Category: Holga

Mystery Solved!

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.

Seattle Holga Photos

Here are some of the photos I took with my Holga when we were in Seattle.

Nephew D at the beach.

Sister-in-law Mindy with solemn niece C.

The skyline as seen from the dock at Ivar’s Salmon House.
Eating there and feeding the ducks french fries is a family tradition. (N and I had our wedding luncheon there.)

I’m pretty sad about my Holga. I think it might have gotten banged up during the trip because for half of the rolls I shot the shutter seems to have stayed open longer than it should have and they’re kind of washed out and blurry. Some of the shots still turned out pretty cool, though. I’ll post some of them later.

I couldn’t wait

I just picked up the photos I shot with my Holga at Goblin Valley. I was planning on posting a bunch of them next week but I couldn’t wait to share this one.


It’s one of my favorite shots of the bunch but it was exciting to see how all of the photos turned out. It made me realized how much I’ve missed the surprises that come from shooting with film. I’ll post some more of the Holga photos next week.

Have a great weekend!

B&W Holga Cherry Blossoms

Last week I noticed that the cherry trees in an orchard by my house were blooming. So I took along my Holga camera and on the way home from the gym I took a few photos. I used black and white film and so they came out a bit moody looking.



There was a large cloud of bees buzzing around the trees. Even though the orchard’s on a fairly busy road, the bees’ buzzing was loud enough to drown out the sound of the passing traffic. The sky was sunny and bright and it was a lovely spring day.

My New Holga

N gave me this Holga camera kit as a Christmas gift which I was really excited about.

The Holga is basically the cheapest medium format camera you can get. You can get just the camera for under $40. The main reason they’re so cheap is because they’re made entirely out of plastic, including the lens. The Holga was created in China during the early 1980s for the purpose of providing an inexpensive camera for the masses. But since then it’s grown into kind of a cult-item. The hipster rhetoric behind them can get kind of silly (apparently it will “make you see beauty when you thought it had disappeared forever”) but but they do take interesting, otherworldly pictures.

These are from the first roll I shot. There were some light leaks onto the film because one of the foam blocks that cushions the film spool came loose and got wrapped up inside the film. (Apparently the Holga’s cheap reputation is well deserved.)




All hype aside, the Holga is really a just a cheap toy camera. But it’s a very fun cheap toy camera. Pick one up if you want to explore lo-fi film photography.