Shots taken at Spring Grove Cemetary in Cincinnati, OH.
Shot with Kodak Professional Portra , ISO 160, 120 color film, shot @ 6×6:
Archive for the ‘Holga’ Category
Holgamatic.
May 7, 2010More Holga pics. Check out the Holga Category for past shoots.
Shot on Ilford HP5 400 ISO B&W film at 6×6 format:
Holga the good fairy.
April 28, 2010As a pro photographer there are times when taking pictures becomes a job. And if you have a job, then you know that when something feel like a job its no fun. In order to fight against this feeling and continually keep creativity flowing I started taking pictures with a little toy film camera called a Holga. If you click the “Categories” button at the top and scroll down to “Holga” then you’ll see my recent endeavors.
I shot this series downtown at mid-day with no taping on the body. The light leaks are really noticeable this time and it has almost convinced me to tape up at least partially whenever I am shooting color film. But then again, the red is pretty cool:)
Kodak Professional Portra , ISO 160, 120 color film, shot @ 6×6:
Holga Gone WILD!
March 13, 2010This is round 3 with my Holga. If you want you can look at Round 1 and Round 2. Up to this point I had only used black and white film and was pretty happy with the results. This time I went with color.
As you can see from the pictures the Holga took me for a ride this time around. Somehow some foam padding from the inside of the camera got loose and floated around randomly inside the camera throughout the entire roll. Normally that wouldn’t be a good thing but in most cases it added more to the picture than it took away. On only one shot was I really disappointed with the “foam effect” and that’s the one where it’s directly in the middle of the frame. That was supposed to be a distressed yellow fire hydrant set against a really cool industrial building in the background. Instead its a big light streak with a tiny little piece of the fire hydrant poking out:)
I am IN LOVE with the colors and effects on this roll. Especially the spots where you can see the markings of the film. I cant wait to shoot another roll of this.
Kodak Professional Portra , ISO 160, 120 color film, shot @ 6×6:
Yes, this is a plastic Santa driving a miniature tow truck. Quite strange.
Muted reds always look amazing!
The giant UDF cow in Norwood.
I love how you can see the film type and frame number at the bottom left.
Holga in the City.
February 19, 2010Round #2 of shooting with a Holga, this time in Downtown Cincinnati. Last round I wanted to make sure I got some shots so I taped everything and used the insert that came with it. This time I took more risks so I removed the insert to get the random hard vignettes in the corner. I also untaped most of it to see if I could get some cool light leaks. And I went for some more dramatic light situations. The results were better but I did end up losing 5 of the 12 shots in the process. It’s kind of weird because it seems I might have one of the few well-made Holgas out there because there weren’t too many crazy things that happened.
Ilford HP5 PLus, ISO 400, B&W, 120 film, shot @ 6×6:
I love the juxtaposition of of old and new here.
Went for a portrait of a parking lot attendant but as you can see the light inside the booth was not good. The sun flare is pretty cool looking though:)
- Held the shutter open a few moments here to get the ice skaters’ motion. Not sure if it translates but the washed out look is super hip.
I’m in love with a Holga and I feel fine.
February 9, 2010
It’s no secret among photographers and photography enthusiasts that film photography looks better (if done right) than digital photography. The depth and feel of film as compared to a digital file is so much more visually interesting. Most decent photographers started out by taking a photography class where film was the standard medium they learned on. They may use digital now but they at least have a working knowledge of film and how photographs are made without the use of a computer.
As I have said before on this blog, I am completely self-taught. I loved what I was able to do with a point and shoot and decided to invest lots of time reading books and practicing to learn how to be a better photographer. My first real SLR camera was digital. I learned how to shoot using digital terms and a bunch of automatic settings inside my fancy digital SLR. I have since switched to all manual and have learned much of what I need to know in order to be a “real” photographer…except that film thing.
One of my favorite wedding photographers is a guy by the name of Jose Villa. Jose is a brilliant photographer for so many reasons but one of them is because he shoots mostly film. Recently he wrote an article about why he shoots film. It was intriguing. I found myself challenged by it and wondering if I could learn to shoot film myself. The problem is that I didn’t want to invest a bunch of money into equipment if I had no chance of ever being a great film photographer. So I decided to figure out what my cheapest option was…and I found Holga. To learn more about a Holga visit the link but basically it’s a cheap plastic camera that shoots medium format film, which is a step up from 35mm film. Cameras that shoot medium format are usually hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars so it is rare that a $15 camera used it. The beautiful (and the reason why it so inexpensive) thing about a Holga is that they aren’t made very well. They only have 1 shutter speed, 3 focal lengths and 1 aperture setting. Basically it’s a toy camera. But because you are able to shoot medium format film and because of it’s imperfections, you can get some amazing shots out of it.
All that to say, I bought my first Holga last week. I took one roll of B&W film to see what the thing could do and now I have it back and ready to let you see. Before you are too critical, let me say it’s my first roll of film on it, I don’t really know how to use it yet, but I am excited about what it can possibly do.
My first roll of Ilford Delta 120, 400 ASA, B&W film shot at 6x6cm:
