So earlier this week I was really sad because I thought I had busted my Holga. I assumed something was wrong with the shutter was because half of the pictures I shot in WA came out blurred and washed out. (Before I posted them here I upped the contrast on the shots below in Photoshop to help them out a bit.)
A nephew at the beach.
Ghost deer!
And ghost buffalo.But then I googled “Holga shutter problem” and found a discussion board where someone was posting about the same issue. And someone asked the guy if he had accidentally switched the camera from “normal” to “bulb” mode (where the shutter stays open as long as you hold down the button). As soon as I read that I ran upstairs and looked at my camera and sure enough the switch on the bottom was set on bulb. Sigh.
I had some mixed feelings: I was really happy my camera wasn’t broken but pretty regretful that so many of my pictures were affected by my oversight. Ah well. Part of the charm of the Holga is that you never know what you’re going to get and I like the way that the above photos turned out. I think they look kind of mysterious and old-timey. I might even set the camera on bulb to get this effect on purpose in the future.
But either way you can bet your pants that I’m going to double-check that switch from now on.