In the Field: Photo Blog by Richard Wong

Photography field reports by Richard Wong. Richard’s work has been published in magazines, books, advertising, and offers fine art prints of his work. Images may be licensed as rights-managed stock photos by contacting Richard directly at Richard@rwongphoto.com or (626) 422-6151. California stock photography, fine art prints, photo blog: www.rwongphoto.com

Holga Camera

Posted on | January 6, 2011 | 5 Comments

Holga Toy Camera

Holga Toy Camera

I picked up a Holga toy camera last summer just before heading off to San Francisco and Alaska so it wasn’t until recently that I had a chance to finish my first roll of film. At this point I’m just experimenting with it but my first roll of film was Kodak Portra 160 medium format print film. In addition, I had never used Kodak Portra before nor had I ever shot photos with medium format film so I really had no idea what to expect which was part of the fun.

Funny thing is that pre-visualization works the same regardless of what photography medium you choose. Though I had no idea what to expect, the images came out exactly how I thought they would.

My brother captured in a double-exposure photo on a Holga camera.

My brother captured in a double-exposure photo on a Holga camera.

Being a cheaply-made plastic camera, one of the funky aspects to the photos is light leaks as you can see. Also being purely manual, you can make multiple exposures by not fast-forwarding to the next frame.

Light and Shadow photo from Holga plastic camera.

Light and Shadow photo from Holga plastic camera.

There is also some crazy vignetting and softening at the corners.

Holga camera picture of my dog walking through fall foliage.

Holga camera picture of my dog walking through fall foliage.

You do have to be careful with how you handle the camera though as one of the film holder pins came loose so half my roll was lost to sunlight exposure. Oops! Medium format print film is not cheap to process!

I have some loose personal projects in mind for what I want to do with the Holga camera so I’m going to keep fooling around with this for the time being until I get the hang of it.

Related side story: I don’t recall if I have shared this on my blog before but during our first day graduate school orientation at the Academy of Art University in 2002, I met a girl who was passionately telling me all about the plastic toy camera she had bought the week before for her road trip to San Francisco and how there were light leaks all over the place. The camera was so funky that she had to use tape to hold it together. I thought that was really unusual yet cool. Clearly I never forgot that conversation and now look at where I am…

BTW, if you ever get a chance to live in a place with a vibrant art community I’d highly recommend it. You’ll never meet more interesting people who can teach you things that you never imagined. It keeps you sharp. You think you know everything there is to know until you venture out of your cocoon and embrace the art around you.

Category: Opinion
Tags:

Comments

5 Responses to “Holga Camera”

  1. pj
    January 6th, 2011 @ 11:51 am

    I’ve never used a Holga, but I still play around with cheap, ancient film cameras now and then. It can be a real blast, and it can be a good way to break out of some visual ruts we get into without even realizing it.

    Have fun with it, and I hope we see some of the results you get once in a while.

  2. Richard Wong
    January 6th, 2011 @ 5:37 pm

    Thanks PJ. For fun, it will be interesting to do some landscape photography with this.

  3. David Leland Hyde
    January 6th, 2011 @ 10:05 pm

    Sounds like a lot of fun, Richard, and a good changer of perspective.

  4. Leann Greene
    January 7th, 2011 @ 9:10 pm

    The results are very cool because they are effects done of your vision. Proof that the cost of a camera wether high or low cannot replace the creative eye just are a tool for it. Totally off subject but I love this lyric from Loretta Lynn’s song “rated x”…”But I think it’s wrong to judge every picture if a cheap camera makes a mistake”

  5. Richard Wong
    January 8th, 2011 @ 12:38 am

    Thanks Leann. I’ll have to look for that song since I’m curious now.

    If I were to teach a photography class at a college, what I’d do is make them shoot a few assignments only with the cheapest gear they can find. No trickery involved to see if they can take their vision to another level.

Leave a Reply





  • Photo Archive

  • Twitter

    Follow Richard Wong on Twitter!

  • Google+

    Richard Wong +Circle Me on Google Plus

  • Facebook

    Richard Wong Photography on Facebook></a><br /> </div> </li> <li id=

    Partner Sites

    Custom Floral Arrangements by Patty Wong

    Flower Arranging Blog - Color Makes Flowers

    Easy Recipes - Recipeontology

  • RSS The Non-Glamorous Side of Photography

    • Page 1 of 11