Thursday, December 12, 2019

Stretching My Muscles

A friend gave me a Holga film-camera for my birthday. Holgas used to be made cheaply in China and are entirely plastic. Even the lens, normally glass, is plastic. The cameras were intended for poor peasants who couldn't afford real cameras.

A few Western artists, despite owning expensive digital-cameras, have fallen in love with Holga. Why? Because the cameras produce unpredictable photographs. Unexpected visual "mistakes" like light-leakage and vignetting give their pictures weird, unplanned effects. Plus, you use real film -- which is unheard of these days -- and that introduces other unpredictable variables.

Here are a few of my experiments. I like working with this camera.















17 comments:

  1. That first one of the tree is haunting. You have a really good eye for composition. The picture of the house/doorway in colour really evokes the early 70s - that's what all my pictures of that era look like now, slightly faded too.

    What a cool thing to do, Ally!

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    1. Thanks, Sheila. Three of the pictures were taken at my favorite local park and the front-door picture is my home. I agree the coloring looks like an old photo -- and I have some from the 80s to compare it to.

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  2. Very cool and a little bit freaky.

    Suzanne
    http://www.suzannecarillo.com

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    1. I agree -- and I like the weirdness of them. Kinda like life: you think you know what it is but then... do we really?!

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  3. These are fabulous and so my kind of thing! My favourite is the first one, which is hauntingly beautiful. xxx

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  4. Oooh, these are so ethereal!!! I used to use a filter called Holga on my photos in Instagram or Picmonkey!

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  5. I have a faint memory of my first camera when I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. It was a Kodak brownie.

    I quickly shot an entire roll and then opened it up and pulled the film out looking for my pictures!

    I'm glad you had your film developed properly, the photos are splendid! well done.

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    1. What a funny story! Kids learn from mistakes. Thanks for the nice words; I was happy with the results. I also own a Kodak brownie which doesn't work but I bought it cheap at a thrift-store and use it as a decoration. I love old tech from the past and decorate my house with them.

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  6. Ally, these are gorgeous! I haven never dabbled with a Holga, but these photos are making me add it to my bucket list. To know that some people probably use like 2-3 editing apps on Instagram to get similar effects as that, and here you have simple, unique photos. I love it!

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    1. Thanks! Using Holga is fun 'cause you never know what's gonna happen. It's like life -- unpredictable and magical.

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  7. I was not familiar with the Holga, but I understand why you like using it. The pictures look very much like a piece of artwork. Well done.

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    1. Thanks! My goal was to create art, not a realistic capture of visual imagery.

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  8. What a really fantastic present, and some really atmospheric photos already. I hope you'll share more :)

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  9. They're all very dreamlike in quality. Not just blurry or smoky but hyper real at the same time and very sharp.

    I think they're brilliant. I love the variety too.

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