Holga Blog

Contributions by Andrew, Edward, Veronica and Dave.

Looking through flickr, there are photo trends, that is to say there are subjects that creep up all the time, especially in the field of toy camera photography. Some say have been done to death, most are clichéd, but that doesn’t matter, they are a requisite if you are starting out in photography!

Everyone should have these photos in their flickr photostream: they are classics, many people try to avoid doing them, but GIVE IN, JOIN US and submit to the lure of the subject-o’-choice.

This article takes a light-hearted look at some of these subjects/processes, and celebrates their glory!!

1.Ferris Wheels

Ferris Wheels and Toy cameras seem to just fit together. Ever since the dawn of toy camera photography people have been snapping photos of ferris wheels. Why? What drives people to carnivals to take 20 photos of these giant wheels? It’s the colours on offer, the spectacle, the sheer scale, whether night or day you always get interesting photos.

There’s also a logistical matter..Ferris wheel shots are getting much more prolific due to city councils deciding that every Christmas they need a ‘winter carnival’, so towns & cities throughout the land get their very own ferris wheel.

So if you see a ferris wheel, take a photo! Who cares if it’s cliched ( there’s even a ‘No Ferris Wheels‘ Flickr group!) , you need one!

Look Further

1.Over 125,000 Ferris Wheel Photos on Flickr

2.10 Unboring Ferris Wheels on oobject

3.Night Photography Tutorial by jeff wignall

2.Motorway/Highway at night

Better known as setting up for a mugging, these shots involve standing very still near a dark motorway for several seconds or minutes. If you’re patient and still enough, you will be rewarded with a great long exposure shot, hopefully including lines of headlights. If you’re lucky enough, someone will pick your billfold or cell phone while you’re focused straight ahead and you’ll have a great time explaining to the police why, exactly, you were out on a dark overpass in the middle of the night, completely unaware of your surroundings.

Some things to note: if you are resting your camera on a bridge wall, try to avoid getting the wall in the shot (like above..doh!), and try to pick a time when you have more than 3 cars go past (not like above..double doh).

Look Further

1.Over 26,000 Highway@Night photos on Flickr

2.How To Not Get Mugged on discardedlies.com

3.The Green Cross Code, starring Darth Vader

3.Friends at parties with flash (colour optional)

In this digital age, when punters go out for a night out, they immediately reach for their digital compact to record the evening’s entertainment as Alan from Sales gets giggity with Julie from accounting (is it just me or does everyone’s accounting department have someone called Julie?).  There is an alternative however…film!  There are a few good reasons for film at parties.

The first being it’s a great talking point.  Don’t know many people at your christmas party? Take a film camera, the bigger and crappier the better (Holga is great for these situations).  It’s a fantastic ice breaker(or they may just look at you like Quasimodo and never speak to you again). Secondly, The photo quality is great, especially with a flash.  The colours are fab and the drunker you get, the more chance of fouling up and getting double exposure happy accidents.  Thirdly, it’s funny watching drunk people keep absolutely still while you take a long exposure due to the batteries in your flash dying.

Take your film camera out at least on one night out, you’ll be surprised with the results.

Look Further

1.The Holga Party Group on Flickr

2.Surviving the office Christmas Party on Communication Coach

3.Recipes on besthangovercure.com

4.Sprocket Hole stuff

Ok, yeah, this isn’t actually a subject, rather a technique, but it’s worth trying at least once.  Whether you use a converted Holga, or a camera that can handle 35mm sprocket hole stuff natively (something like a Blackbird, Fly would be good, but expensive). Sprocket holes can really complement a photo with the strong colours (which can be red and yellow amoungst others) and sprocket holes, framing and complementing the subject.   You do have to be careful though, never let the holes and the colours become the main subject of the photo.  It doesn’t work with every shot, but if you think about what you want to shoot, they can come out great!

Look Further

1.35mm Sprocket Holes group on Flickr

2.Holga 35mm Modification Video on Squarefrog

3.35mm Advance guide for various cameras on Photon Detector

5.Graffiti

Again, as with Ferris Wheels, there seems to be a certain lure with graffiti to ‘lo fi’ photographers.  It’s probably down to the converging paths of the outsider principles. Whatever it is, you need to take some graffiti shots!!

Getting good shots of graffiti is difficult however.  Do you just take a photo of the graffiti on the wall? Do you frame it with something else? Do you wait for someone to walk by it?  You are also documenting someone elses art (can that be art itself?), so do you just take a photo if it without any interference?  Everyone has a different opinion.I personally like the graffiti to be complemented with something else such as a person walking,by an unexpected incident, or framed a bit differently.

Look Further

1.STREETART group on Flickr

2.How to photograph Graffiti on photo.net

3.Banksy Street Art locations on zeemaps

6.Dilapidated Buildings

Using old film cameras right?  Then get yourself to an old building.  It makes sense, shoot old stuff with old cameras.  The buildings can look amazing with the right light, and create an unforgettable images.  Take care when inside old buildings, and try not to trespass.  From a technical point of view, try using slow film (ISO100), and longer exposures to reveal the detail and colour embedded in the structure of the crumbling relic.

Look Further

1.Urbex group on Flickr

2.Urban Exploration Locations on Forbidden-Places

3.Recommended equipment on mikeonline.ca

7.Trees Trees Trees

There are a few different types of tree shots popular amongst photographers:

1.The lone tree shot AKA the Six Feet Under shot.  There is usually a singular lonesome tree on a hill, tortured by time and the weather (just like the tortured photographers soul, innit!). These work well on a beautiful sunny day(X Pro colour), or a miserable day (b&w).  This is a good all round option.

2.The looking straight up at trees shot. Another perennial favourite.  Just stand under the trees,point your camera skywards and take a photo.  Bonus points for lens flare or sun light streams. Great in colour or b&w.

3.The tree/trees with sun behind shot.  Simply position the sun behind the tree or trees and take your photo.  Excellent if the weather is great, you can get some brilliant shadows.

Look Further

1.Best Lonely Tree group on Flickr

2.Learn to Photograph Trees on JohnHarveyPhoto.com

3.Echo 33CC Chainsaw on Home Depot

8.Self Portraits

Stretch your arm out as far as it can go (timers are for wimps),lift up your head, tuck in your double chin, look happy/mournful/thoughtful depending on your emo level and…..click.  You will probably have a pretty rubbish self shot.  They are one of the hardest shots to get right, yet are still seen as a important photo to try at least once (although you’ll probably end up with a roll trying to get it right!).  There are lots of obstacle with old/toy film cameras and self shots, the main one is focus.  Something like a holga has to be around 3 feet away to focus at it’s closest level, so unless you are an oranguntan you may struggle.

Look Further

1.Arm’s Length Self Portrait Experience group on flickr

2.Take incredible self portraits on life hacker

3.Get that much needed facelift at Miami Plastic Surgery

9.Multiple Exposures

Modern digital cameras have done away with double exposures, which is a crying shame.  You can get great results if you either plan to or just make a mistake when forgetting to wind your camera on.  If you want to make a well planned multi-exposure of yourself (it’s always fun trying to make one of you punching yourself), use a tripod to ensure the background is in the same location.  Alternatively, great fun can be had with a film exchange, where photographers post a used film to someone else who then re-uses the film.  The results can be great.

Look Further

1.A Tale of Two Cities film exchange group on flickr

2.How to make double exposures on Experts Village (there’s a training video for that??)

3.Got a Digital Camera? Hire some twins….. or breed a two headed dog

10.Deserted Subway at Night

This is vaguely linked with the same principles as no.6 (dilapidated buildings).   They are dark, creepy and foreboding.  A perfect Saturday night date.  Armed with your camera, head down to the local cesspit (the seedier the subway station, the better), and try and grab some shots of the station, and it’s underground mutant dwellers. An essential photography subject.

Look Further

1.Lomo underground group on flickr

2.London Underground Abandoned stations on Underground History

3.How to survive subway rides on motherhood in NYC

11.The ‘Looking down at your feet’ shot.

This is an essential requirement, hell even I have a small one for my flickr buddy icon (I just wanted to show off my new shiney trainers!).  It’s dead simple too, look down, point,shoot.  You can spice things up a little by having something on the floor other than your feet, such as colour(bright is good), or an additional subject (past examples include:cat,dog,leaves,mud,snow and used rubber gloves(??) ).

Taking photos of your feet is great, but watch out for the dark underbelly of flickr if you post your photo on there.  Random strangers with no visible photos will add your foot photo as a favourite and comment how they would like to lick them.  It’s a humorous, but unfortunate side effect of taking photos of your feet (i guarentee you if you took a photo of your hairy man-foot and posted in in a foot flickr group, you would get more hits than your bestest artiest professionalist favouritist(and whatever other ‘ists’ you can think of) photo.

Look Further

1.Lomo Feet Hip Shots group on flickr

2.The darker side of flickr: Foot Fetish group on flickr

3.Pedicure Tips on pedicure-tips.com

And there you have it. 11 essential photo subjects (the snobs say clichéd, but we won’t listen to them). Grab your camera and get snapping.

How many of these do you have in your collection?Did we miss anything out? Are there other subjects everyone everyone has?Helter-Skelters? Graveyards?