Newcomer of the Week: klemidesigns

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It's no secret that the community is a treasure trove of film photography tips and techniques. And this artistic atmosphere is what exactly piqued Kellie Leming's interest. In this interview, our newcomer of the week from Nashville, Tennesse opens up about how the music community in her hometown inspires her to be positive and creative and what shooting on film means to her.

Kellie Leming aka @klemidesigns

Name: Kellie Leming
LomoHome: @klemidesigns
Location: Nashville, TN

Please tell us something about yourself and what you do.

I live in Nashville, Tennessee, the music capital of the world, and work as a freelance designer and pre-media specialist at an international book distributor. I love art and design followed closely by music. In our city there is a huge arts movement happening and a large community to immerse yourself in. The number of outlets we have for creatives in our small city is pretty amazing. Figuring out and playing with new mediums is one of my favorite things. I work mainly with pixels all day and work in a cube-shaped space, so taking photographs on film has seemed to break me of my pixel-vision and and bring back my hands on an art form that is not digital. While I enjoy those things, this really is fun for me and more relaxing than other projects I have going on at the moment.

Please tell us something about yourself.

On one of my internet journeys I stumbled upon the site and started looking around. I had done digital photography before but seeing all the options and different features the cameras on the site have got me really inspired. I got the Lomo’Instant Wide for Christmas and shot through two packs of film and went out the next day and bought two more. I had a lot of fun. After I started getting some pictures I was happy with I joined the community to share my results and see what other lomographers were able to achieve. The variety of camera and film combinations on the site is really interesting.

Credits: klemidesigns

As you have read the 10 Golden Rules of Lomography, what rule do you apply in your everyday life?

"You don’t have to know what you captured on film before hand."

This is the rule that excites me the most as a newcomer. I have accidentally snapped a shot with my Lomo'Instant Wide and immediately thought: "Oh man!" But once it was developed, the outcome was actually way better than what I was trying to setup in the first place. I am seeing more and more that the outcomes that you didn't stage are often the most interesting and the ones I enjoy the most. Just going ahead and taking a shot can inspire you in the future.

In this digital age, why still film?

At this point shooting with film is still fairly new to me. I feel like there are so many options that I haven’t even touched on yet. So
for me right now it's the appeal of the unknown. It's the happy accidents that you don’t know exist until the image develops. It so refreshing to have a physical image of a moment that I can carry with me or give to someone instead of just sending some pixels or making copies of the same piece over and over again. It's really cool to have a one-of-a-kind piece of art through the use of film and the outcomes can be different and have their own character every time.

Credits: klemidesigns

Your favorite analogue camera as of the moment? Why?

Right now I have three analog cameras: Lomo’Instant Wide Central Park edition, Holga TLR, and a Pentax A3000. I am starting to love playing with the Lomo'Instant Wide right now and will probably play with it for quite sometime. I love being able to see the results immediately and being able to experiment with the different shooting modes, lenses, and filters. It really allows me to be creative on the spot. I am still figuring it out but I always have fun even if my pictures don’t turn out exactly as I intended and it really produces a lot of awesome, unexpected results.

After it will probably be the Holga. I am really excited to get my first roll of film developed. I will probably end up getting the instant back for it as well.

What is the Lomography camera you’d want to have someday?

Right now, I am really drawn to cameras with waist-level viewfinders and cameras with an optional instant back. Something about the TLR camera’s personality makes me want to take pictures. I'd like to have have a Lubitel 166+ to experiment with as well as an LC-A+ Instant. I think I could take some great shots with those. The instant backs look so much fun to use.

Credits: klemidesigns

Any song or movie you live by?

Being from Nashville, more than just a song I think I live by the whole creative musical community around me. I have the opportunity to spend time with musicians who are playing out, writing music, and constantly sharing their art with the world. They support and inspire me everyday to just keep trying because if you love something you have to go for it. The Dead Cures is a really great local band who does a great job of self-producing and promoting themselves. The positivity in their songs makes me step back and think about what am I doing here and if I'm doing everything I can to be able to look back on my life and say "Ok I came and I achieved my purpose." I think I am lucky to be around that kind of positivity everyday. I would recommend checking out their song “Say Everything Now”

And I love music! So anyone can feel free to send me songs that inspire them while they are shooting. This is a huge community with members from all over the world, I’d love to know about music in your area.

Share your current favorite Lomograph, could be yours or a friend’s. Why?

Right now, I am pretty new to the community and I'm still making friends. I have seen so many amazing images and ways to manipulate the negatives that I have never seen before.

Credits: martinluke

This image was featured as the Photo of the Day recently but it got stuck in my mind. It's really has this fantasy world feel to it and I am glad this moment was captured so well.

Any Community member you look up to? If so, why him or her?

Like I said I am still new to community but I have already received a lot of appreciation and support from the community. I have definitely seen several images taken by different people and I think to myself "Oh man I hope I can capture a moment as well as that." Every time I check a new page I usually find several images that make me look up to that person.

What are you looking forward to in our community?

I am looking forward to the knowledge that is here. The community has a pretty awesome collection of images and the tools that helped capture that moment. There are a lot of skilled and knowledgeable lomographers here and seeing versatility and amount of creativity can help one grow.

2016-01-17 #news #newcomer #newcomer-of-the-week

Mentioned Product

Lomo'Instant Wide

Lomo'Instant Wide

We're thrilled to introduce the Lomo'Instant Wide — the world's most creative instant wide camera and lens system! Combining high quality craftsmanship with versatile features, the Lomo’Instant Wide is the instant camera for any and every person who revels in capturing every beautiful, bizarre and bewildering moment in a creative, super wide, crisply sharp and perfectly exposed way.

4 Comments

  1. martinluke
    martinluke ·

    Thanks for mentioning my pic :) What a pleasant surprise!

  2. klemidesigns
    klemidesigns ·

    @martinluke absolutely it stuck in my mind it's a great shot ! Glad you were there to capture it.

  3. rik041
    rik041 ·

    fine

  4. fraumuellerdenktnach
    fraumuellerdenktnach ·

    Really nice Pictures! :)

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