The Walk pt. 2

6 comments // Nov 29th, 2009 // Photography

thewalkpt2

About a year ago, I got a Holga. It was imme­di­ately a lib­er­ating expe­ri­ence. As much as I like having con­trol of the aper­ture, shutter speed, or any of the other things you can con­trol over when taking a pic­ture, it’s really nice to have a tool that cre­ates images with min­imal input. In my mind, it reduces pho­tog­raphy to it’s most basic ele­ments: your eye, and your timing.

One of the other aspects that attracts me to the camera is that it has a char­acter of its own. I sup­pose that you can argue that images cre­ated via a tool shouldn’t all look the same — and I don’t think that they do — but it’s appealing to me that the camera plays a role in the photo. Part of that char­acter is the the square aspect ratio, which I find par­tic­u­larly pleasant, as you may have noticed in my printed work.

This image is the best photo that I’ve taken so far with the Holga. In my mind, it cap­tures very well the feeling of the moment.

6 comments.

  1. Josh LaFayette says:

    Another awe­some thing about the Holga is that when it breaks you can buy another one without even thinking about it. I know from expe­ri­ence.
    Also, did you know that with a tiny bit of mod­i­fi­ca­tion you can run 35mm film through it?
    ( like so: http://www.flic.kr/joshlafayette/4146888404/ ) Then you don’t have to aways shell out for 120 film when you get a Holga-​​hankerin’.

    Also, have you ever shot an Lomo cam­eras?
    For even less con­trol and more fun results I sug­gest the Lomo Action Sampler.

    This “com­ment” feels like an e-​​mail.

    Nov 29, 2009, 5:24 am
  2. ifc says:

    I am aware of the 35mm mod. I’m not that psy­ched w/​ the sprocket hole look though, and I like the square format. Good to keep in mind though.

    I haven’t shot with any of Lomos other camera, but I’d like to. The Action Sampler looks kinda cool. I’ll prob­ably see what I can get out of the Holga. Did you see that they recently came out with some lenses (wide angle, etc) for it? I’d be psy­ched to pick those up.

    Nov 29, 2009, 2:47 pm
  3. Josh LaFayette says:

    Aw man, a wide angle lens sounds awe­some. I’ll def­i­nitely look into that.

    Nov 29, 2009, 3:54 pm
  4. Mike Deal says:

    Wow, great photo.

    I want to get my girl­friend a camera like this for her birthday. I had only really heard about Lomos, so I was going to take that route, but looking at this and other Holga shots is making this a harder decision.

    Were you choosing a Holga OVER a Lomo or just buying a Holga?

    Josh, you’ve shot with both? Are they both equally neato? I guess the Holga is cheaper…Thanks A LOT Ira for con­fusing my decision.

    Nov 29, 2009, 11:26 am
  5. ifc says:

    Thanks Mike! I went with the Holga partly because (as Josh men­tioned) Dianas used to be $100. I also hadn’t shot any medium format film before, so I wanted to see how that was. Plus, I’d seen some really inter­esting shots come from Holgas. I know the pho­tog­ra­pher plays a huge part, but I like the idea that a tool takes some con­trol out of your hands. Especially in such a rep­re­sen­ta­tional medium as pho­tog­raphy, it’s impor­tant to me.

    I’d do a quick look around Mike. See how hard it is to get 120 film processed, thought I don’t think that it will be too dif­fi­cult. The Diana might be the way to go if 35mm is your only option.

    Nov 29, 2009, 2:02 pm
  6. Mike Deal says:

    That’s actu­ally very helpful. Thanks, Ira.

    Nov 29, 2009, 10:06 am