School of Rock

I was inpired by my friend Inge's double exposures so I thought I would try my hand at doing some intentional ones with my Holga. There were a couple of keepers on the roll. Here is one. I took this in Portland on Hawthorne. First I took a photo of the "School of Rock" sign and then I turned around and took a shot of a poster-covered telephone pole. 

I had a lot of fun with this! I will try it again, for sure. I think I also want to give my Holga more attention too.  

If you love doing film swaps and double exposures you should join us here at the Facebook group that Inge set up (and that I'm helping out as admin).  

A return to my childhood

A couple of weeks ago I was on a mission. This mission involved visiting all of the thrift and antique stores in Sandy to find this thing I was looking for. I didn't find what I was looking for in the thrift stores but I found a lot of other great things. I found lots and lots of old cameras. I resisted temptation for most of it but this one I had to buy. To my credit, I waited an entire day to let it simmer before I went back to the Goodwill to buy this old camera. It is a Keystone Pocketflash 106 and I picked it up for $2.99. I decided I needed it because several months ago I accidentally bought<a href="http://shop.lomography.com/us/films/110-film" target="_blank"> 110 film from Lomography</a>. I thought it might be fun to use it. I bought a film called <a href="http://shop.lomography.com/us/films/110-film/lobster-110-redscale" target="_blank">Lobster Redscale</a>.

I can't express how giddy it makes me to hold this camera in my hands. I had one very similar to this when I was a kid, it was the camera I cut my teeth on. I took photos of everything with it! It was a blast to play around with this. It even has a flash! I am a happy girl.

The photos are terrible quality, as they always have been with these types of cameras but, still. There are a few from the roll that are passable. These I took at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_Park,_Portland,_Oregon" target="_blank">Cathedral Park</a> in Portland, Oregon.

Sandy River Delta

I mentioned in this post that I brought my Holga with me on our hike at the Sandy River Delta. I finally got the film developed and scanned the negatives. I am getting better at scanning medium format negatives with my film scanner. I also learned that I had the settings all wrong for black and white which made the last batch of black and white negatives look weird. I'm going to re-scan them at some point (note to self). . Anyway, I am super happy with how these turned out! Seriously. I am in love with black and white film. I don't know if I want to ever go back to digital. I just love it that much. I love that this is how it looks pretty much out of the camera. Admittedly, I adjusted contrast and maybe exposure ever so slightly, but that is it.

I brought a roll of black and white film, Kodak Tmax 400 35mm,  to the beach with me yesterday.  I noticed the differences between shooting with film vs the immediacy of digital. With film you have to let go the notion of being a control freak. It's more about taking the shot and then letting it go. You take your shot and hope for the best and then wait (sometimes weeks or months) to see what it looks like. And there is something magical about  that space of time in between taking the shot and seeing the image.  It's like waiting for Santa. Sometimes you are disappointed but sometimes you are happy beyond your wildest imagination.

Film used: Kodak Tmax 400 Camera used: Holga

On capturing moments

When I bought my Holga to the beach with me on Christmas, I bought a roll of color film and a roll of black & white film. Since it was a beautiful day I decided to shoot the color roll first. I took the black & white roll with me on our trip to Long Beach over Christmas. It is crazy how quickly 12 frames goes by. I'm spoiled by digital photography and the compulsion to take shot after shot of the same thing. Film photography is going to force me to be a bit more cognizant of my present moment and what I decide to shoot for each frame. Related to that, I had forgotten how expensive film photography is! I did not get prints made from any of my negatives but I did have them scan them onto a CD so I could have digital copies. I am saving my money for a film/negative scanner so I can do this myself. When Raf and I were looking at these he remarked that he really felt that film photography has much more depth than digital photography, and really noticed it with the black & white shots. I could totally see what he was talking about and I have to agree with him. There is something about that image being burned into film that gives it way more depth than what you get with a series of zeros and ones (digital photography).

The fact of the matter (and now I'm going to get all metaphysical) is that in film photography the light (or the energy) of a particular moment is actually being burned into the film. So, essentially, that moment is that photograph. Does that make sense? Perhaps I've been listening too much to the crazy people who talk to me at the library. But I do think it is an interesting thought. Something to ponder, anyway.

Film used: Kodak Tmax 400 Camera used: Holga