Today, I bought myself an adapter to attach a diana lomo lens to my DSLR, along with a diana fisheye.
The result of the pictures weren't really that special, since the lens were designed to be used on a camera that's extremely different with my Nadezhda (that's what I named my DSLR). You can't really see the fisheye effect except for several special conditions.
However, I decided to try and emulate the images produced by lomographic Cameras. So I played around with the picture styles, Experimented with the custom white balance, and the simplicity of the lens also limited me from doing things that I normally do with a standard lens.
So I snapped away. Having and adventure behind the lens, shooting from the hip, without thinking as lomographers usually do. And then I got home and checked the results.
Some of the pictures came out pretty nice, but most of them are blurry, with weird colors, shaky, and suffering from other kinds imperfections.
My usual style of photography is sharp, natural, realistic, with bold and contrasting colors. I had to constantly remind myself not to scold myself for taking those fuzzy pictures with funky colors.
In retrospect I realized that the lens had prompted me to break out from my habits, venture outside of my comfort zone. I really enjoyed the pictures that turned out alright, and honestly I'm planning to shoot that way more often, though I'm not planning on abandoning my original style. The way I see it, fooling around and experimenting might actually expand my skill and my style.
It's funny to think that just by switching a lens and surrendering to the demands of exploration I've managed to unlock a new dimension. I'd like to think that a similar analogy could also be applied in my quest for personal development. By switching my lens (paradigm) and playing along with the role, i just might expand my own abilities. Worth a try don't you think?
