Van in the Sand

Sand Dive

On the beach (in the beach?) at the Jersey shore.

Old Boats

The image looks I think like it was taken a century ago. The boat hasn't been there that long, but I do know it hasn't moved from the side of the house in years.

Feed Me

Boat for sale, Long Beach Island, New Jersey

The Shed

Back in Jersey. There's a little boating and fishing community in Barnegat Light, and whenever I go back I swing by and check out this little shack by the bay. Hate to keep harping on the focus/blur issue with this camera, but this is one that I think would have looked OK no matter how well the camera performed. Next time, will try and shoot it in color - lots of nice rust, peeling paint.

Bayside, Jersey Shore

There are times when I can't decide whether to stomp on this plastic contraption or swear I'll never use another camera. For all the frustration it gives me - even on this roll, where some images I needed sharp are wobbly - I suppose the pleasure of the Holga is in never knowing what you'll get. There is something about conceiving an image and waiting, letting it take shape in your memory as you await the film to come back from processing, that's very satisfying. More satisfying, though in a different way, than the immediacy of the digital camera.

What More Can You Ask?

A few weeks of travel here and there - both East and West coasts - resulted in a bunch of interesting stuff, so posting ought to be more frequent in the coming days (like to leave posts up a day or two to let them mellow before moving on...)

This is one of those favorite images. A glass lens might have yielded a sharper image, but for this image I'd rather have this rendering (and no, it's not flipped, just the way the wind was blowing).

Am in the process of adding some Holga-related links, but Blogger has been a little balky, so hope to have that together in the next few days.

Oh, You're Fickle

This first image was shot in Washington, D.C., on a recent trip. Crisp, clear, very un-Holga if you ask me. That said, it's a pleasant surprise. So what am I to think of the next image, shot days later with the same camera, same film type (Fuji Pro 160s) but a different roll? There are a couple black-and-white rolls still to come back from processing, and I'm anxious to see how they fared...

Fiddling Around

Most everything I post here is pretty straightforward: I scan the print (or contact sheet, as the case may be) and post full frame images. I was noodling around, though, and was prompted to try stretching some of the Holga images in Photoshop. This one, shot at the Jersey Shore last summer, seemed ripe for pulling out from the original's square. Probably won't post a lot of these, like to play it straight, but thought the effect of adding to the distortion around the edges was a nice enhancement of the Holga's innate weaknesses (and appeal).

High Flyer

Sharp enough to pick up the footprints in the sand, the grassy ledge of the dune and even a bit of the houses in the background, but not enough to see the string holding the kite.

Sand Trap

This is one from a couple summers ago. Liked the texture of the sand, the shadow and the motion.

The Crawl

The beach offers a lot of opportunity with the Holga - the softness of the sand and water coupled with the soft focus of the plastic lens. This horseshoe crab was scampering across the beach in front of me and, since they are usually only on the beach in their deceased state, I was lucky to capture it.