Then I did my usual thing of waiting ages between taking the pics and getting them processed. Bored of waiting I went into the local snappy snaps style place and asked if they could process 120 film, and was assured they could.

Quite why, in that case, all the photos came out with strange lines and artefacts on them I have no idea – but I probably won’t use that particular place again…

Anyway, on to the point – I got the photos back this week. First up, this really hurts – partly because I have no memory of the camera coming open at any time, but mainly because I’m now utterly convinced that the photo in the middle would have been the best photo ever taken by anyone ever.

The ones either side don’t look that special, but I’m not letting that deter me from my belief. Moving swiftly on from my apparently never ending ability to make ridiculous mistakes with what is basically a very very simple camera, I did manage to get one or two that I liked. First up, hanging the camera out of the window of the safari truck I just did a hopeful shot to see what would come out.

I think this was taken on the first day, and was our first experience of what a lot of the roads in Kenya are like – red – and horribly uncomfortable. Next up, a random street scene in Kenya – like nothing I’ve ever experienced before or since.

This is a local shop – and is fairly consistent with all the other local shops you see when you aren’t in a city. Finally – out on the safari trail, a couple of shots that I feel OK about sharing:

I simply can’t understand why I didn’t take more pictures with the Holga whilst I was there – I guess I was too busy having a good time to think about it, most unlike me!

So this morning at home I finally got around to scanning in the pictures I took with my Holga whilst I was on holiday, and when I went to the balloon fiesta as well. This all happened literally months ago, so it’s testament to my awesomess that I’ve only just done anything with them.

What better to do than stick a couple up here so you can see them with your eyes! LooK! Here they are! Yay!

What these seem to show is that in Menorca, the Holga vignettes way more than anywhere else in the world – weird. Also it shows that trying to capture action with a Holga is like trying to watch Susan Boyle singing without wanting to kill yourself – impossible.

A few months ago I was contacted by Alex Tsander who asked me if I would like to do a joint exhibition of my photography alongside him and another photographer.

The theme of the exhibition was that photography doesn’t need to be complicated or require expensive digital cameras and computers.

Anyway, fast forward a few months and the exhibition opened last night and is now on at Photographique a gallery on Baldwin Street in Bristol. The exhibition is called Photo Povera and runs until 19th of November.

I’m showing some of my Holga work, Alex is showing his work, and another photographer called Clare is showing work taken on cheap Chinese “Lucky Pan” film.

I took a quick snap after hanging my photos:

There are a few more than this – I’m quite pleased with how they came out when printed large.

I had some faint hope of selling a couple, which probably won’t happen – I did however end up buying one of Clare’s photos!

So without further ado and without me bleating on pointlessly, here are them pictures.

I’ve complained in the past about the delay in getting photos from my Holga developed on these very pages, and this was no exception. I took these ages ago, and had forgotten that I took them, so when this roll showed up along with the six or seven others from Cornwall I did a little wee wee.

I just love Fuji Provia slide film, look at them colours, just look at them with your eyes.

This couple were living the life, enjoying the sun in their Bournemouth sea front beach hut. It was hard not to be jealous, but since I’m a long way off retirement I’ll just have to settle for a handful of weeks off work each year.

It was only April but the beach was packed, with everyone enjoying the good weather.

The Pier at Bournemouth. Not on fire.

So that’s all for the Holga photos from Bournemouth. Now time for a moan. I got a new PC recently, with Vista x64 loaded on it. Since it’s been available for several years now, I stupidly assumed peripheral makers would have software that works. But oh no, of course they don’t so Epson can kiss my stinky bum because I now can’t use my scanner with my PC. As a result I had to hook it up to my laptop which was both annoying and also very very annoying.

I had to wait for my blood pressure to drop before scanning in the rest of my slides. Don’t panic though, I’ll be back with more photos of beaches in Cornwall before you can say “oh crap not again”.

]]> http://www.bendobson.co.uk/2009/06/15/the-bourne-mouth-identity/feed/ 3 http://www.bendobson.co.uk/2009/03/24/having-a-bath/ http://www.bendobson.co.uk/2009/03/24/having-a-bath/#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:54:25 +0000 Ben http://www.bendobson.co.uk/blog/?p=106 So I’ve treated the wife to a day trip to bath for her 30th Birthday, and no that isn’t all I did. Bath is fun, we had a good wander around and stopped in a few pubs for beers and I took a few photos with my Holga before we went for a meal at the Hole in the Wall which isn’t a dodgy saturday night TV show with Dale Winton but rather is a nice little restaurant which serves yummy food.

Bring on the wall!

Anyway onto the photos – of two rolls I was unhappy with virtually all the results. The reason for this was that I tried to be clever and deliberately over-expose all the images. In practice what I acheived was washing them out almost completely except in about 1 case. Never mind, lesson learnt, don’t try to use bulb mode on ISO400 film in daylight.

Holga

Holga 120cfn
Pulteny Bridge, Bath
Fuji Provia 400

Holga

Holga 120cfn
Pulteny Weir, Bath
Fuji Provia 400
Manaul exposure of approx 1/3rd of a second

Also on the roll when I got it developed was this one. I’m not sure what I did but I vaguely recall putting it in bulb mode and waving it around. I like it!

Holga

Holga 120cfn
Abstract
Fuji Provia 400
Manual exposure of unknown length.

That’s all for now – BYE!

Before I loaded the first film in London, I removed the 6×6 mask from the camera. I wanted to know if it would get me slightly less uniform light fall off at the edges of the image and it did that. It’s also however given me a massive light leak as shown in most of these photos. I’m still undecided on how I feel about that but I think I like it.

Obligatory tourist shots of Trafalgar Square:

Holga

Holga 120cfn
Trafalgar Square, 10th October 2008
Fuji Provia 400

Holga

Holga 120cfn
Trafalgar Square, 10th October 2008
Fuji Provia 400

Holga

Holga 120cfn
Trafalgar Square, 11th October 2008
Fuji Provia 400

On the way to the V&A we got off at South Kensington station, and wandered the rest of the way in the sunshine, after I pressed my face up against the glass of the Lamborghini London showroom!

Holga

Holga 120 CFN
South Kensington, 11th October 2008
Fuji Provia 400

As we walked round the Victoria and Albert museum I had visions of some amazing series of images called “The V&A from the hip” but what happened was virtually every single shot was underexposed to the point of being unusuable. Ho hum.

Still, using a statue as a makeshift tripod (no tripods allowed in the V&A) I managed this one with a manual (approximate) 3 second exposure.

Holga

Holga 120cfn
V&A Museum, 11th October 2008
Fuji Provia 400
Manual 3 second exposure on bulb mode

Outside was a different story, as I shot off a couple of frames in the John Madejski Garden. I then decided I’d try once more at a panoramic shot with the Holga. This failed miserably last time I tried it, but I sat there working it all out first, then had a crack. Click to re-bigulate this.

Holga

Holga 120cfn
John Madejski Garden, V&A Museum, 11th October 2008
Fuji Provia 400

I loaded some colour negative film into the camera for the last roll, to give myself a break from all the E6 slide film I’ve been using recently. I’m not sure what this is supposed to be though.

Holga

Holga 120cfn
South Kensington Tube Station, 11th October 2008
Kodak Portra 400

On the final day in London I had a couple of frames to finish off the film so as we walked to the tube to head back to Paddington I shot off the last few.

Holga

Holga 120cfn
Covent Garden
Kodak Portra 400

The colours from the Kodak Portra just look flat and lifeless after the Provia. As the Provia was about 5 years out of date and the Portra was brand new, it doesn’t say much for the Kodak film. Luckily I still have 20 or so rolls of Fuji E6 film to work my way through.

If you don’t know what a Holga is, it’s basically a camera made of plastic. How exciting! If you don’t know what a steam fair is, it’s basically a fair, made of steam, oh wait…

All three of these photos were taken on Fuji Provia 400ISO, with the Holga set on it’s highly technical “cloudy” setting.

Holga

Holga 120cfn
Carters Steam Fair
Fuji Provia 400

Holga

Holga 120cfn
Carters Steam Fair
Fuji Provia 400

Panning with a Holga, I never thought it would work but it did!

Holga

Holga 120cfn
Carters Steam Fair
Fuji Provia 400
Look at that piggy! Oink!

It’s now been just under a year since I got the Holga. In that year I’ve put through about 15 or 20 rolls of 120 film of varying types and vintages. A lot of people dislike the vignetting and out of focus areas that you get with a Holga, not to mention the light leaks. I’m the opposite, and infact that’s probably the only complaint I have with my copy, it doesn’t vignette enough, it doesn’t leak enough light, and the focus is too consistent across the frame.

I’m considering beating it up a bit to see if that makes a difference! I’ve seen various cheats such as deliberately unwinding the film a bit once it’s finished and on the roll, so that’s one option to fix the light leaks. I suppose I could smear some grease on the lens as well!

All in all my love affair with the Holga continues, and while things could be better, I’m not looking for a divorce yet!

This turns out to have been a perfect example of almost everything it is possible to get wrong with a Holga, so what better way to deal with my failure than by putting it on the internet for all to see?

Error 1.) Leaving the camera in “bulb” mode and over exposing the first two frames. oops.

Error 2.) Trying to do a panoramic with a Holga but not advancing the film enough or moving the camera enough. oops.

Error 3.) Not securing the back of the camera allowing it to open and expose the film and ruin it. oops

Error 4.) Assuming the whole film was ruined when in fact I only needed to advance it 2 frames and could easily have used the rest. oops.

The only thing I didn’t get wrong was I managed to remember to set the focus correctly. So, one full roll of film, and processing costs, and all I have to show for it is one frame of the pier burning, which isn’t even that good anway. Curses!

The next two rolls I shot with the Holga were processed at the same time and have all come out great. I blame my pier fire errors on the fact that it was early in the morning and I was still half asleep!