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Let’s shake!

By Eric on July 30, 2014

At this point in time, Hipstamatic allows for more or less 40, 000 possible combos, counting all the films, lenses and flashes (two options per flash). That is a vast choice, to say the least, although most of these possibilities remain unused: we all tend to use the same elements, forgetting about the original Hipstamatic paks or even unaware of certain elements. There is, however, one basic function that could help us explore new combos, and that's the "Shake to Randomize" function.

It's clear that this function will, more often than not, produce unusable images, but it has to be said that it's a playful way of discovering new combos. As such, I have published an article about this that you can find here.

There is actually a Facebook page dedicated to this, called the "Shake to Randomize"-group. It was created by Rae Landry and the forum allows you to publish photographs taken using this function. Above all though, it is a wonderful platform to showcase your own creative combos. With this in mind, I decided to ask Rae a few questions regarding the group.

So Rae, can you tell us what the basic rules of the group are?

I am pretty lax, but I do not tolerate any hate, discrimination, or nasty feedback. When I press that button to add you into the group, I'm going on the assumption that you know how to act towards people. If you spam, goodbye you go. I also ask that no one post pictures from Instagram or any other lomography app. Otherwise, happy shooting.

Must all pictures be made using the "Shake to randomize" function? In other words, can I publish pictures made using an original combo that I discovered by other means?

You can post any way you want. The worst thing anyone can do to creativity is to limit it. I'm fairly sure a lot of the members do use saved combos. Whether you're shaking or not, I love to see the results.

Which 3 combos did you discover and like based on the pictures published on your page?

Lowy and DC, for sure. I love using that one out on bright days. Diego and XDotGrizzled can do awesome things with the color blue. Sergio/Ina's 1969 makes everything look golden and timeless. There are some seriously talented people in that group. It blows me away what they come up with.

Can you offer some hints and tips for those wanting to try to "shake to randomize" function?

When in doubt, shake twice. I use Hipstamatic more than my DSLR and I find if I shake twice, 9 times out of 10 I'm going to love the second result. The second one is, don't be afraid to shake. I understand a perfect moment is fleeting, but you never know what you'll get unless you try.

Facebook Group: "Shake To Randomize"

Photo by Cynthia Westover

Lens: Lincoln

Film: Blanko 1

Flash: Off

Photo by Stavros Dimakopoulos

Lens: Lucas AB2

Film: T. Roosevelt 26

Flash: Tasty Pop

Photo by Joy Coyle

Lens: Sergio

Film: DreamCanvas

Flash: off

Photo by Rae Landry

Lens: Bettie XL

Film: Cano Cafenol

Flash: off

Photo by Zuleyka Nash

Lens: Akira

Film: Dylan

Flash: off

Photo by Lori Hillsberg

Lens: Diego