Olympus XA • Expired Fuji Super HQ 200 film • Muddy’s Menu Photo Shoot
An artist who works in buttercream and sprinkles.
Artist, at Work
Hipster Cam {Volume One}
Warning: if you or someone you love is a hipster, the contents of this blog may fly all over your delicate, ironic sensibilities. Also, this was written with tongue firmly in cheek.
Hello there! Today, I present you with (what I call) “the hipster cam” – also better known as the Holga 135. If you like it when I tell you overly verbose stories about cameras and photos, then this is the blog posting for YOU!
A Holga is a cheap, plastic camera from China that originally came only in models that took medium format film (Holga 120.) I’ve been using medium format Holga cameras since 2000. More recently, however, 35mm Holga models have been on the market. I never really wanted one of the 35mm Holgas. I saw them in person because of the Holga 135 collection at Urban Outfitters – which is (in my opinion) notorious for overpriced merchandise. Fifty dollars for a plastic camera that looks like you spray-painted it in your garage?! I think not!! I was not born yesterday, people!
All of those feelings about Holga 135 cameras were true until I went into Urban Outfitters with a friend last summer. When I saw a purple Holga 135 on clearance for $20, I couldn’t get it out of my head (this happens when I see most any camera for $20 or under.) I mulled it over for a few days and ultimately went against my nature buying a Lomography camera at Urban Outfitters. Yes, Hades had frozen over.
Riddled with guilt that I may have turned into a hipster at this point, I decided the only way to make up for this lapse in my usually unfailing devotion to anti-hipsterdom was to do a photo series with the hipster cam. A series of things hipsters like, more specifically. There are soooo many things which fall into this category, so I have only begun to scratch the surface. But here are a few of the shots from two rolls I put through the Hipster Cam mostly last summer:
Things Hipsters Like , Part One
Banjos
Old typewriters
Pho Hoa Bihn
Waffle House
Farmers Markets*
Sriracha*
Gibson’s Donuts
Craft beers
So, a couple of things:
- I LOOOOOVE using the Holga 120 cameras I’ve owned. Having owned the 135 since late June, I have only shot two rolls of film with it. That should tell you something. That something being that I’m not in love with it yet.
- After those two rolls of film, the rewind knob’s crank lever fell off. Or broke off. Can’t remember which. Either way, I finally remembered to ask Lomography about a replacement part and was told I could exchange the camera. I sent it back last week. I didn’t like the purple one, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will return to me as a mint green or blush colored Hipster Cam.
- Turns out, I like a lot of the same things I would make fun of hipsters for enjoying. See, we’re not so different after all.
*The accuracy of the viewfinder on this thing. Not so much. I did not actually compose those shots that way.
After Midnight
January 1, 2012 • Nikon FE • Fujicolor 200 film
Post balloon-drop. Post dead digital camera battery. Film to the rescue.
New Year = ushered in.
{Forgotten Frames} Close-up
As I predicted would happen, I found yet another roll of film that slipped through the cracks and remained undeveloped until now. This time, there was no photo of my niece during her formative years to help me pinpoint the approximate dates the film was exposed. There were, however, other tell-tale elements in the photos that helped me determine which camera was used and a few other things about the images.
Camera: Yashica TL Electro-X
How do I know this? That camera has a very distinct light leak. I’ll level with you, folks: I don’t enjoy light leak in my photos. So I do everything in my power to correct them when they rear their ugly heads (or, more accurately, ugly splotches and apparitions.) With the Yashica TL Electro-X, my normal light leak combating measures weren’t so successful. I still haven’t figured out exactly where light is getting into this puppy against my wishes!
Time period of origin: Roughly 2006. Possibly 2007.
There is nothing in these photos that tells me precisely when they were taken, but I can approximate a time frame using clues within the photos.
As I said, I could tell right away which camera I used for these photos because of the particular light leak in the images. I also know they were taken with macro extension tubes attached. These are very clearly test photos (aka “nothing very interesting…”) Furthermore, both the Yashica and the extension tubes arrived in my hands around the same time in 2006. In fact, one of the extension tubes makes a guest appearance in one of the photos!
That leads me to believe that these photos were likely taken during the summer of 2006. I do allow for the possibility that the photographs were made the following year when I was trying desperately to get rid of that dadgum light leak!
Conclusion: I wouldn’t say that I unearthed any photographic gem when this roll of film was finally developed. But, it’s always cool seeing images for the first time when such a great length of time has passed between the time the film was exposed and when it’s developed. It’s a very good thing!
