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Image of the Week: Skylar, Nantahala, North Carolina, June, 2007

I've always prided myself on using the latest and highest quality gear and techniques in my photography. I spend hours on the preparation and the execution of an image to insure maximum sharpness and clarity, as well as a lot of time at the computer editing raw images to find the few (or single!) frames from a shoot that really worked.

That is, unless I'm shooting with a Holga.

Developed as a cheap way for the average Chinese citizen to engage in the burgeoning hobby of photography, the Holga has enjoyed a surge of Western popularity during the last few years. Basically, it's a toy camera that leaks light like a screen door. The plastic meniscus lens is barely sharp in the center and looks like it's coated with Vaseline in the corners. Unlike your swanky DSLR or digital Point & Shoot, you look through a viewfinder and not through the lens itself, so focusing is a guessing game. Shooting with a wide range of two shutter speeds (1/100 and Bulb) and two apertures (ƒ/8 and ƒ/11), it records blurry, flare-ridden images on 120 medium format film.

So, why do people like it?

There's a certain panache to the low-fidelity output of the Holga. It's retro-chic. A number of amateur and professional photographers find the flaws to be aestheically pleasing. The Holga produces an image "out of the box" that many shooters would spend hours in Photoshop trying to emulate. I like it because it's freeing, and every image I shoot with it can be a wonderful surprise, or a crushing failure.

This week's image is one of Skylar, the daughter of some close friends who recently accompanied Amy and I on a vacation to the mountains of North Carolina. A true child of the digital age, Skylar was sneaking peaks at the back of my Holga to see the image I had just shot. She was disappointed to learn my obsolete toy doesn't feature an instant image preview.

Is this week's image a wonderful surprise, or crushing failure? Let me know what you think.

Technical Data

Using a Nikon SB-26 hotshoe flash in Auto Mode to fill in the heavily backlit scene, I exposed the frame of Kodak Tri-X 400 in the Holga's Bulb mode for approximately 1 second at ƒ/8. I developed the film in 1:25 Rodinal for 7 minutes at 68°. The film was scanned on an Epson 4990 and warm-toned in Adobe Lightroom before printing on an Epson 3800.

Other Images of the Week

Buffalo, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming Elk skeleton on the banks of the Madison River, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming Winter Sun, Middlebury, Vermont Mike Kennard and the Lake Champlain Bridge, Chimney Point, Vermont Tiffany, Middlebury, Vermont Nora, Plattsburgh, New York Carrizo Badlands Sunset, Anza-Borrego State Park, California
Ocotillo Shadow on Abandoned Cabin, Anza-Borrego Desert, California, silver gelatin print South Fork Cascade Creek and 'The Wall', Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming Utah Juniper, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, Palladium Print Nicole Grainger riding Oxford, Middlebury, Vermont (Palladium Print) December Snow I, Middlebury, Vermont Bedroom, Homer Noble Farm, Ripton, Vermont Deer Skull, Citronelle, Alabama, Palladium Print
Boulders in swiftly moving stream, Weybridge, Vermont Sunset and Moonrise at Table Mountain, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming Moonrise and Abandoned Trailers, Anza-Borrego Desert, California UVM Mallory, Morgan Horse Farm, Weybridge, Vermont, Palladium Print Abandoned Cabin, Anza-Borrego Desert, California Melissa and Parker, Columbia, South Carolina Old Stone Row in Winter, Middlebury, Vermont
Worth Mountain Ski Lift in a Snowstorm, Middlebury College Snow Bowl, Green Mountains, Vermont Farmer and Pilot Ed Peet, Cornwall, Vermont Birches, Middlebury, Vermont Mountain Palm Springs, Anza-Borrego Desert, California Bullseye, Citronelle, Alabama Lunging UVM Orlando, Morgan Horse Farm, Weybridge, Vermont Barns IV, Middlebury, Vermont
Fallen Tree in the Creek, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming Blacksmith Lee Beckwith, Weybridge, Vermont Snow Angel, Middlebury, Vermont Slack Line, Middlebury, Vermont Coffee Splash Barns III, Middlebury, Vermont Beulah in the Carrizo Badlands, Anza-Borrego Desert, California
Chapel of the Transfiguration, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming Cross-Country Runner Alexandra Krieg, Middlebury, Vermont Horse Bath, Morgan Horse Farm, Weybridge, Vermont Whitney, Citronelle, Alabama The North Window from Turret Arch, Arches National Park, Utah Jeff, Middlebury College, Vermont Hostas II, Middlebury, Vermont
Hikers in Coyote Gulch I, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah Ocotillo Shadow, Abandoned Cabin, Anza-Borrego State Park, California Moonlit Palms, Anza-Borrego State Park, California Park Avenue, Arches National Park, Utah Ashton and Whitney, Citronelle, Alabama Steven Halladay Road III
Fall colors and ivy-covered wall, Middlebury College, Vermont Maple Tree, Middlebury, Vermont Jesse Hamner at Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone NP Aon Center from Millenium Park, Chicago Mountain Biking I Boulders II, Canyonlands National Park, Utah Hosta Leaves
Joe The Pour Skylar

Skylar, Nantahala, North Carolina, June, 2007. Click on image to view larger.
All images and graphics © 2005-2012 Brett Simison, All Rights Reserved.
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