lomoShots: High up in the alps.....

Not too long ago, we posted up an article about a self-assembled camera, namely the Lomo Konstruktor. Since people quite liked the post and also the photos that came with it, we deliver the next bunch of flicks from the low-budget camera. Taken a week ago in the Austrian alps, this photos have a very special atmosphere, showing the camera's qualities also under difficult light conditions.

Double exposure of the ascent....

...while we were blessed with bluebird weather

Obviously, this was NOT part of the plan

Ankogel, 3252m

Waiting for the sun

These are the moments of this "grain-in-the-universe" feeling

To see the shots in full resolution, head over here.

text and photos: David Tiefenthaler

Analogue's joy 2

As some of you may know, we kinda got hooked with analogue photography. And we know, that there are some camera heads out there, who share the same passion as we do, so we will definitely keep it up. A huge factor when shooting analogue is the camera (surprise!). While modern DSLR's are producing very "predictable" pictures, shooting with film is always an adventure and you often don't know how the pictures will turn out. Every analogue camera shoots different pictures and has a different feel of its shots. Using an "old" technology also opens a door to another period of time and it lets us see the world with different eyes. 

The camera that got me into analogue photography was the old Nikon FE of my father. It is a piece from the late 70's and a good allround cam. If you want to educate yourself a little, check this. To get a feeling for the pictures the camera shoots, here are some scans from the very first film I used with the Nikon FE.

Thats the truly beautiful city of Piran on the sleepy Slovenian riviera.

The vibes on this day were perfect, just loads of sun and this hand-made figures moving in the wind.

One of the best things about Vienna, the metro system!

This is one of my favourite shots ever. It just transports the feel of this place so perfectly.

Slovenian krautrock/psychedelia band Srečna Mladina tearing up some basement club.

Do you feel it?

photos and text: David Tiefenthaler

One of a kind

As promised we managed to get the first ones of those done

And here's what we ended up with.  

 

Don't take it too serious, they speak pretty much for themselves. Also those are just very first, so expect more to come. If you are interested in having one or even both, hit us up via our fb page or mail but the second solution is not so secure we don't really check it unnecessarily too often. 

Just to say sorry for the quality of the photos, my DSLR's lens got messed up and doesn't work anymore, so this was the only way out.

Assemble your own camera: Lomo Konstruktor

I recently got my hands on a camera construction kit and had the chance to assemble my own cam, what really got me stoked, keeping in mind that I haven't connected building some stuff and photography before. I am pretty crazy for anything you can shoot photos with, so I just gave it a try. The Lomography Konstruktor is a SLR camera and uses normal 35mm film. You cannot adjust the aperture, and also the shutter speed is not exactly adjustable. But this tiny, little thing still shoots pictures, pretty exciting ones too.

But let's start from the beginning, and back then, the whole thing didn't look like a camera at all. But still, there were the light chamber and the lens recognisable, as well as the case of the camera.

After one and half hour of fun with the manual and a screwdriver, the good piece was finished. If you wonder now if YOU could also do that, let me tell you: it is slightly more demanding than building one of those Ikea shelfs, but still not rocket science, so nobody should have real difficulties building the cam.

As you can see in the picture above, the viewfinder is on top of the camera and look "into" the light chamber from above. The two wheels on both sides of the cam are here for rewinding the film and for getting to the next frame. Apart from focusing, you can swich between two modes of adjusting the shutter speed. For daylight shots there is the "N" mode, for indoor or night shots you choose the "B" mode. The difference between these two modes is the shutter: in "N" mode, the light is falling for 1/100 of a second on the film. The "B" mode makes the whole thing pretty experimental: as long as you press the release, the film is exposed to light.

Now we come to a more tricky point: using the camera. As the manual doesn't provide a lot of information on this issue, I checked the internet and also found only little pieces of information about how to use the lomo. So I just bought a film and gave it a try...and immediately fucked it up haha. 

But after figuring out how far to turn the wheel for the next frame, how to strain the release it was very easy to use the cam. So after all I can say that it is indeed a exciting experience, no time-consuming adjustments, just snapshots. Additionally, the cam is small, lightweight and only costs around 35 euros. You can put it in your pocket and carry it everywhere with you.

So now, we come to the most important point: the photos. It turned out, that most of the time the pictures look really different from what I expected, so you actually have no clue how they will turn out most of the time. And exactly that is it, what makes the camera such a cool thing.

All the photos were made in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Text and Photos: David Tiefenthaler

Music you should listen to: Sultan Bathery

The india-inspired punks from Sultan Bathery

When scrolling through music blogs around you sometimes find the craziest stories only rock'n'roll can write. Like the one of Sultan Bathery, which I encountered first around half a year ago. The three Italian punks went to India, and then came home to Vicenza to form a psychedelic garage band.

The reason they felt so inspired? The, quote on quote, “worst place they’ve ever been to” – the town they named themselves after: Sultan Bathery. There they got stoned, reveled in the absence of female company, and ate spicy food to the point of hating how much they loved this strange place.

Maybe the sinister beauty of this desolate Indian location struck a literal chord with the Italians, because as a band, the three childhood friends developed an equally should-be-contradictory lo-fi mix of jangly garage rock, rich psychedelia and Ennio Morricone-adoring soundscapes that quickly earned them a buzz after the release of their debut 7” EP Fireworx in 2012 for Slovenly Recordings.

The Fireworx EP

Just a few days ago, they released their long anticipated debut full-length album. The self-titled piece is a musical trip that is electric and bumpy and leads to the eternal gods. Their mix of neo-garage, lo-fi rock and psychedelia is one hell of an experience. On the new LP, they've got buzzing and fried guitar solos on "Mirrors" and "Dead Leaves"; "On the Run" is a rolling blues. Each track offers a different hue, but everything's complementary and certainly lives in the same wheelhouse.

Slovenly Records, the label Sultan Bathery's debut album is released, is one to recommend. They have got a cool roster of artists from all over the world holding it down with some real rock'n'roll, it is worth to check out the releases from all over the place.

The crazy-good debut self-titled LP of Sultan Bathery, you just have to dig that image.

To prove that this Italian guys are some pretty crazy dudes, I found a piece of an weird interview:

Is hell real for you?
For sure! It’s within ourselves and we contribute to creating it. Hell is the response of matter to our extreme requests of egotistic pleasures. Dont mess with Karma!

Have you ever been arrested on battery charges?
Never arrested, except the singer, when he was younger broke into a closed swimming pool, got high with friends, and it ended with hands on wall and gun in the back.
The bass player was searched by police for something that cannot be written here, stayed away from home for a while and luckily ended up with nothing.
But actually, we are really good guys.

What kind of animal represents you the best?

Monkeys! Crazy and tricky!

Kinda got interested? Then check these out:

BCN

Inside the BCN scene

As our lil project is growing and growing, Iñaki Gil from Barcelona hit us up and offered us to send over some analogue pictures from his adventures in BCN. Seeing pictures shot in a city which some describe as the "holy grail of street spots" is always a pleasure, and so we felt honored and agreed.

But when I saw the shots Iñaki sent us, I was truly overwhelmed, they really seem to give an insight and transport the feeling of riding, chilling and living in Barcelona. The scene over there is really tied together - especially the Haske family - and get down to get some shred regularly.

Enjoy an insight in one of the coolest, down-to-earth scenes on the planet, living in one of the best places for riding scooters on the planet.

Black and White

Good friend Joan Margarit organized a barbecue before he left Barcelona to study in the United States, the session started as soon as we spotted this pool.

Barcelona, Sants.

Ruben Rodriguez in Macba.

Javi Trepat, one of the first guys to ride a scooter in Spain.

This photo portrays perfectly how Yago & Sote connect, I can imagine almost imagine the conversation.

Sote King & Dani Cardona.

Jeremy Lanfranchi is living at the Haske House, stoke!!!

Dani Cardona in Paral-lel

Jonas Kjaer will marry his vx.

Dani invited me to his house in Masnou, I stayed 2 days but I've got 20 stories of the weekend haha.

Colour

Dani, Sote & Javi in front of Haske.

Views from the Haske House.

Aleix Aguilar, a rad human being.

I remember we were hungry and lunch seemed to never arrive...

Bossman Gepe with the Haske jacket.

Javi cruising around Masnou.

Pol Aceña.

Pol showing Damia Araujo a photo of Lewis Crampton.

Javi will almost never eat when we go ride, you can figure out Dani's opinion on that.

Haske having dinner in Masnou, when we finished we headed towards the car and the gnarliest storm I have ever witnessed dropped down on us.

All of us except Pol (thanks to Claudia for the picture).

All shots were done on a Leica R4 and are the courtesy of Iñaki Gil.

Intro by David Tiefenthaler, descriptions by Iñaki Gil.

The mishmash of consciousness

The hectic world in which we live seems to never slow down and so do our imagination,  in fact it's far less stressful than the first point and it allows you to think in ways you've probably  never expected yourself to. 

Just to say that lack of new griptape-designs doesn't necessarily mean that we slowed down, we just take our time, enjoying each aspect of the process like true gourmets. Now, what came of it recently is a idea of making a small amount of very limited designs - one of a kind pieces. That doesn't mean that we consider our work somehow superior to others. We just want the grips to be fresh, authentic and each having its own little story behind it. 

The molecule man  - first one of those made for friend of mine-Adrian

From now on, there will be very new pieces posted on our blog every now and then, hopefully available for international shipping for no more than10bucks. So you'd better stay tuned.