Holga

Shooting more with the Holga 120N, and loving the results. I'll get the hang of this little camera yet!

Out My Back Door

For a little plastic box with limited control, it's amazing what it captures, you can in essence adjust the focal length by turning the lens barrel and there is a slider button for aperture control, "control" in the loosest sense of the term, or, as the manual states, depending upon whether the conditions are "sunny, or, not so sunny".

I also love this statement from the manual, "Holga is a study in plastic imperfection. To use it is an exercise in breaking free from the dependence on technology." I'm using it much more now and experimenting with it, I'll shoot with my digital camera when I need to be more sure of the result, and with the Holga when I want to be surprised!

I've been sticking with Kodak Portra 400 color film, it seems the most versatile so far, I tried 800 speed film hoping to get some images in low light, but for me a nice sunny day is where this camera fits me best.

A couple of models upon seeing me pull the Holga from my camera bag have given me quizzical looks, akin to pulling out a camera phone to shoot with.

The Holga is definitely old school and as basic as it gets, I think this is a big part of it's appeal.

Google Holga and you will find pages and pages of information, images, groups and contests, I have come across several galleries who feature images created using plastic lens cameras, some of the work is really amazing.

I'll be taking this camera along on every photo shoot from now on, who knows, I may just shoot something worthy of gallery space one day!

"The standard of photography is rectangles, straight-edged images. It's just an arbitrary standard. The way I print mine, and the way the Holga sees, is not that way. So I am playing on that even more by cutting them out in this round way and trying to open people up to different ways of seeing the world and presenting photography.
But also to me, the Holga, the way these images are, that they are sharp in the center and they vignette in the corners is more how we really see. When you're looking at the world, you're not seeing a scene that is sharp all the way to the edges and bright all the way to the edges and has straight lines. You're seeing something sharp in the center and then the rest of it is all kind of blurring out." ~Michelle Bates