 then I can go back to rangfinder photography, but right now I like what I am seeing shooting from the hip)

#5. Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible. (Bill Jenkings - of New Topographics fame - was one of my teachers at ASU, the best advice he ever gave me with my images was to suggest I put on a 35mm lens and get closer to my subjects. Easier said than done sometimes, especially early on)

#6. Don't Think. (I remember a certain graduate student at ASU who made this wonderful image of a dead wild pig by a construction site. He was so proud of that image, and it was a great image, that he wouldn't take any photos unless he knew they were equally as good as his best image. He would go out to photograph and never make an exposure because he was over thinking the process. Sometimes the best approach is to just go out and photograph anything and everything then see what you come up with).

#7. Be Fast. (If you hesitate you miss the "Decisive Moment")

#8. You don't have to know beforehand what you captured on film. (More about not overthinking things)

#9. Afterwords Either (always good to get surprises on proof sheets or downloads)

#10. Don't worry about any rules (Just let your vision guide you and go Photograph)