Ask Your Guru: Danielnegreiros Asks Barakalofi

The month of February is just about to close but before we let it go, we’re giving you another sizzling analogue question and answer!

It’s time for another Ask Your Guru feature in which we bring you the most curious Newcomers and our most prolific LomoGurus! Ready? Here we go with danielnegreiros who hails from Spain who just snagged a Q&A with barakalofi from Spain!

A mix of dance and analogue photography, that’s how this lady goes! A dancer, teacher, and choreographer of Bellydance, Bollywood, and Fusion, barakalofi or Margarita Carvajal Durán has been a Lomographer for six years and has been part of this Community since 2010.

Aside from these, Margarita also loves cats, music, and well, anything about culture! Having 4,500+ Lomographs and hundreds of friends in her LomoHome, this femme is a certified LomoGuru!

And now we meet LomoHome danielnegreiros or you guessed it right, Daniel Negreiros outside the world wide web. A Community member for less than six months, this guy started taking Lomographs with the 60s beauty, the Diana F+.

Just like Margarita, Daniel’s career also rotates on the field of art — but this time it’s for design. A creative director for an advertising agency in Belo Horizonte in Brazil, Daniel sees photography as a hobby he really is passionate about. He also loves discovering new places with his girlfriend and his dog.

Now that we’ve met our Lomographers, let’s see how the questioning and answering went!

Daniel Negreiros (DN): You have a lot of cameras. How do you choose the combination of camera and film? Is it a random or a rational process?

Margarita Carvajal Durán (MD): It isn’t random. I always think about the cameras and film that I [will use.]. For example, if I’m going to a party with a lot of people, the most fun camera is the Sprocket Rocket because I can do a lot of pictures of them with different exposures and I can just rewind the film. If I want to shoot portraits, I like using square format cameras (Holga, Lubitel or my dear Yashica.) If I’m going to travel, I prefer using my LC-Wide because it is a small camera. The film is another question, it depends on the weather, if indoors or outdoors, the camera (Spinner or Sprocket.) It’s very important to choose the cameras and the film.

DN: I saw in your LomoHome some candid photos as well as some photos that you did with some preparation. Which do you like more in terms of shooting?

MD: I prefer to shoot pictures with models (friends, dancers, musicians, singers) with some preparation because this is a good way to learn about photography (how is the light, where are the shadows, which is the best point of view…) Sometimes the preparation isn’t importat and I make photos for fun, and sometimes the improvised pictures can be the best photos in your LomoHome. I have many examples of this.

DN: Do you direct the person you are doing portraits or you just let him/her free?

MD: I can direct some small things about it (don’t close your eyes for a long time, don’t smile if you don’t like smiling, don’t sing because you will have many pictures with your mouth open, don’t move so much if isn’t necessary…) but the most importat thing is that the person feels comfortable and lets his/her imagination doing what he/she likes.

DN: You did more than 4,000 Lomographs. What did you learn most about shooting these?

MD: Shooting many pictures makes me a big student of Photography. Always you can do better picures, always you can learn from other photographers, and always you can notice that you aren’t the best photographer [only] because you have a lot of pictures.

DN: Which photos are you most proud of? Why?

MD: There are some pictures, not only one because every photo has a special moment for me or for others. Now I’m very proud of my portraits because they reflect the personality and the art of every person.

For example, these ones.

DN: What will be your next camera?

MD: Uffffff, I have so many cameras and so little money that now I don’t think about buying a new camera. I’m very happy with my Yashica 635, my Pentax, and my LC-Wide which are my most used by aside from my other little cameras, my special girls (Spinner 360 ,Instax Mini, Sprocket Rocket.) But If I think [about it] Mmm, I don’t know… Maybe a Belair?

DN: Any advice for those who have just started doing analogue photography?

MD: Shoot, shoot and shoot thinking about what you do! :)

Well, that was a good read! Thanks, you two. Until the next Ask Your Guru!

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 2013-02-27 #lifestyle #interview #community #barakalofi #ask-your-guru #danielnegreiros