Hello there! How are we all holding up out there? Lockdown 3.0 here in the UK has definitely been a challenge - one of the things I miss most is being able to shoot portraits. Of course we have to stay safe and follow the rules until this pandemic is under control but I’m really looking forward to the day when we can re-connect and get shooting again!!
I am so glad that I managed to get a shoot organised with Danni in between Lockdowns - for this one I wanted to take my Holga out for a spin! I love using the Holga for it’s quirky otherworldly randomness but I’ve never used it for portraiture and I was very excited to try it out.
Given the tendency for the Holga to produce unexpected results (which is one of its major strengths and/or weakness) I wanted to hedge my bets so I brought along a trusty Spotmatic loaded with a roll of Portra 400 and sporting a Helios 44M lens too (I’ll do a seperate write up on those images) because I needn’t have worried! I flipping well love the results!
It is worth saying at this stage hats off to the beautiful Danni - not only is she an amazing model who is wonderful to work with but she is quite happy to trudge through loads of mud on a bitterly cold winters day in a sparkly dress! :)
The Holga has a very primitive focussing system so to help achieve something anywhere near critical focus I used a tape measure and measured out approximately 3ft for shots that were a closest focussing - this is all pretty much guesswork anyway since the viewfinder is not coupled to the lens so the less hung up about critical focus the better, but then that’s the joy of shooting Holga’s right?!
I had a bit of a senior moment after the shoot when I thought that I may have nocked one of the very few controls on the Holga - the buttong which switches between ‘bulb’ and ‘normal’ shooting - so to take account of the potential variations in shutterspeed from standard issue Holga style ‘who knows what’ to literally it could be anything ‘who knows what’ I semi stand developed the film in Kodak HC110 for 1 hour in 1:100 dilution with a little shimmy shake at 30 mins.
Judging by the results it looks like I didn’t actually nock the bulb button but anyway I love the results - the semi stand process gave me some extra punchy images :)
Using the tape measure to get in the ball park with focussing I think is a must at least until you get your eye in and given that you only get 12 shots per roll and it’s a bit of a faff to unload/load the holga on location (mainly cos of all the black electrical tape holding it together) i would err on the side of caution. This shoot definitely made me want to rush out and buy ANOTHER Holga just so I could burn a couple of rolls without the hassle of reloading but myabe that’s just G.A.S talking!
Really love these images they just have a certain ‘something’ don’t they? The Holga is an exercise in limitation and simplicity - unencumbered by dials, menus and controls it’s just you, a roll of film, a plastic lens and your imagination. Perfect!