Ask Your Guru: Af-capture Asks Jeabzz

“The important thing is not to stop questioning” said genius Albert Einstein. This quote is said to be believed true especially in this ever curious and adventurous Lomographic Community!

Two weeks ago we premiered this feature with fisher-price asking mikahsupageek some intense analogue-related questions. And now, we bring you another batch of talented Lomographers to get on the not so nitty-gritty of Lomography!

For this time around, we feature you this LomoGuru from the beautiful city of New York, jeabzz, as he answers seven questions from Newcomer af-capture who coincidentally, also hails from the U-S-of-A! Let’s begin with introductions!

Jeabzz whose real name is Jean Baptiste Saint Pol discovered Lomography through a book, “The World Through a Plastic Lens,” about six years ago. Like most of us, he instantly fell in love to the beauty that is Lomography!

JB is currently a sound designer for the video game industry and was then based in Paris. Now he’s in New York City with his wife. He loves going out with friends, going to concerts. visiting exhibitions and of course, taking Lomographs!

And meet Andres Fergadiotti or af-capture who comes from Los Angeles in California, a featured Newcomer by the Community a few weeks ago! According to him, he came across an article at the Lomography Magazine and realized that “film photography is very alive and that there are a lot of people with a passion for “real” photography.”

A mechanical engineer who practices judo, Andres says that he is new to Lomography but not to photography itself.

Amazing how these two came upon Lomography through reading materials, eh? And they’re both from the same country, too! Definitely interesting! Now let us see the question and answer part of this one.

Andres Fergadiotti: Which are your 3 favourite analogue cameras? 35 and/or 120
Jean Baptiste Saint Pol (JB): Well, it’s not really easy to say, because I love all my cameras. Haha! I would say it depends of my mood and of what I’m expecting to do. For sure my LC-A+ is one of my favourites as I use it almost every day and it offers so many possibilities that I [just] can’t be bored with this camera. I really love my Sprocket Rocket, too. On sunny days it offers really great results with the appropriate film. And I love to be close to my subject when I’m shooting so with its wide angle, the Sprocket Rocket is the perfect cam for me. As I am a big fan of pinhole photography, I would say that the Holga 120 pinhole camera is part of my three favourites too! This camera is magic!

AF: Which are your 3 favourite analogue films? 35 and/or 120?
JB: I am a big fan of x-process. So my favourite films could only be slide film. Hehe. At first I would put the Kodak E100VS. This film gives some of the most beautiful colors when it is x-processed. At the second place I choose the Fuji Velvia 50. And about black and white film, I would choose the Fomapan 100. I really love the results I had with it.

AF: Which are your 3 favourite countries and/or places that you have visited and captured?
JB: It’s quite impossible to answer this question. There are too many amazing places in the world, some I’ve been lucky to visit and others I’m expecting to travel. Well, I’ve been living in Paris for seven years and I really enjoyed living there, so I could say that Paris is a good place to live and have fun. Now, I’m living in New York, and yeah, it’s a really great city! As a third choice, I think about Portugal, where I traveled several times. I met really great people there and it has wonderful beaches and cities! Definitely a wonderful country (and I’m not saying this because my love is from Portugal… :D)

AF: f you were to pass on one of your Lomography trick which one would it be?
JB: I don’t think I’ve got my own Lomography trick. My favourite trick is to shoot double exposure, by testing different techniques or accessories as the Splitzer, the wide angle lens etc…I love to shoot friend’s portraits and to double them with different textures or others graphic layers. But I think that’s a common trick, haha!

AF: Who is your favourite Lomographer? Why?
JB: I don’t have one favorite Lomographer, I’ve got tons of favourites! This Community has so many talented Lomographers, it would be impossible to choose only one as favourite! And every day I am discovering a new Lomohome with crazy shots!

Of course, some have been very influent to my way of shooting and have gave me inspiration. I’m thinking of satomi, anarchy, disdis, palkina, dogma, mephisto19, vicuna, stouf, japsix, mikahsupageek, goldie, warning, my lovely cc-in-paris, anafaro, atria007, myloveletter, elvismartinezsmith, all the members of les_parisiens (ouais les copains :D) , pussylove, wil6ka, susielomovitz, pepper-b, dakadev_pui, renaishashin, hodachrome, ccwu, lawypop, kdsteven, grazie, escudero, neja, clickiemcpete, cpolpa, adi_top …

Haha! That’s already a lot of brilliant Lomographers. And I’m forgetting to mention lots of other brilliant LomoFriends for sure! Sorry for that.

AF: Do you develop your own film? Any recommendations on developing C-41?
JB: I used to do it when I studied analogue photography at university. But it was eight years ago. Today I’m a bit lazy and I don’t have enough time to do it by myself. But if you are looking for good information about home developing, I know stouf has wrote a lot of Tipsters about self-processing.

AF: How can we (the Newcomers) get better at Lomography? Any tips?
JB:: Just enjoy shooting! Have fun experimenting, get inspiration by looking at others LomoHome, try new cameras, new Tipsters … the more you shoot, the more you’ll get funky and get great results ;)

Definitely a fine interview from these two! From analogue favorites and Community tips and tricks — cheers to the both of you!

Are you a curious Newcomer? Or maybe a LomoGuru who would like to share tips and tricks to our noobs? Then this is your time to be featured! Just drop me a line at mayee.gonzales@lomography.com. Catch ya!

written by mayeemayee on 2012-08-15 #lifestyle #interview #community #jeabzz #newcomer #lomoguru #ask-your-guru #af-capture