oslo city hall

just a picture of the oslo city hall that i took when i was home last time. it's taken with lomo diana f+ on an expired Kodak AK160NC film.

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17th of May - celebrating Norway's national day

may 17 is the celebration of norway's constitution. it turnes oslo, and the rest of the cities in norway, into a huge streetparty, in some ways similar to the dutch queensday. however, instead of wearing orange, everyone is dressed up in dresses, suits, or our national costume. as opposed to many other countries' national day celebrations, there is no focus on military or parades, but more on the celebration of the people themselves.

we started the day out with a campari-sponsored breakfast at 9am, before we headed into the centre of oslo around 12. the party on the streets in the centre kept going till 6-7ish, before we moved on to a houseparty. it was a great day with loads of old friends, and as i heard someone sum the day up; the 17th of may is a day where you go to places you don't usually go to, you drink and eat things you don't usually drink and eat, talk to people you don't usually talk to, and wear clothes you never usually wear.

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the sunny 16 rule explained

(written by splatou)
when dealing with old cameras like the lomo lubitel 166b there are no fancy functions like light-metering. therefore, the photographer has to manually estimate the light, and choose a combination of aperture and shutter-speed, given the ISO value of the film to get the correct exposure. as this can be quite hard, some genius came up with the so-called "sunny 16 rule".

in short, the sunny 16 rule say that in sunny conditions (broad daylight), when the aperture is set to f/16, the shutter speed should be set to 1/ISO-value seconds. So if you are shooting with ISO 400, the right shutter speed for aperture f/16 is 1/400 seconds. if you take that as a starting point, you can begin adjusting to your preferred aperture or shutter by adjusting in "stop". in the table below are the normal available apertures. each step up or down in the table is one "stop" up or down. the lower the aperture number, the more the light

f/4.5

f/5.6

f/8

f/11

f/16

f/22

when it comes to shutter-times, every double or half (approximately) of the shutter speed, is one "stop" down or up. the slower the shutter speed, the more the light

250/1

125/1

60/1

30/1

15/1

and here comes the method of applying the sunny 16 rule, using an example.
let's say it is sunny, and you are using ISO 100. but instead of shooting f/16, which would have given shutter speed of 1/100, you wish to shoot f/8. this means you are adding two more stops of light compared to f/16 (see table above). this means you need to balance with two stops LESS light using your shutter speed, in this case 1/400. this can be summarized in the following table, combining shutter speeds and aperture (using ISO 100):

f/16	1/100
f/11	1/200
f/8	1/400
f/5.6	1/800

so, in sum, if it is sunny, start at f/16 and 1/ISO, and work your way through stops on aperture and shutter speeds. keep the balance, so if one stop brighter aperture, use one stop darker shutter-speed.

there has also been developed several expansions of the sunny 16 rule, so that it can be used in more conditions than just sunlight. here is a table summarizing this:

Aperture	Light Condition
f/22	Snow/Sand
f/16	Sunny
f/11	Slight Overcast
f/8	Overcast
f/5.6	Heavy Overcast
f/4.5	Open Shade/Sunset

the way this table work is: you start with the light condition, and choose aperture thereafter. then set the shutter speed to 1/ISO, and start working your way from there upwards/downwards using stops and keeping the balance between light from aperture and light from shutter speeds.

and to finish it off, here are two shots where the sunny-16 rule is used to determine the exposure. i know they are not great picture-wise, but at least they are well exposed. (the pictures in the previous post are also according to the sunny 16 rule, btw).

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first pictures from lomo lubitel 166b

a couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about the awesome lomo lubitel 166b I bought on ebay for only $1 + $27 in shipping (link). super excited I hurried up and shot a full roll of Kodak 100TNX B&W film with the lubitel and handed it in for development. today I picked up the negatives in Hema Fotoservice, and I was thrilled to see that the camera works perfect! it is a lot more manual than the lomo diana, and shutter and aperture must be controlled 100% manually. I am therefore extra happy and surprised that so many of the pictures turned out good! however, i'm a bit surprised there were only 9 shots on a 120mm film (which usually has 12 shots). all the pictures are shot at various places in amsterdam, mostly outdoors in sunny conditions.

let me know what you think!

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lomo paris wheels

there's something about the quadratic format of 120mm shots that makes round shapes look great in lomographic pictures. paris-wheels are therefore almost always lomogenic. here's two quite different shots of two quite different paris-wheels. one is a double-exposure picture of the massive one that used to be on dam square, while the second is of the joke of a paris-wheel, barely 4 metres high, at nieuwmarkt in amsterdam. the first is shot on an expired roll of Kodak E200 Positive film, while the second is on an expired Fuji RVP (don't know the ISO). colors and contrast came out quite different, and the vignette is a lot stronger in the second one. both are with lomo diana f+

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powerlines

just two quite random shots. the second picture is a pair of rollerskates thrown over some powerlines in amsterdam. saw them in kalverstraat (the main shopping street in amsterdam) and wondering about the story behind them hanging there.

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sensemaking? not with this photo

french florent is getting ready to celebrate the dutch queen for the first time. without knowing this photo is from queensday, it does not make much sense. took this the morning of queensday, after a pretty hard queensnight.

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modern architecture, amsterdam

shot this picture close to central station in amsterdam on queensday (one of the few sunny moments that day). haven't seen the sun since then, so really hope the spring returns soon!

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b/w architecture amsterdam

the dramatic feel of black/white shots can add a lot to photos of buildings and architecture in general. here are three photos, from different locations of amsterdam, where I think bw works great. the two first are from the area close to central station, from the bridge between the OB library and the NEMO museum, and of the nemo museum itself. the third is from a random canal in amsterdam (can't remember where). all photos are from an expired 120mm roll of ILFORD HP5 bw film (I think ISO 200, but not sure)

btw, the nemo museum is nothing to recommend if you're over 6 years old!

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queensday/koninginnedag, amsterdam

koninginnedag, the 30th of april every year, is the crazy celebration of the dutch queen's birthday. actually, it's the celebration of the previous queen, but for some reason the present queen officially celebrates her birthday on april 30. koninginnedag in amsterdam is the biggest streetparty in holland, and 700 000 come to the city every year. everyone is happy, hammered, and dressed in orange.

the weather wasn't great this year, with rain and clouds most of the day, so pretty poor light for photos. I was also disappointed when I realized one of the three rolls of film I shot that day was actually b/w. kinda ruins the whole orange-thing. anyways, I think these shots turned out great, and capture some of the amazing atmosphere in amsterdam!

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lomo lubitel 166b review

I just received this beautiful russian camera and I am super excited about it. this exact model, the 166b came into production in the 1980s, and I doubt it has changed much since then. it took a while to figure out the functions on the camera, but after some testing and experimenting, I think I've figured it all out.

the camera has shutter speeds ranging from bulb mode to 1/250 sec, and the aperture range from f/4.5 to f/22. the most characteristic feature with the lubitel is its twin lens system. the two lenses have the same focal length, and are intertwined, so when you look through one and control the focus, the same happens on the other lens. the camera has a waist-level viewfinder, which works mirrored, so it's kinda confusing in the beginning. lomo lubitel is 100% manual, and have quite a lot more setting possibilities than the diana.

I was lucky enough to find this beauty on ebay, and I didn't pay more than US$1 for the camera, and US$27 for the shipping. the low price made me pretty sceptic, but the camera seams to be in great shape (considering the age).

today i'll test my first roll of 120mm in the camera, and I will get back to how it went. hopefully I'll be able to upload some photos taken with the lubitel soon. there was actually a really old exposed film inside the lubitel when I got it. really not sure whether I should have it developed. would be awesome if it was some great old pictures, but would suck bigtime if it was full of child pornography or something!

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lomo vintage car in b/w

there are very few things I can think of that are more lomogenic in black and white than old vintage cars. as I posted a little while back, my lomo diana was ripping my film, and it took a couple of tries to fix it. the result was only 7 shots on the 120mm roll, and the light-leaks showing on the top of this picture. anyways, I think it gives a nice effect!

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lomo diana flipped double exposures

one of the most characteristic features with lomographic cameras is the possibility to make several exposures on top of each other. after experimenting with taking pictures of different motives on top of each other, I figured it gives a great effect to shoot the same object twice, either flipped, like here, or from different angels. both these are from de bolelaan in amsterdam, by vrije universiteit.

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2-in-1 portrait II

same models as the last one, just now with expired 120mm KODAK color film. the spring has come and left, and it's now only 11 degrees in amsterdam. hopefully it'll be back soon. two days ago was the huge queensday celebration in amsterdam, I manage to shoot three full rolls, so expect a lomophobic queensday special soon.

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