HOLGA Love

My greatest art inspiration ever (Suzanne) got me a HOLGA for my birthday last year. And me being the dork that I am had to first research what in the world a HOLGA was. A little google time will tell you that it is a toy camera that uses 120 film. Also, it takes square pictures. Let this fact soak in a moment and the awesomeness will arise.

Did you notice a little word in the previous paragraph that seems a bit 1999? Film. Yep film. Not digital. In general, I take lots of pictures when ever I take pictures, whether it's of the kids, with family, or trying to be artsy. I do this because I'm not a trained photography and by taking many pictures it means there could be a handful of really good ones. But with film you don't get this luxury. Unless you want to spend a lot of money on film, you have to learn to think ahead and just think in general of what you want a picture of.

So with my first roll of film I was a bit cautious, not wanting to "waste" the film, but I also kept a fun spirit. I tried to take some double exposures (which is another key feature of the HOLGA), but none of them came out. I mean the film was develop-able, but it looks like blurry blobs. So First lesson learned, only take pictures in super sunny light. Sadly enough, all the double exposures but one were taken at night. Super lame. But it won't happen again.

What I didn't expect when the pictures came back was this antique look to the pictures. They look a decade or so old. It's really cool. Here is one of Matthew in the backyard.

But my favorite picture was a bit posed. The kids were playing at the Capitol and at one point sat together on a bench. Once I saw them from behind I was like, "Awesome picture moment," but by the time I pulled the camera out Matthew was already on the move. So made him sit back down so I could take the picture. So yeah, it's a fake moment. (But still cute!)


I'm sure you noticed some odd features on the sides of the photo. Well, I wasn't paying attention when winding the film. I actually thought I had figured out just how much to wind it without lifting the flap over the space that shows the film number. Amateur move. Won't happen again. So what you see on the sides are parts of the previous and next photo. But when you think about it, it's actually pretty neat looking.

I've loaded up roll number two in the HOLGA and I've already had a photo shoot, but I'm going to wait until they are developed to tell you what dorky idea I had.