I bought my first Holga on a trip to New York in 2007, along with a lomo fisheye, and have been hooked on toy cameras ever since. This is when and how I rediscovered my love of basic, film photography.

It is my Holga that I always carry in my handbag, but I also have a bag full of other toy cameras in my car boot, along with all the films I may need. I very rarely plan a shoot, more often than not I will see something as I’m driving and pull over to explore the area with a camera. I love to walk and sit in the fresh air, searching for something that will catch my eye.

Other favourites of mine are my Holga wide-angle pinhole, Fisher Price 35mm, my Kodak Brownie 127 and an underwater 35mm.  I love the unpredictability and the varied outcomes from each and every film I shoot, not to mention the quirky designs of toy cameras.

The majority of my images so far were taken around the Cheshire countryside where I live, in Manchester and in Austria. My favourite subjects to shoot are usually outside, stationary and unable to talk, so people rarely feature in my images! Instead, I search for the beauty that can be found in every landscape.

Some of my personal favourites, shown here, are ones taken on a 3-month trip to Austria and were taken with my Holga in some of my favourite places.

You can find more images at….

http://www.flickr.com/photos/suzybrooke3/

http://suzannebrooke.carbonmade.com/

…and hopefully some day on my website www.suzannebrooke.co.uk

I work as a picture editor at a sports photography agency and before that worked in a similar role in a daily newspaper.

I carry a camera with me at all time, even when I’m just popping out to the shop. I’ll shoot anything, anytime. To me, there is no such thing as the perfect moment, that so many photographers wait for. What allows them to decide when a moment is perfect?

When you detach yourself completely from the subject you allow any captured moment be perfect. People don’t need to know the back story about when and where a photograph was made, so as to understand it better. A captured moment should be free to be a stand alone moment that can be interpreted freely by all who look on it.

What drives me about analogue photography and plastic lenses is that it allows for endless experimentation, from shooting through to processing. 

My first love is my Diana but I also shoot with a Lomo Smena 8M, a couple of SLRs and other toy cameras including a robot mutli-lens plastic action sampler.

I also like to make pinhole cameras out of paper.

www.analoguepaul.com

As you’re here, I let you in on a little secret:  my friendship with film photography is actually still very new – like that dating period with romantic ideas of mix-tapes, chocolates and flowers – you know, the very exciting kind of new.

The fascination started when I moved to the UK about six years ago. Everything was so different, new and exciting; I just needed to collect those moments and turn them into a story.  Digital photography just didn’t quite hit the spot, so I went out and bought every single-use camera I could find. Just imagine the faces of the shop assistants when I bought batches of those little magical things. Well, after a year of documenting my world in dreamy, sometimes soft, sometimes harsh and quite often out of focus photographs – “TAH-DAH “- an obsession was born. Intrigued to experiment and learn more, I borrowed a Pentax ME Super and shot and developed roll after roll after roll of black and white film.

It all really kicked off in 2007 when I held my first medium format camera in college – a Mamiya, even the name sounded too good to be true.  From that moment on, I knew I had to get my hands on one of those. I was completely hooked the minute I had developed my first roll of 120 film.

So I bought a Holga.
And then I bought a Seagull TLR, followed by another Holga, and several Brownies … well, let’s leave it here for now – ‘obsession’ might be just the word…
And since September 2009, I also have my own Mamiya – yay!

When I’m out shooting, I usually have my Holga and my mobile phone with me, as you never know what might pop in front of your lens. I prefer to shoot medium format, but love to have a play with any film format I can get my hands on.

You can catch me shooting black and white film, the grainier the film the better, but colours equally fascinate me. Oh, and the occasional cross-processing is just the perfect opportunity to let the photography take over.

You can find more about me and my work on my website http://www.touchingwetpaint.com or my blog http://roomb100.tumblr.com

I’m Kirsty, from Brighton, UK. I’m a Graphic design student currently taking a year out from studying before moving to Wales next year to complete my degree.

I have loved art and being creative for as long as I can remember, whether it was through drawing or painting, or taking photographs.

I took photography classes at college, where I got my first SLR film camera. Soon after, a friend introduced me to lomography and lo-fi cameras, claiming it was something I’d be interested in. I invested in an action sampler as soon as I could get my hands on one!

Since then film photography has been a passion I fill my spare time with, my favourite part is experimenting and just enjoying taking photos of people and places I love, although I don’t strictly limit myself to any particular subject.

Recently I’ve been using my Demekin 110 fisheye camera, it produces that dream like effect to it’s full potential and is so small you can take it everywhere!

The newest toy camera in my collection is a vintage 80’s model Konica pop, it’s lovely to use and I’m looking forward to posting film from it.

I only use expired film because I personally think it’s more interesting, and I enjoy the uncertainty of its results. I’ve just bought some slide film to cross process so I’m looking forward to experimenting with that!

www.flickr.com/photos/nogutsnoglory

Tread knows that photographs are a form of reference. Where you were, who
was there, what you were doing. But on occasion, as art, photographs
transcend mere reference and like a great song, can make that moment
“something more.” That “something more” is the ongoing motivation for Tread
and his work.

A self-taught photographer and self-proclaimed smart-ass. When not wasting
film in musty, archaic, plastic toy cameras, long sleepless nights are spent
watching bad movies with titles like “The World’s Greatest Sinner” and
“Blood Feast.” These bad movies and their zero budget cinematography, no
doubt, have influenced Tread’s work in some way, but so has fellow
Kentuckian Ralph Eugene Meatyard.

Black & White and Color photography, captured non-digitally, printed
traditionally using (gasp) silver and paper.

Tread is an artist, educator, soccer-dad, former rock star and talk radio
host and he likes to write words about pictures.

All the very smart and sexy people stop by http:/www.gotreadgo.com to check
Tread’s work. They also find themselves regulars of his daily musings and
toy camera images at http://gotreadgo.blogtog.com.

I live in Ruzafa’s district in Valencia. Spain. I love the photography,  I adore  film.

I rediscovered the photography approximately 5 years ago. Already 10 years had passed since I bought the last roll for a camera. But my interest to find a method of artistic expression returned to me. I needed a “support” to drive my writing, my words, the poetry of the world around me, and I realized that what I needed had always been with me.

Plastic lenses, single speeds. Cheap cameras, antique trinkets. These are the tools I use for my artistic expression. To accompany my poems, my short stories. I was fascinated to see how an imperfect lens can show life and how different film emulsions can help to tell stories, dreams… art lies towards life.

Currently, my photographic equipment consists of a handful of Holga’s, Diana’s & clones, vintage cameras, polaroids, and a few crappy cameras that have cost me only a few cents. I like the world of the expired film. And the surprising and random results of the emulsions that went on to better life 30 or 40 years ago.

I also modify and fabricate cameras. Develop myself too much of the film I use. I love this handcrafted part of the photography. I love to experiment, discover and learn. But my work is a search.

I am currently working in a group to launch a new book about toy cameras  “Toy Cam. Lo-Fi photography ” ( you can follow their progress in http://toycamerabook.com ) and in a book of short stories and photos.

You can see more things on my blog; http://elbufondelear.blogspot.com and soon on my website; http://www.blurrystuff.com

]]> http://www.holgablog.com/2010/04/20/introducing-jose-manuel-madrona/feed/ 0 http://www.holgablog.com/2010/04/12/hi-im-sheena-and-i-heart-cameras/ http://www.holgablog.com/2010/04/12/hi-im-sheena-and-i-heart-cameras/#comments Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:17:21 +0000 Sheena http://www.holgablog.com/?p=3034 Currently a resident of Calgary, Alberta, I learned the basics of photography in 2003, but that wasn’t where my love of photography began – that was just where I started to hone in on the tricks of the trade and really learn how to make use of a camera. I have the same beginner-photographer stories as everybody else (‘I took all the family photo’s on a trip to Germany on my mom’s Minolta when I was 16,’ or ‘I shot 12 whole rolls of film on a 10-day trip to England and Ireland in 11^th grade’ – both true), but back then I never really had the slightest clue how to take the image I was seeing in my head and create it in my camera frame. I was always content to settle for whatever happened to appear on my negatives when I picked them up from the one-hour down the street. I never thought that it would be okay to try more than one angle to photograph something I liked – it always seemed like a costly waste of film…that was, until I applied for school – journalism major, mind you, but that quickly changed to journalism with photo major. That was when my little hobby overtook me and became daily routine. Now ‘wasting film’ or ‘over-shooting’ are no longer a part of my vocabulary. I am a shutterbug and I’m certainly no longer afraid to fire off what others would call ‘too many’ frames.

Since learning photography on a digital body, I have taken a step back and fallen crazy in love with film, and in having total control of the image-making process. I process my own black and white film and do my own printing in my darkroom at home. I like having full artistic control over my work all the way from capturing my images to displaying them. It gives me a warm sense of accomplishment knowing I created my work from start to completion.

My dad once challenged me to take the Photoshop tricks I had learned in school and try to do them in-camera, rather than relying on my computer to polish and perfect my images. That was the moment I turned my back on digital and picked up an old Pentax K2 SLR film body and went out to re-teach myself how to take photos.

Lately, that old K2 is always loaded with Rollei IR and in my hands I hold my favorite camera of all, my Bronica GS-1 medium format with a nice wide 50mm lens on her. She’s heavy, she’s bulky, and she’s absolutely beautiful. Sure I have a couple of digital bodies in my bag and an arsenal of lenses for those great Alberta wildlife experiences, but I also carry a 120 Holga, a self-modified 35mm Holga, a Lubitel, and Super Ricohflex, and most recently a Diana Mini – what a brilliant little camera! When I go out shooting, I can’t seem to limit myself to one camera, so I tend to just toss them all in my truck, you know, just in case. After so many years, I have learned not to limit myself artistically, and to always come prepared for absolutely everything I can hope the world will throw my way. Guaranteed, I’m going to want to capture it a hundred different ways and share it with everyone I can.

I love photography and I love words – so I put the two together, and I do what I love. For the curious, my work can be found on my web site at www.sheenairenephoto.com where I have a gallery full of assorted albums featuring images from my travels to Scotland, England, Ecuador, Napo Wildlife Reserve and the enchanting Galapagos Islands, as well as wildlife and scenery from across the Alberta prairies and the Rocky Mountains. You can also find/follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.

Rowley, Alberta, Canada

This is me...

I’ll get it out of the way first: I love film. There, I said it. I feel better.

Hi, my name is Jim and I am a toy camera junkie. I have taken them apart, remade them, made new ones and even (gasp!) attached a holga lens to my digital SLR. Film is my first photographic love, but I do understand the need for digital: people are lazy. Don’t get me wrong, i am probably the laziest man out there, ( i am sitting in my pjs, on a tuesday afternoon, at home, on the couch) but there is something to be said about planning your shots, developing the film and printing them. In other words, being involved from start to finish. Alright, time to get off the soapbox and tell you a little about myself.

I take pictures..lots of pictures. Most of my cameras are older then I am, with the exception of maybe 6. I love getting my hands dirty with fix, cyanotype and even the strange goo that comes off of an instant print when you do an emulsion lift. Very rarely will I leave the house without some form of camera. I am a completely hopeless photonerd. OK, so that tells you a little about what I like to do, but what about the man? Well, to start, I am a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a taco kept safe inside of a darkbag.

Right, so for real, I was educated at the University of Saskatchewan (Canada), where the main stream was veterinary medicine and farming. Amongst all of this, they had a pretty sweet darkroom and I spent the better part of 4 years in it.  I still miss the late night print runs and the janitors coming in and kicking me out. From there, it has really grown out of control, I mean really out of control. I started out simply, with an AE-1, but that wasn’t enough. Exacta, Graflex, Rollei, Bronica, it kept snowballing. Then I discovered the toy camera and let me tell you, the problem became an issue, the issue an obsession and finally it all grew into an addiction.

Every now and then, I’ll come out of my film induced stupor  just long enough to teach basic photography at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, also known as SAIT, but then will quickly crawl back into it with renewed fervor. I also teach folks how to use their cameras better and how to set up darkrooms.

I am a full fledged photonerd. There is nothing that can be done.

twitter www.jimslobodian.com facebook

]]> http://www.holgablog.com/2010/04/10/hello-film-its-me-jim/feed/ 2