First the thoughts. If you want to see the pics scroll down and skip this bit 
I read a short introduction to the Holga which started something "If you thought your eyes were open, in reality they've been closed until now". I'm 'm a hobbyist, not a pro. I am coming from the world of autofocus, of digital precision, where we are trying way too hard to make every shot perfect, to get that keeper we want to print poster-sized and hang on the wall. Color matters, sharpness matters, depth of field, perfect exposure, and even advanced techniques when the cameras run out of dynamic range. We look to full frame sensors, exotic glass lenses, 14-bit ADC's and pester our respective manufacturers for when something bigger and better is coming out. Rule of thirds, composition, framing, previsualization, postprocessing. Getting a headache already?
And I feel along the journey to master the camera I've lost something special. I look at my early shots taken as a noob with my Canon 350D and 18-55 kit lens. I didn't really care what anybody else thought of my photography in those days, I just shot whatever I liked, whenever I liked, with whatever settings I felt like (usually Program AE - yes, god forbid an expert photographer even dare to consider P!!). But I liked those shots. I got fewer 'fantastic' shots but I liked the feel, perhaps the innocence of those shots. And I could never get it back.
......until now.
I never imagined that putting just a few rolls of film through a $65 toy camera could give me back my vision. I am probably never going to win any competitions with these shots but at the same time they recapture everything I have lost. I look at the black and white scans and I have never been happier with what I have been seeing - and that is the most important thing to me.
The Holga has very little technology. In fact it's hardly technological. It's amazing the shutter even works the way it's built. (the aperture doesn't work). But precisely because of that, it opens my mind, it teaches me to break the rules, it teaches me to SEE creatively once again instead of trying to go for the same old boring 'perfect' shots. It really shows you that the power of photography, cliche as it sounds, really IS ALL IN THE MIND. And you don't even need a Holga. Some of my favorite shots last week came from a Canon A-1 loaded with B&W film but shot Holga-style from the hip and without looking through the finder. It really all is in the mind.
Thank you, Alternative Photographers, for giving me back the magic in photography
I read a short introduction to the Holga which started something "If you thought your eyes were open, in reality they've been closed until now". I'm 'm a hobbyist, not a pro. I am coming from the world of autofocus, of digital precision, where we are trying way too hard to make every shot perfect, to get that keeper we want to print poster-sized and hang on the wall. Color matters, sharpness matters, depth of field, perfect exposure, and even advanced techniques when the cameras run out of dynamic range. We look to full frame sensors, exotic glass lenses, 14-bit ADC's and pester our respective manufacturers for when something bigger and better is coming out. Rule of thirds, composition, framing, previsualization, postprocessing. Getting a headache already?
And I feel along the journey to master the camera I've lost something special. I look at my early shots taken as a noob with my Canon 350D and 18-55 kit lens. I didn't really care what anybody else thought of my photography in those days, I just shot whatever I liked, whenever I liked, with whatever settings I felt like (usually Program AE - yes, god forbid an expert photographer even dare to consider P!!). But I liked those shots. I got fewer 'fantastic' shots but I liked the feel, perhaps the innocence of those shots. And I could never get it back.
......until now.
I never imagined that putting just a few rolls of film through a $65 toy camera could give me back my vision. I am probably never going to win any competitions with these shots but at the same time they recapture everything I have lost. I look at the black and white scans and I have never been happier with what I have been seeing - and that is the most important thing to me.
The Holga has very little technology. In fact it's hardly technological. It's amazing the shutter even works the way it's built. (the aperture doesn't work
). But precisely because of that, it opens my mind, it teaches me to break the rules, it teaches me to SEE creatively once again instead of trying to go for the same old boring 'perfect' shots. It really shows you that the power of photography, cliche as it sounds, really IS ALL IN THE MIND. And you don't even need a Holga. Some of my favorite shots last week came from a Canon A-1 loaded with B&W film but shot Holga-style from the hip and without looking through the finder. It really all is in the mind. Thank you, Alternative Photographers, for giving me back the magic in photography
....
