5 of 31 - A Post a Day in May

10th anniversary in the portrait business. A Post a Day in May to celebrate.

Aren't you all dying to know how I became so obsessed with the Holga?

About 10 years ago I had a darkroom and I had cameras and I had young subjects all around me. I was obsessed with the idea of getting a bigger negative but I did not have the funds to buy a high quality medium format camera (back then medium format cameras were still very expensive). Somehow I had read about Holga on some internet forum and knew they took medium format film and could be had for cheap and hey - cheap was good. So a few weeks later my first ever brown paper package with white twine arrived from Hong Kong. I messed up two or three rolls trying to load it but once I figured it out - glorious. That first roll had about 10 useless frames and 2 good ones. The beauty and depth in those two frames sold me on medium format forever. Soon after I acquired a medium format Bronica and have been using Bronica and Holga ever since. I have maybe 25 Holgas and every accessory and just made an order for more. I have dabbled with other "toy" cameras but nothing can lure me away. It's my favourite. I love the challenge in using a camera that has no settings and no focus and a body so bad it leaks light and a lens so bad it has crazy vignetting. (photographers note - It has setting in developing film stage and it has focus in your feet.) Anyone can use a camera that does all the work - it takes some sort of magic to use Holga. (fyi I now have flipped my success ratio - 10 good frames per roll for sure!)

This image was on my first ever roll from my first ever Holga. I enlarged it to 16x16 at the time because I was amazed at the detail in the medium format negative. It had a romantic *feel* to it that blew my mind. It's not the most amazing photograph in the world - but it's amazing to my photography journey.

I'm not a  teacher. If you want to know more about Holga click here: http://microsites.lomography.com/holga/fundamentals.

If you read all that and still have questions please call me - I'd be happy to help if I can. ;)