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.

Slightly Crisp Holga 135BC Photos

Found these photos in my Holga 135BC. I took them Summer 2009 at Knott's Soak City. I used Kodak slide film and asked that it be processed using print film chemicals. Cross-processing Kodak amps up the yellows and reds making the pictures feel more, I dunno, Summer-y. If I'm shooting at night, I prefer cross-processing Fuji slide film because it results in more intense greens and blues.

Holga rama

My second set of Holga 135 photos. I love the photo of Christian jumping through the rope. Holgas make persons look different. The photo of Heather below doesn't capture the real Heather. Some people would say that a camera that can't accurately capture a person's likeness is not worth the plastic its made of. I disagree. I like the surprise.

The First Holga 135BC Pics

Heather gave me a Holga 135 BC for Christmas. BC is for "Bent Corners", a mask on the interior which produces vignetting on the edges of the photograph. Its a minimalist plastic camera with no light meter, a poor viewfinder, light leaks, and two f-stops. It purposefully takes "bad photos" which are my favorite kind. I prefer my old peel-apart Polaroids (see below) for their instant gratification, but the Polaroid camera requires a degree of setup that the Holga does not. Just pick up the Holga, guess whether the light is right, try and frame the picture, and then shoot, shoot, and shoot again.