Process Or Results

I love plastic film cameras. To most people Holga, Lomo, Smena and Diana sound like waiters at a Prague cafe. To me they're the Plastic Fantastic Four. Working with these cameras is about the same as talking to a Prague waiter too. They're tempermental, slow, unreliable and occasionally, just occasionally, bring good results. I'll take a month to shoot a roll of film, wait for it to be processed, pay real money to develop the negatives (when was the last time you did that?), only to realize that 33 out of 36 shots were overexposed. Frustating? Yep. And lest ye forget, these cheap plastic cameras don't come with cheap prices. Oh no. I pay premium European prices for these toys.

Then along came Hipstamatic. For a mere 99 cents I uploaded this app onto my iPhone. For a little more I added different electronic "lenses" and "films." Suddenly, my iPhone is like a dozen toy cameras all rolled into one. No need to rely on plastic lenses, the distortion is built into the programming. The prints come out already scratched and blurry. I love using Hipstamatic in a pinch. The results are to my liking. But they're so much less satisfying than the pics from my plastic cameras.

When it comes to hobbies, I'm a process guy more than a results guy. Examples? - I build my own furniture when I can buy a better product at Ikea for less money. I'm more interested in how movies are made than how entertaining they are. I tinker with the finest magician's apparatus (you call them "tricks") but I don't perform them well.

Sometimes I fool myself into thinking that the right camera, the right tools, or the right equipment will make me happier but "Much of the beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium" - Henri Mattisse. For me, it's not the results, it's the attempt. I've also realized that Mattisse's words "limited medium" apply equally to my tools and to my imagination but I still plug along. Luckily, I have a wife who is not bothered by my distractions. She pats me on the head and says, "That's nice."

If you put a thousand Doug Nelson's with a thousand plastic cameras in a room, then maybe, just maybe one truly beautiful picture might arise. I'll let you know when that happens.

PS - The top pic was taken with a Diana Mini, 400 speed Kodak color film, punched-up a little using Picasa. I shot it two months ago and developed it last week. The bottom pic was taken the same day as the top pic using the Hipstamatic app. It "arrived" instantly.

Snowy Surprise

When Christian was 2 1/2 his world revolved around Thomas the Train. I only have myself to blame. No, I take that back. I blame Heather one hundred percent. Sure, I made him a table for his train set but she bought him those incessantly cheerful Thomas videos. His favorite? Thomas' Snowy Surprise. He must have watched that plucky Thomas pull his friends out of an avalanche a dozen times before a lightbulb went off in his head - baby powder looks like snow. He dumped an entire bottle all over his train set and down the front of his outfit. Thomas' Snowy Surprise just became Mommy's Snowy Nightmare. Actually, it was so funny that we couldn't stop laughing during the "perp walk" (when we snapped this photo).

Another Holgarific Post

Here's another Holgaroid taken maybe two years ago. Christian and his cousin Annicka at Mimi and Papi's cabin in Mt. Shasta. Okay, so the tree and the house are crooked and Christian's foot disappears at the bottom of the photo. To those unfamiliar with the Holga you might ask why so many obvious mistakes? Any amateur with a digital camera and a little sense could frame a better photo. Well, there is nothing automatic with the Holga. Funny enough, it does have a switch for day and night settings but if you take it apart you learn that the switch is not connected to anything. Flip the switch and nothing, I tell you nuttin' happens. Also, the viewfinder is mounted on top of the camera and does not look through the lens. Even if it did, the Polaroid back covers the viewfinder.

Remember the basement scene from Silence of the Lambs where Clarice is in pitch black and the serial killer Jame Gumb is stalking her with night vision goggles? Gumb sees Clarice stumbling around, eyes dialated, shaking her gun in front of her. Well, that's how it feels to shoot with a Holgaroid. You're never sure what your aiming at and you're lucky if you shoot anything at all.

Holgaroid

One Christmas Heather gave me a Holga with a Polaroid back. The combo is commonly known as a "Holgaroid." With its plastic lens, strong vignetting and unpredictable light leaks, the Holga creates old looking photos from modern film. Oh sure, you could easily mimic the Holgaroids effects using PhotoShop but where's the fun in that? Sadly, Polaroid stopped producing the square peel apart film more than a year ago thereby rendering my Polaroid back useless. Here are a few of my favorite Holga shots.