designdebris

THOUGHTS
I think a lot, I can't help it. You'll find out soon enough.
(normally when doing something mundane)

What the hell is lomography?
It's a feeling and an atmosphere.. It's a sense. It's that double take you have of a girls thong peaking out from the top of her trousers, It's an empty crisp packet tied into a knot, It's a child trying to tie their own shoe laces and It's that pair of red shoes which holds your attention for slightly longer than usual. Lomography is about documenting your life. It's about forgetting photography and remembering why you enjoy life. Think of it as a personal visual diary

How was your first date with the Lomo Kompakt Automat (LC-A)?
Actually it was with a BelOMO Vilia camera. It was cheaper than the LCA and as I wanted to get in to SLR photography at the time, I liked the look of the lens and all that manual control. Now I'm used to it and have refined (and will continue to refine) my shots, I'm ready to step up the king of cameras.. the LCA. My first date was my nieces birthday party and I had a lot of attention from friends and family running about with my new camera... sadly I wrecked the whole film by pressing the film release button without realising... then I had to open the camera back to figure out what was wrong. :(

What can people expect to find on your website?
designdebris is what I call my dumping ground. I don't categorise it, but I'm sure people do as a weblog style site. I'm a web designer by day, and a general creative individual the rest of the time. Which could mean anything from creating music, painting, photography, digital artwork and thoughts from my head. I try everything and excel at nothing and I love being like that.

What would you like to find on your website in the future?
Nothing much different from what it is now. Expect some more 'people' shots. I'm currently not too comfortable with walking up to total strangers and sticking a camera in their faces for a picture. But I like documenting people naturally, so It's the way forward for me.

When did you make your first site and why?
The site is about 3 years old, and changes regularly. I initially made one because I wanted to learn web design. But not just to build sites, I wanted a full time job, to be employed and paid, seriously and professionally. I went from being a Warehouse operative to being a professional web designer in 6 months. The hard work paid off and I'm very happy. The designdebris site itself was where I practiced, and dumped scripts, images, artwork and generally played over and over toget things right. Now, it's the place where I share the things I find interesting with others.

What's the most inspiring site online at the moment?
That's very hard to answer, because I've never really stuck with 'a site' for very long. Inspiration for me is instant and forever changing. A site like http://www.bsurcey.com will inspire me to dig deeper into flash for a while, and http://www.designgraphik.com will give me new thoughts on combining Photoshop and illustrator. But generally my inspiration and motivation will come from Google. Or just hanging out on forums like http://forum.johnalder.com currently.

Your favourite hidden spot on lomography.com?
Hidden? What do you mean? Lomohome? ........ well... http://www.lomohomes.com/mr.thomas and http://www.lomohomes.com/mr.lomo homes are fun to look at. They both seem so inspired and enthusiastic about taking shots... for me the lomography.com site kinda brightened up a little when they came onboard. I'm sure other people will agree with me. (Keep lomoing guys) :)

What do you do when you're not caressing your lomographs or surfing the web?
I skateboard firstly, and have been doing it forever... its a full time hobby (semi-professional maybe?)... and from that I joined a friend and now business partner (jason) to form an undefined skate/clothing/lifestyle brand/company called Chilled Heat (.com) ;) ...loosely associated with all the things we do for fun, like skateboarding, design, photography, creative writing, screen printing & making music. Chilled Heat is time consuming and costly... but incredibly rewarding, and getting bigger everyday.

What is my own special lc-a technique?
Shooting from the hip for sure. I hold a supermarket shopping basket in the same hand as my camera, and walk around shopping with it 'ready to fire' at unsuspecting shoppers... and they have no clue they're captured on film.

If you were the lomo world president for a day you would...
Promote the 'lomo' approach to children in primary schools & reduce the cost of processing films. I really believe that having a camera will open peoples eyes to what they see everyday, appreciate the things around them and make a lot of people happier overall.