Category Archives: Lo-fi Philosophies
Key West is a crazy place, but how do you capture the essence of the insanity? Through a plastic lens and some crazy film, of course.
The view while floating on my back in the pool where we were staying. I miss that palm tree. Shot with Holga on Kodak Tmax 400iso.
Our favorite coffee shop in KW
While I was in Key West I did a little experimentation with double and long exposures, as well as with Revolog’s Tesla II and Rasp films. My results were trippy, mind-warping goodness. These toy camera shots not only show you the sights, they really capture the essence of Key West.
I own two Holgas and they each take very different pictures. The Holga I brought to KW was my zebra-striped special, which has a lens that fuzzes out a lot of the periphery of my pictures. Look at the first picture in this post, the palm tree. You can see the softness all along the borders of the photo, giving it a very dreamy quality. Floating beneath that tree in the pool, enjoying the cool water, was very relaxing and tranquil, a mood that is captured perfectly in this Holga picture.
Let’s start our tripped-out tour of Key West with some black and white Holga shots from my brother’s wedding.
It was a beautiful, sunny day and it was HOT! The sultry air made everyone feel a little lazy. Add some beer and tequila to the mix and the world became a little soft and fuzzy. The Holga plus black and white film brings that mood to these pictures.
I really love using the Holga for long-exposure shots at weddings because it captures the energy of the day, as it does in the long exposure shots of my brother Jim and his wife April, as they cut their cake.
The two shots at the railing by the water are especially sweet. They show Lexi, April’s daughter (and my new niece) gazing out at the sea, one with a friend Shane and the other, all by herself. Check out the clouds…all zoomy and funny looking at the edges.
Next, we’ll move onto some shots made trippy by the film I used. You’ve seen a couple of these shots before, but bear with me. The first two are taken on Revolog Tesla II and show April and Jimmy with lightning bolts.
It’s great when the random special effects on this film show up in just the right areas. Next, a couple taken on Revolog Rasp. The first is very underexposed, the second is just phenomenal.
The textures of Rasp add a funkiness to these shots that I just love.
Back to shots from my Holga, which has a tendency to wind film in a wonky manner, causing some overlapping. First, you’ll see the two pictures separately, then all together.
We’ll finish up with some of the weirdest shots on the roll. I tried for some intentional double exposures, which turned out okay, but when the film was exposed to light as I unloaded it from the camera, these shots became magic.
The background is of a fence with a sign that reads “No Parking Unless Snow Depth Exceeds 2 inches”
Long exposure of a British phone booth in someone’s backyard
Trippy scooter
Sailing off into the great unknown
as my husband put it, “sailing through tide and times”
Toy cameras are the perfect medium for a funky place like Key West. I will never go anywhere eclectic without my Holga and some film. I do love the iPhone photos I took, but once again, film gave my pictures a depth and character that I couldn’t have achieved otherwise. Thanks for virtual tripping with me 
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Leave a comment | tags: "Key West", analogue, boats, callard, camera, cheap, Cuban Coffee Queen, exposure, fi, fidelity, film, Holga, ipdegirl, jenni, leaks, light, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, long, low, ocean, philosophy, photo, photography, plastic, postaweek2012, sail, tour, toy, trippy, vacation, Water, wedding | posted in Lo-fi Philosophies
Being less-than-thrilled by the results of a film photo shoot is a bummer, but that’s the life of an analogue photographer. When this happens to me I always try to find out a) what went wrong and b) what went right. The results on this roll from my Canon AT-1 are a prime example.
My camera was loaded with Fuji Chrome, iso 100 slide film and had the 28-80mm zoom lens attached. The first few shots of this roll were taken indoors. I tried to do some light painting using Christmas tree lights. I also took a macro-type shot of an orchid.
Both unexciting shots, but they help to tell this story. Next, we went for a walk on the beach. It was a beautiful and unseasonably warm January afternoon. Also on this expedition I took along my Fuji Natura Classica and shot some of the pictures in this blog post. When I didn’t have to worry about light metering with the Fuji, my results were really nice. With my Canon, it was a different story.
I completely forgot there was a light meter on the camera. I suppose that’s what happens when you work with simple cameras most of the time.
The exposure isn’t the greatest on any of these, plus my film must have been expired, which helps to explain the bluish tint. Look at the first picture again and you’ll see a lovely little element entering the picture from the middle of the top…those lovely sunbursts. I continued to get them in these pictures and really love the way they look.
There were a couple of shots which made this roll worth it, namely these two that I took from an odd angle.
Clearly what went wrong here was my exposure time. In almost every shot, I completely forgot about light metering. Slide film always needs a little more light and the slow speed of the film I was using didn’t help. On the positive side, I love the sunbursts and the unusual POV I took in the last few shots.
So you see, just because you think a roll is a disaster, you may be mistaken. It’s always important to learn from your mistakes, in photography and in real life, and appreciate the beauty that was actually captured.
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2 comments | tags: analogue, antique, Beach, callard, camera, Delaware, exposure, fi, fidelity, film, ipdegirl, jenni, light, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, philosophy, photo, photography, postaweek2012, retro, sunburst | posted in Lo-fi Philosophies
One of my closest friends, Mike, practices Aikido, a form of martial arts, and was kind enough to invite me and my family along when his group was training on the beach. I was thrilled to capture the group’s flowing motions, stark uniforms and weaponry against a backdrop of sand and surf. Since Mike also appreciates the lo-fi aesthetic I was ready to capture some beautiful black and white images with my Holga and maybe print a few for him. But, as often happens in the toy camera world, that’s not exactly how things worked out. I made a totally amateur mistake when I forgot to check if the shutter was set to “Bulb” instead of “Normal” (you can see where this is going now, can’t you?).
Big fat whoops on my part. I really wished these pictures had actually been in focus. Somehow, I did get a shot of the group that came out really nicely.
It probably wouldn’t have been much sharper had I had it on the Normal setting. In retrospect, even though the shots didn’t come out the way I planned, I really like them. The motions look ethereal and ancient, which I feel reflects some of the character of the martial arts. Also, the sun was going down at the time and the bulb setting gave me the light I needed for a decent exposure.
Before I take a shot with any toy camera, I often follow the advice given to me by a photographer when I was a kid: Hold your breath, then press the button. That advice certainly saved some of these photos from being completely disastrous.
Then there are these last two shots. After I got home and realized my mistake I fired off these last two shots. The first is of four circles of roofing nails. They’d be much cooler in macro mode, but I seem to have misplaced my diopter, so this is what I got.
And finally, my wonderful children showing their love for each other at the dinner table….
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Leave a comment | tags: aikido, analogue, Beach, black, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, exposure, fi, fidelity, film, Holga, ipdegirl, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, long, philosophy, photo, photography, plastic, postaweek2011, toy, white | posted in Lo-fi Philosophies
When a loved one or friend goes away, you grieve. When a beloved pet dies, you grieve. Heck, you probably grieve a little if your favorite sports team loses the big game or if your favorite shirt suddenly disintegrates, but grieving over technology? Really? I am almost ashamed to say yes, I did in fact grieve a little yesterday when my iPhone suddenly bit the big one.
sad elias at the beach
Before I continue you must know cell phones and I have had a rocky yet passionate relationship. I used to HATE my cell phone, probably because it was just that. A phone and nothing more. I never took it with me or left it turned on, which drove my husband crazy. My main motivation for getting an iPhone came after my PDA finally died. I spent months convincing my husband that if I had an iPhone, I’d take it with me everywhere and leave it on so that he could always get in touch with me. He had no idea what he was in for.
When I discovered all the cool stuff, crazy apps, games and ability to surf the net anytime, anyplace, I became an iPhone junkie. When I began seriously using my iPhone for its photographic abilities, I was a full-on addict. There was no going back. Until my 3GS dropped in the ocean one day while walking our dog on the beach.
I was without the phone for a few days and it was like you’d cut off my arm but I was OK. I got my new phone, which I named Zelda, in a matter of days.
Fast forward to last Friday afternoon. I took my son to the beach for an afternoon of fun in the sun. On the way back to the car I noticed something was leaking in my bag. It turned out to be my water bottle. Zelda was safely tucked away in an outer pocket of my purse so I figured it was OK even though the screen was a little wet. After all, this same phone had already survived being submerged in a wet sink and a pint of beer, countless trips to the beach, plus a very wet run one day when a freak storm caught me a mile and a half from my car. Zelda had a day of R & R in a bag of rice and, fortunately, some scant water marks below my screen in the shape of the Hawaiian islands were the only reminders of that ill-fated run. It could handle that. Unfortunately, last Friday’s event would prove to be disastrous. Water must have dripped in the phone, either that or it had finally reached its aqueous limit because when I tried turning it on nothing happened.
The next day I took it to my local AT & T store and the nice fellow stated it was most likely dead. He suggested a trip to the nearest Apple store which, in my case, is two hours away and requires major planning to reach. I was devastated since it meant I’d be iPhone-less for another 24 hours. No Words with Friends or Plants vs Zombies to distract me from the doldrums of hanging out at home. No texting, instant net surfing or Hipstamatic! My whole life was in that thing from contacts to passwords and lists of new beers and wines I was trying to find. This sucked.
I became cranky, sullen and totally bummed. My husband joked that I was grieving my loss and at first I blew off his comments but the more I thought about it the more I realized he was right. I had become THAT person, the one for whom a smart phone has become like another appendage. As an analogue kind-of-girl I felt really stupid. Could I really rely on one device that much? Then I talked with a friend about it and she said we’ve all become that kind of person. In fact, those who don’t rely on their phones (like my husband) are quickly becoming the exception to the rule.
Getting my replacement phone the next day was like being reunited with an old friend. It was good to instantly be able to communicate with everyone again. The weight of it in my hand felt reassuring and right. However great it was to be able to text, surf the net and access my accounts, being able to take pictures again was the best feeling ever.
So yeah, I grieved the loss of an inanimate object and I felt ashamed but now that I have my phone back I feel free! I’m thinking of naming this one Jesus or Lazarus to up the chances of resurrection should it decided to go swimming again.
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4 comments | tags: analogue, callard, camera, cheap, damage, Delaware, fi, fidelity, film, grieving, Holga, ipdegirl, iPhone, iPhoneography, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, loss, low, philosophy, phone, photo, photography, postaweek2011, reliance, reunited, smart, Smartphone, technology, Water | posted in Lo-fi Philosophies
Have you ever wondered what camera your favorite musician might use? OK, maybe I’m the only one. Since I love jazz I was thinking the other day about what kind of lo-fi camera some famous jazz musicians might use or which camera best captures the spirit of that person. Here we go…
Duke Ellington: Elegant, classic, sharp as a tack, refined, beautiful harmonies, smooth…..all the things I think of when I use my Kiev 88
Thelonius Monk: Crazy genius, marches to the beat of his own drummer, eccentric, always in motion. Kind of like my Spinner 360
Ethel Ennis: Smooth, elegant, vocalist with velvety voice, dreamy, soft. Born in one of my favorite cities, Baltimore, MD. I think she’s a Diana.
Dizzy Gillespie: energetic, Be-Bop trumpeter with crazy technique and great cheeks. I’ll give him an Action Sampler and see what he does with it.
Miles Davis: Can NOT forget one of the best musicians ever. His trumpet style ranges from frenetic be-bop to smooth, low, dreamy jazz. A true innovator always pushing the boundaries, always re-inventing himself, just like the Holga.
Tito Puente: Latin jazz master who plays some of my favorite percussion instruments (I played the marimba in high school….it rocks). Always on the beat but always trying new, crazy different things while staying within the confines of the tremendous genre known as Latin Jazz. I think a Lubitel is in order.
Joshua Redman: One of my favorite modern jazz artists, I went to see him when he first started touring. His style is unmistakable but not too crazy. Clean but innovative. His sound and his interpretations are unique and noticeable (to me, anyways) from afar. Polaroid SX-70, anyone?
These are just a few of my favorites….add to the list now, why don’t ya?
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6 comments | tags: "Action Sampler", "Dizzy Gillespie", "Duke Ellington", "Ethel Ennis", "Joshua Redman", "Kiev 88", "Miles Davis", "Spinner 360", "Thelonius Monk", "Tito Puente", analogue, antique, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, Diana, fi, fidelity, film, Holga, instant, ipdegirl, iPhoneography, jazz, jenni, Land, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, Lubitel, music, musician, musicians, personality, philosophy, photo, photography, polaroid, postaweek2011, profile, retro, Russian, SX-70, toy, vintage | posted in Lo-fi Philosophies
We’ve all heard this advice, but how many of us follow it? You never know what you’re going to encounter in your daily travels because truth is always stranger than fiction.
Before I got my iPhone I occasionally packed a Holga with me, but only when the potential was there for a cool photograph (trips to the beach, museums or a new town or city). Now that I have my iPhone it is the camera that is always with me and I do mean ALWAYS. The film cameras come along, too, but only when I know the light will be good because most of them have really small apertures and no bulb setting.
I find myself looking at the world differently when everything is a potential photograph. Things that would be considered boring or mundane before suddenly appear as incredible lines, bursts of color or textural elements that you just wish you could reach out and touch.
In addition to the abstract, I’m always on the lookout for the odd, absurd or hilarious parts of life. Nothing makes me happier than coming across something that makes me laugh out loud, like this shot, taken while waiting for my chiropractor to work her magic on my back. It made me think of all the slimy, spineless people you’ve ever run across in life. If you could just give them one of these, they’d be fixed (hopefully).
Then there are the moments in which you look up and realize how beautiful things are from below (that’s another blog discussion by itself). I love the chandeliers in the shop where I get my hair cut so, I snapped this shot (ha! no pun intended) the last time I got a haircut.
Some of my best artsy-fartsy shots have come from perfectly ordinary mornings in which I was just running errands and happened to come across something beautiful. My ‘Flooded’ picture is the best example of that. It won an award last year.
I came back with these lovely images after a morning trip to the post office with my son. It was foggy and became foggier as we reached the beach. Our spontaneous walk lasted a half hour and was magical.
On a warm early autumn evening, while driving to the soccer field to pick up my daughter, I had to stop the car and get these images of the lovely (and slightly enhanced) sunset. In real life, the colors were spectacular and I liked the way the Berry Pop flash (in Hipstamatic) saturated the blues and pinks. It’s a pretty accurate representation of the sunset as I saw it because the real-life sunset colors and shades popped in the same way these enhanced tones do.
You never know when you’re going to run across that award-winning scene or that snippet of life that makes you laugh out loud. If you don’t do it now, start making it a habit to carry a camera with you because (here comes another piece of advice I know you’ve heard a thousand times) the more pictures you take the better you’ll get. Don’t be afraid to stop and snap the picture, either. As I learned a few weeks ago there are always going to be folks who don’t like what you’re doing but that should be their problem, not yours.
Now, go and snap away!!
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3 comments | tags: advice, analogue, antique, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, fi, fidelity, film, Holga, ipdegirl, iPhone, iPhoneography, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, mundane, ordinary moments, philosophy, photo, photography, postaweek2011, practice, retro, subjects, toy, vintage | posted in Lo-fi Philosophies
I don’t look like a criminal but apparently some people think I do.
A few weeks ago, armed with a Polaroid SX-70 and my iPhone, I went to a spot I’ve been meaning to photograph for at least a year. On the side of a rural road sits a broken-down, rusted out school bus, a rusted jeep, a few tired old buildings and random rusty skeletons of things that are now unrecognizable. Exactly the kind of things I like to photograph.
With its surfboard rack, peace and love stickers and car seat in the back, I don’t think my vehicle could be mistaken for a great getaway car but there it sat, on the side of the road. Dressed in Old Navy’s finest pea coat and wearing boots, nice khaki pants and nary a hair out-of-place, I set out to get some shots before the sunlight faded.
I always feel a little conspicuous when taking pictures on the side of the road but I just chalk it up to paranoia. Then it happened.
A white car slowed down, a woman rolled down her window and told me she had to take down my license plate number because there had been a lot of thefts recently of the junk I had been photographing.
“No, I’m just taking pictures” I told her as I stood up, SX-70 around my neck.
“That’s what they do” she said, “take pictures in the daytime and come back at night and steal”. Then her car slowly pulled away as I sat there, stunned, unable to come up with a response.
Did that really just happen?
Did she really think I was going to steal stuff? What would she have said to me if my skin had been ‘the wrong color’ or if I had been dressed in dirty, ripped-up clothes and why the hell hadn’t someone moved this valuable junk if people just kept on stealing it?
As a middle-class white girl I know I’m lucky to have never had to deal with racial or socio-economic stereotyping based on my appearance so I can’t IMAGINE what a monumental pain in the ass it must be for those who are.
I am extremely grateful that I don’t live in a country in which my camera is confiscated on a regular basis. Balancing security with freedom of artistic expression is a tricky business in our post-9/11 world. The preponderance of cameras in 2011 should make people more comfortable with the idea of photography, instead I think that people are generally much more paranoid about photographers.
We’ve all heard stories of folks being asked to move on by security guards and there are plenty of landmarks where you can only grab one or two quick shots before you’re mistaken for someone plotting something nefarious. A good friend of mine has been questioned numerous times while photographing bridges and buildings. He’s even been kicked out of places but he really just loves architecture, plain and simple.
I’ve researched my rights as a photographer and know where my boundaries are according to the law, but the general public isn’t usually as well versed. I was on the side of the road and my subjects were clearly in view from public land. I wasn’t deep into the field, poking around in the buildings and vehicles, even though there were no warning or privacy signs posted. I don’t know who owned the land and I doubt the woman in the car did either, but I do try to be respectful.
As stupid as that whole exchange on the side of the road seemed to me, I’m glad that woman took the time to tell me what she was doing. It taught me a lesson and that is to always have a business card prepared to present to people and to always expect that someone isn’t going to like what you’re doing.
Here are the pictures I got that afternoon. I like the way they turned out considering the short amount of time I spent at the site.
Do you have any similar horror stories? I’d love to hear them and how you dealt with the situation.
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5 comments | tags: accusation, accused, analogue, antique, callard, camera, cheap, criminal, Delaware, false, fi, fidelity, film, freedom, Holga, ipdegirl, iPhone, iPhoneography, jenni, Land, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, objects, paranoia, philosophy, photography, place, postaweek2011, public, responsibilities, retro, rights, rusty, security, theft, toy, vintage | posted in Lo-fi Philosophies
I’ll be the first to admit it. I suck. I have not been a good blogger of late. Life has been pretty insane/rotten/strange lately and has sucked out the last bits of remaining energy that I usually have for creative pursuits. I’ve done a little writing this summer and even less film photography but an opportunity last week got the creative wheels turning again.
I mentioned the folks at Eye’em in my last blog. They’ve taken an even bigger step in making mobile photography a viable art form by revamping their site so that you can sign up for an account and post your mobile photos for all to see and admire, much like LSI’s lomo homes. The amount of fantastic works that people are producing with these crappy little digital cameras is crazy! It is well worth your time to browse these images not only to get an idea of what you can do with these cameras, but also to get an idea of the wide array of apps and programs available.
I got an email from Sara at Eye’em a couple of weeks ago: My shot, entitled “Flooded”, will appear in a book, to be published in the next month or so and they wanted me to say a few words about it. I’m actually very grateful for that opportunity because it really allowed me to solidify what it is about iPhone photography that is so appealing to an analogue gal such as myself.
I see toy/vintage photography and mobile photography as very similar animals. They’re both fun, relatively simple and can be crazily unpredictable. As with toy cams, my iPhone cam can give beautiful results or total garbage. In general it’s much more reliable, but not consistently so, than my toys. It’s pretty awful in low-light, just like my toys and the shutter lag can be ridiculously long. There’s a real art to pushing the shutter at the correct time, something I’ll never master, but the so-called mistakes that I’ve captured because of that shutter lag (like the one in this post) have been really freakin’ cool, so I can live with it.
Because of great apps like Hipstamatic and Camera Bag, I can get toy and vintage-like results. Is it cheating? Sure. Do I care? No, and why is that? Because I’m still not spending hours and hours in front of a computer adding layers of saturation and ‘years’ to a perfectly ordinary shot for the sake of making it ‘look like it was shot on film’. With an app like Hipstamatic I pick the camera, film and flash I want to use and push the button. That’s it. I have a couple of filter programs but most of the time find no reason to use them, unless I’m trying to really kill some time while waiting for soccer practice to conclude. Not that they’re super labor intensive, it’s just that I don’t have the time or patience to mess with the extras.
The biggest similarity between the two is that they’re both seriously under-appreciated and under-respected (if that is a word) forms of art. I love the look on people’s faces when I show them a picture and tell them I captured it with a two-dollar camera as much as I love to tell people that I was recognized in an international competition for a shot I took with my iPhone. I don’t think either of these art forms will ever garner the respect that ‘serious’ photos taken with DSLRs are given, but that’s one more reason to strive to make beautiful images with my both.
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Leave a comment | tags: "Camera Bag", apps, callard, camera, cell phone photography, Eye'em, film, Hipstamatic, iPhone, jenni, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, LSI, moblie photography, philosophy, photography, toy, vintage | posted in Lo-fi Philosophies
Ever since playing around with vintage film cameras I have had to explain to my fellow digital photographers why I love them. They can’t comprehend why one would want to goof around with a $10 camera when one could play with a- zillion mega pixels and digital editing software that would make a Pixar filmmaker jealous. I understand most of the arguments for digital, including the convenience factor. But I really never understood why digital? Really? Is it an artform or just pixels in space? Why sit for hours at a computer monitor and tweak your picture until it’s your idea of perfect?
So I turned the tables on someone and got an interesting answer. Digital, this person stated, is MY medium. What I create out of pixels is art to me just as your tangible film negative and resulting print is art to you. Interesting. But I was still having trouble wrapping my mind around it all.
Enter a particularly challenging photo gig and the need to tweak some horribly exposed pictures in something other than PS. I was contemplating switching to Lightroom to ‘perfect’ digital shots of an 80th birthday party. I understand the need for the sharp, crisp look, especially when folks are actually paying you for that type of product. An innocuous how-to video really crystallized the answer to this question for me.
The video was explaining how the photographer got these fantastic colors in the sky of a gorgeous landscape shot of what looked like the Grand Canyon. Immediately I looked at the shot and thought “Wow,that is so fake” and it was. This guy made no bones about it in the video and explained that he took the original picture, which was very drab and unimpressive, and turned it into what he remembered the shot ‘feeling’ like in the moment. It was intriguing to hear his explanation. This picture was taken in the warm light of the morning and the original just didn’t capture that warmth. He felt that the altered version of the sky really captured the what he was feeling in that environment and what he was trying to convey in his photography. So THAT’S what it’s all about!
Just like those of us in the film community love the retro, grainy and imperfect look of our shots, digital photogs love the sharp and perfect look they can attain through mega pixels. I look at the film way as a more ‘organic’ view of the world; relatively unaltered, imperfect and natural, while the digital view of the world is ‘enhanced’; saturated, perfected, possible cut-and-pasted and totally in the electronic realm until one actually prints a copy of the photo onto paper.
Understanding the digital photographer’s need to fill their pictures with surreal colors and shapes helps me appreciate what they do a bit more but I have to say, as a film girl I resent the fact that the public has become accustomed these overly-saturated shots as the norm. It seems as though popular tastes have shifted towards a more unrealistic view of the world through a lens. My film shots look really drab in comparison to digitized ones and they always will because I don’t like making them look fake. Oversaturation due to crossprocessing is one thing while vibrant reds, purples, yellow and oranges in every sunset picture you’ve ever taken is quite another.
I guess that’s why us film-o-philes don’t outnumber the digital heads. And that’s okay. Each art form has it’s place. Understanding what compels someone to work in the fully digital world has taken my acceptance of it to a new level. Next time I see an unnaturally colored sky or flower I will know that it represents more than just mad PS skills. That’s cool with me but I think I’ll stick with the natural, organic film look.
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6 comments | tags: analogue, camera, digital, film, Lightroom, lo-fi, philosophy, photography, vintage | posted in Lo-fi Philosophies, Uncategorized
I’m a simple girl, really.
I’ve never been a fan of the opulent or extravagant. Give me minimalist, inexpensive and authentic. And I’m not one for fads, either. It takes too much energy to keep up with what everyone else considers the latest and greatest.
All this applies to my photography, as well. I was really set against getting a digital camera when they came out because I loved film. You could say I’m a bit of a purist in that I thought digital would be a corrupting force to photography, like those die-hards who favor LPs over CDs.
After seeing some results with early digital cameras the difference between film and digital pictures was very clear to me and I wasn’t into pixilation, way-too-sharp focus or weird colors. But then again I had children and was always wasting obscene amounts of film trying to capture them in action. I finally broke down and got a digital ultra zoom figuring it would help me save some money in wasted film. I didn’t think I’d need another camera again for a long while.
There was a digital honeymoon period for sure. My new camera took great shots and I wasn’t wasting film or money: It was a snap to erase all the goofy out-takes and closed-eye shots (because the closed-eye gene runs deep in my family) that I happened to capture, but I slowly began to realize the fun was being sapped out of photography. I knew that I’d take 500 or so shots at any function because there was bound to be a few keepers, but this meant massive editing. Instead of focusing on composition, light and color I was at the computer monitor sorting between 10 pictures that were basically the same except for one minute detail, like the tilt of someone’s head, and trying to decide which one was the best. Yeah, I could edit everything and make it nearly perfect but it was no fun! I didn’t want to take pictures anymore because I dreaded the editing process. Going through all gazillion shots of little Johnny’s birthday party or the family trip to the beach was not my idea of photographic fun.
My once-loved hobby had fallen into a huge rut, more like a Baltimore-City sized pot hole really. I thought I had outgrown my digital ultra-zoom. Maybe a big, fat DSLR was the cure to my photographic ills? My husband took one look at the hefty price tag and told me that, for sure, a DSLR was not the cure to my problems. As usual, he was right. Because I still couldn’t bear to use my digital camera, and because we’re so frugal, I went the opposite way and got a Holga. My photography has been forever changed by picking up this $24 wonder.
I should have known it would be a toy that would bring the joy and soul back to my photos. As a photographer and musician I have a love/hate relationship with mistakes, secondary to being a perfectionist. I work really hard to perfect my crafts however as we all know, perfection is unattainable. The absolute lack of control with my Holga was incredibly freeing to me. Personally, I had really worked on accepting my mistakes, not just in my music but in life, so when I discovered the toy camera community and their embrace-your-mistakes way of creating art, it felt like destiny. I knew this was a way to recapture my creativity and advance my skills, albeit in a completely different way than I’d ever dreamed. I was excited by the first few rolls of film from my Holga. I’d forgotten how warm, vivid and authentic film shots looked. And those ‘mistakes’ often added to the character of my pictures. Much like birthmarks, funky toenails and two different colored eyes added to the specialness of some of my friends, light leaks, loosely wound film and even the back of the camera flying off all left special impressions on my negatives.
I’m now completely addicted to analogue photography but more specifically to toy cameras. I now see pictures everywhere, in places I would never have dreamed you could make art, like decrepit buildings, shopping carts and playgrounds. It can be rather distracting especially while driving, but I love this new, artistic view of the world. I am amazed that a simple piece of plastic had the ability to pry open my digitalized, jaded eyes to the ordinary beauty around me. Although I’ve now accumulated a nice collection of vintage, Russian and analogue cameras, my favorite remains my trusty Holga. After all, why should kids get all the fun toys?
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2 comments | tags: camera, essay, fi, film, ipdegirl, jenni, lo, lo-fi, philosophy, photography, toy | posted in Lo-fi Philosophies
The view while floating on my back in the pool where we were staying. I miss that palm tree. Shot with Holga on Kodak Tmax 400iso.
Our favorite coffee shop in KW
The background is of a fence with a sign that reads “No Parking Unless Snow Depth Exceeds 2 inches”
Long exposure of a British phone booth in someone’s backyard
Trippy scooter
Sailing off into the great unknown
as my husband put it, “sailing through tide and times”
ipdegirl
