I actually had a Holga 135 a handful of years ago, so this is not a camera that is entirely new to me. I bought one in 2011 but felt like a hipster for doing so because it came from Urban Outfitters. That inspired me to do a photo series call “Things Hipsters Like.” After running a couple of rolls through the Holga 135, a piece broke off of it, then I tried unsuccessfully to paint it a color I liked better, and that was the end of my relationship with the Holga 135. Fast forward a few years, and I started looking back at some of the photos I’d taken with that camera, and I thought “Hey, some of those were pretty cool!” Couple that with the fact that the Holga factory shut down earlier this year, and I decided that I wanted another Holga 135 while I could still get one. I found one online and bought it. It was described as “fuchsia.” My friends, it’s actually a bright neon orangey pink. It’s a LOUD color.
I was SO excited that my new Holga 135 arrived just before I left to see Mallory up in Midtown Memphis on a beautiful afternoon. I knew it would be a great day to try out the Holga!
Roll #1 was Agfa Vista Plus 200
Crosstown
I kinda went overboard photographing the cool sculpture outside Crosstown 🙂
Around Midtown
HI!
It was February, and they still had Christmas decorations up!
Roll #2 was expired Fuji Sensia 400, cross-processed
Now. This isn’t a full roll, because when I was photographing the Impala you’ll see below, someone at work saw me doing so and insisted on taking a bunch of photos of me with the car. It wasted a good bit of that roll. AND I accidentally opened the camera because I forgot there was film in it. OOPS! I was going to wait to get this roll developed, because there had been so many missteps with it, but I decided to throw it in with the most recent batch of film I sent off for processing.
Example of the aforementioned photos of me with the car…
I didn’t really think it was fair to the camera or this blog post for me to accept Roll #2 as a proper test roll, so I put a third roll through the Holga 135 for this post!
Roll #3 was Fuji Superia 400, expired in 2007
Admittedly underexposed, but they’re of SPIKE!
Como, Mississippi
Double exposure, probably in Como, Mississippi
Pro tip: don’t leave your camera in bulb mode and then take a photo in broad daylight!
HI!
Double exposure at the zoo and winner of “best of the bunch” for the photos in this blog
Another zoo double exposure
Crepe myrtles
Underexposed double exposure. But I like it?
Conclusion?
Aside from the mishaps with Roll #2, I actually am really pleased with a lot of the photos I took with my new Holga 135! Hopefully it won’t break like its predecessor did!