Everyone I show the Holga to looks at it curiously, picks it up (it weighs nothing) and then either laughs out loud or gives me the “Really? WTF?” look.
And they’re right, of course. But oh, aren’t they so wrong too! Because what could possibly be laughable or wrong about a camera that produces this:
and this:
and this:
?
The Holga is small and lightweight and quirky and it will be the one camera that will always fit in my bag, no matter where I go (I have been known to squeeze up to 3 cameras in a handbag, so that will definitely be an improvement). It makes me look and think and see differently than any other camera I have had. Laugh at that if you will. I’ll be too busy taking pictures and remembering to take the lens cap off and adjusting the vague focus points and advancing the film click by click per hand to notice 😉
By the way, I have now got a scanner for the negatives and I can highly recommend going that route of self-developing and self-scanning. It is more time consuming but definitely a lot less expensive and yields a much better result than letting a lab process and scan/print the images. Just saying this because I was hesitant of buying a scanner, but I am very happy now that I did!
little home by hand
little home by hand 
oh I love your film photos! that holga camera is great but the photographer is the star!!
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Aw, thanks, I’m blushing :))
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Wow those photos are so cool. I’m going to have to google more about the holga camera
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Thanks Stephanie 🙂 Do, the Holga is such a funny little camera!
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Amazing shots. And the invitation to Brazil still stands! Even if it’s 2011! Haha. Oh, I have a question. How did you learn to make your own pictures? I mean… produce them in the lab? Do you have any links to a website that teaches that? Or maybe you could… teach? I’d love to know and try it out. But I have no idea where or how to get it started.
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I mainly did lots of googling and reading instructions. Also when I went to the store to buy the equipment and chemicals I had the guy selling it explain the whole process to me again.
I can’t really give you any good links because I was researching mainly german sites but you should find tons of instructions by googling. Just pick the one that you understand the best 😉 That’s how I do it.
It’s a little confusing at first but you really only need a developing tank and two chemicals: developer and fixer. The (really really rough) steps that you do are:
1. Putting the film on the reel of the tank and putting the reel in the tank (this has to be done in total darkness, once the lid is on the tank you can switch the light back on).
2. Mix the developer and pour it in. Leave it in for a couple of minutes (you can read the time off a chart, it’s different depending on film and brand of developer), turning the tank ca. 4 times every minute.
3. Pour out developer and pour in water a couple of times, to get the rest of the developer out. Pour out water.
4. Mix and pour in fixer for correct amount of time.
5. Pour out fixer and rinse film with water for a couple of minutes (I do the last rinse with distilled water).
6. Hang up to dry 🙂
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These are amazing. I find 100 B&W are very vivid like this. I find Color more difficult with my holga. Love the bridge.
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Thanks Mike 🙂 Yep, I agree, color is more difficult. I did a lot of color over the summer and am now back to b&w.
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