Holga Whitehall

Whitehall, New York, birthplace of the US Navy, has some interesting buildings by Lock 12 of the Champlain Canal. The photos were taken with a Holga and cross processed which makes the colors more dramatic. This winter day I took photos of the east side of the street in the morning then returned in the afternoon and took pictures of the side of street facing west. The sun doesn't get that high in the sky this time of year so there is a limited time in which to take pictures with a Holga.


Flag bench on a winter's day.



The church is in the process of being taken down. The steeple is all
that remains standing.


I hope the cross on top of the steeple is used on or in another chruch.


A house across from Lock 12 is called Locknest.


Another view of Locknest.


Cupola in the rain.


The Liberty Restaurant along the canal.


There are several types of bricks in these buildings.


Thru an iron grate.

Holga After the Snowstorm

Our last snow storm left snow and ice on tree branches. So lovely to look at as long as one didn't loose electrical power. I shot 35 mm Ektachrome in a Holga and 120 Ektachrome in a Woca, a Holga clone . I had the film cross processed with intersting results. The blue tints on the 35mm photos run to light turquoise while the 120 blues are deep and bold. The photos were taken on backroads outside of Whitehall, New York.


The woods are so pretty after a snow storm. (35mm)


The branches droop under the weight of the snow. (35mm)



The sky is such a lovely mix of blues. (120)


Farm house after the snow fall. (120)


Ice on the branches sparkles in the sun light. (35mm)


My car's tire tracks in the snow. (35mm)


The main road home is free of snow. (35mm)

Meme

Ytsl of Webs of Significance tagged me for this meme entitled six unimportant things/habits/quirks about me.

1. Like Ytsl I have suffered from insomnia for many years. I've tried everything from warm drinks to meditation and nothing really works. So now I accept the insomnia and read. The acceptance part seems to help a little as I often fall back to sleep for an hour or two.

2. "My Neighbor Totoro" is one of my all time favorite movies. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the Ghibli Museum. However I'm not a fan of Hayao Miyazaki's other movies.

Totoro greets visitors at the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka,
Tokyo. A wonderful museum about Miyazaki and his creative art.

3. I like to collect plush toys of the Hong Kong animated character McDull.


McDull as Prince de la Bun and in western zodiac
garb with his friend Fai as Harry Pizza.


4. Sometimes I act like an ajumma (in Korea a word used to describe middle aged women who hang out with other middle aged women and have a lot of silly fun. Some perm their hair but I haven't gone that far...yet) as I'm a big fan of the Korean star Bae Yong Jo0n. Bae is known for having a huge fan base of women over forty!




5. When I get excited I run my hands through my hair and kind of squeal.

6. Ski lifts terrify me but I'm not afraid of heights.

More on Holga and Digital Photos

February in Vermont has been overcast or raining or snowing on days when I have time to take pictures so I've been comparing Holga and digital photos again.



Holga. Taken from a top floor restaurant at the Tokyo Edo Museum. I held the camera against the glass and took the above photo. The buildings look like a model built for a Gozilla movie.



Digital. Taken at the same time and place as the above picture. Again I pressed the camera against the window. The photo doesn't have the dreamy quality of the Holga picture but the buildings still look like a model city to me. The sky looks more menacing in this picture.



Holga. A double exposure which has a layered and textured look to it. I took a shots at two difference places to create this effect. A digital camera doesn't take this type of double exposure.


Digital. I moved the camera as I took the picture to create a blurry kind of double exposure effect. Taken at dusk at the Shinshoji Temple in the Sugamo section of Tokyo. The figure of Jizo is one of the statues from the Edo (old Tokyo) Nakasendo Highway.



Digital & Photoshop. This is the second photo from my previous blog. I asked a friend for her comments on the differences between the Holga and digital picutres. Her comments," Here's a few of the differences... I made a new version of your digital one where I changed the contrast and saturation. Its obviously not an exact match - I wasnt really trying for that, but wanted to give visual illustration of what your holga (in its limitations) does to the contrast/color saturation. Also, if you look at the fence on the left hand side of the holga, you can see how the cheap lens bends the image (in a pleasing way). and the focus is a little softer in the holga (again, more pleasing/arty)."

Similar Photos - Holga & Digital Cameras

On a trip to Tokyo I used a Holga camera and a Fuji S3100 Digital camera. I took similar photos of several places as I wanted to see the differences in the pictures each camera took. The sky was overcast most days and I wasn't certain what kinds of pictures I'd get with the Holga. With a 1/100 shutter speed the Holga needs lots of sunlight for successful pictures. I admit not all the Holga shots I took came out. A digital camera has the advantage of seeing ones photos immediately and also being able to delete the bad ones. Recently I've been using the Holga more as I enjoy exploring some of the effects it gets that the digital camera doesn't.



Holga. Outside Nippori Station. I used Ektachrome film which I had cross processed when developed. This process tends to intensify the color which was good as the day was overcast.



Digital. The colors are washed out and the picture seems flat to me when compared to the Holga shot.




Holga. A street near Yanaka Cemetery. There's a light leak at the top in the middle of the photo and there's a definite lack of sharpness in the images at the top of the too. Gives the photo a kind of nostalgic feeling. As you look down the street there's a distortion in the distance that's only obvious when compared to the photo below. Light leaks, a fuzziness in parts of the photo and distortions are all hallmarks of the Holga. What you see through the viewfinder is not exactly what you get in the photo.


Digital. The blue is brighter, the images of the houses are crisper and you can see further down the street in this shot. I like both of these photos.


Holga. The main hall of Benten Shrine located on a small island in Shinobazu Pond in Ueno Park. Notice the light leak in the lower left hand corner, the double images of the tree limbs on the upper right side and the fuzziness of the roof-all Holga characteristics. When compared to the digital photo below one can also see how much darker the Holga photo is in shaded areas like under the eaves of the temple. Another feature of Holga photos.

Digital. I like the warm feeling of the sunlight in the photo below. Again I like both of these photos. Each camera takes a different type of photo and each captures a different feeling which I enjoy.

Holga -Double Exposures

It's fun to take douple exposures with the Holga or most cameras that use film. Since the Holga is inexpensive I somehow feel free to take more pictures than I might with a more expensive camera. Of course I don't think about the cost of the film and its processing. It's liberating to just walk around and snap photos. Sometimes I even get interesting effects.




I took a picture then turned the camera about 90 degrees and snapped another. I like the plaid effect.


Sometimes I take a picture of snow on the ground and then take a picture of something more colorful. I like layeres and textures in photos. I wish the cigarette butt wasn't dead center.



Another type of double exposure I like is taking a picture then another by moving the camera up and to the right.



The snow, the chimney and the tiered effect of this triple exposure remind me of a wedding cake.


The red truck adds a little spice to this photo.

The Holga

I became interested in the Holga when I saw pictures I liked on Flickr and discovered they were taken with this camera. My digital camera seemed limited for taking the kinds of pictures I now wanted to shoot. I remember what fun I'd had as a kid using a Brownie camera. The Holga seemed like a similar camera. Since the Holga is relatively inexpensive (under US$50) I have several of them.


The Holga camera is all plastic including the lens.




The cameras don't stand up straight. I did mention they don't cost much. Their sister the Woca (same camera but with a glass lens) joins them at the local laundromat. My kitchen table seemed an uninteresting place to photograph them so we went on an outing to the laundromat. Laundromats are one of my favorite places to take pictures.

The Holga was originally designed in Hong Kong and made in the late 60's as an inexpensive camera for Mainland China. In recent years the Holga has become popular with photographers who value it for the interesting photos they can take with it.

In addition to taking interesting photos I also discovered just how sturdy this camera is. While shoveling the sidewalk after a recent snowfall I set my camera down in my driveway so I wouldn't forget to take it indoors with me. The guy who plows our driveway pulled in. I watched in horror as he drove up the driveway. My Holga disappeared in the snow in front of his plow. But.....


the Holga survived.




And fell over!

The camera and film were fine!


I couldn't resist another snow picture.


To be continued....