Crappy photos from crappy cameras
This little corner of the internet has been silent for a little while. My last published post was in March, so actually more than a little while actually. Complete lack of inspiration to post was a big reason…which in turn stems from a complete lack of inspiration to shoot much photography at all for some time. Everything felt a whole lot of bleh and meh when I grabbed the camera and headed out there. Stuff felt already done and I didn’t really like any of the stuff I did get when I lifted the camera.
Hence the slight change of style for me in this “comeback” blogpost. Whenever us photographers feel uninspired one go-to is to travel…didn’t have the resources for that at this time, so that was not an option. Another thing we often resort to is new gear…and I did actually have the opportunity to pick up something…or somethings, since there’s two of them.
I chose to spend about 30 dollars x 2 for my Holga 120 cameras (picture tax attached to this paragraph) and so far I have had a whole lot of fun with them, just getting to know their quirks and often unexplainable inconsistencies. Mostly I bring them and take my pictures with them on pure instinct. I had quite a bit of 120 film just laying around, film I bought to use with my now sadly departed Kiev 60 camera. With the Holgas I can use up those film rolls before they get too old and (hopefully) get the occasional interesting picture in the process.
There were inserts included in the packages that turn the cameras from either a 6 × 6 or a 6 × 4.5 format and I’ve chosen to have one of them shoot square and the other one portrait format (just gotta remember to turn the red one sideways when shooting landscape, which is backwards from regular cameras). I intentionally chose a bright red and a bright yellow version (there are more sober black and gray ones on offer too of course), because it is fun to see other people’s reactions to them. They look more like toys than cameras - to be honest they look a little bit like those 3D viewers from ages ago that you inserted a disc of photos into to see views from Disneyland or Grand Canyon or ancient Greece!
The images in this post are from the first few rolls of expired Fomapan 400 I put through these cameras and they’re more random snaps than anything resembling intentional framing or attempts at composition. I like them though; they are documentation of me trying something new, something I haven’t really done before. Will I keep shooting with these cameras once my film stash is depleted? I am not sure…I may let them rest for a while before picking one up again…or I may keep using them. Either way they have provided me with a resurgence in the desire to shoot photos again, and that was definitely worth the 30 × 2 dollars I spent on them!
