The deadline for www.holgapalooza.com is just around the corner! Here is a reminder of this year’s Summer Contest Festivus!

CATEGORIES AND JUDGES:

1) “Roadside attractions” – Judge: Ted Orland
2) “Creatures” – Judge: Meg Birnbaum
3) “Nudes” – Judge: Francisco Mata Rosas

PRIZES:

Roadside Attractions
1st Place: $400 CASH, Lomography Perfect ($700 value)
2nd Place: $250 CASH, Polaroid 636 Paul Giambarda edition
3rd Place: $100 CASH, Holga Lens Kit
3x Hon. Mention: $25 Goodie bag from The Light Leaks Shop

Creatures
1st Place: $400 CASH, Rare white Digital Harinezumi
2nd Place: $250 CASH, Takara Tolne
3rd Place: $100 CASH, Holga 120 WPC
3x Hon. Mention: $25 Goodie bag from The Light Leaks Shop

Nudes:
1st Place: $400 CASH, Customized Polaroid SX-70
2nd Place: $250 CASH, Zero Image 2000 6×6
3rd Place: $100 CASH, Holga Lens Kit
3x Hon. Mention: $25 Goodie bag from The Light Leaks Shop

Regional Prizes:

Toronto: $250 Darkroom Rental Gift Certificate at Toronto Image Works
San Fransisco: $250 Workshop/Rental Gift Certificate at Rayko Photo Center

Holgapalooza 2010 Sponsors:

Four Corner Store, Holga Inspire, The Camera Store, The Photographers Gallery, Toronto Image Works, Rayko Photo Center, Pro Photo Supply, Holga Blog, and The Light Leaks Shop.

Don’t miss out on this excellent opportunity to win some prizes, have your work chosen by highly regarded Judges, and have your submission published in the next issue of Light Leaks! Click here to go directly to purchase your entry fees, and you’ll be emailed instructions on submitting!

As a bonus and to say sorry for missing a few months, we’ve added some highlights from August so far as well – scroll down to enjoy. As always, we recommend clicking through and leaving a comment on the photo page if you enjoy an image.

…and here are August’s highlights (so far):

I usually stick a paper table print-out on the back of my Holga for this job, but HolgaClicks is a rather more elegant solution (especially when I’m always forgetting to carry a pen with me). By doing the hard work for you, the app leaves you free to concentrate on taking pictures, rather than trying to remember how many ticks to add later. The user interface is simple, and easy to read, even outdoors in full sunshine. With this in mind, lets take a look round the application.

First up is the main window. At the top you find the current frame number. Below this is a click counter that tells you how much you need to wind in order to get to the next image. Once you’ve wound on, you can click the next button to advance to the next frame. If you ever make a mistake, you can click the prev button to reach the previous marker. Simple, huh?

On the rear of the application is where the magic happens – here you can set your camera (a standard 120N Holga, or  the 120WPC), the mask you’re using, and how to display units for winding on. The camera and mask combinations are as follows:

• 120N, no mask
• 120N, 6×4.5cm mask
• 120N, 6×6cm mask

• 120WPC, no mask
• 120WPC, 6×9cm mask
• 120WPC, 6×12cm mask

You can then choose to display the count in either clicks, turns fractional or turns decimal. The click method is the most accurate as the fractional/decimal turns are rounded up, meaning you may end up with more space in between images. The plus side of using turns are that it’s much easier and quicker to count – I often end up using these instead of clicks when I’m in a hurry.

Finally, at the bottom you have the option to reset the counter right back to the beginning.

So is HolgaClicks a must have iPhone application? If you shoot 35mm film then it’s definitely worth having. It’s available in the app store for 59p (99¢), so why not check it out yourself?

“Never do things by half”, goes the traditional wisdom. Unless you’re stepping into the world of diptychs – in which case, do everything by halves; it’s hard to do things any other way. The Golden Half (GH) by SuperHeadz is one way of doing so. I’ve had mine for about a year now, but wanted to write a small review here on Holgablog after all this time because I’ve finally started to spend some serious time with it.

When I first got my GH, I loved its small size and the feel of its slightly rubberised skin. Roughly the same size as the Diana Mini (which we looked at previously), the GH feels a bit sturdier than its Lomo counterpart. Those of larger finger-size might still find it a little fiddly to adjust the aperture and rewind the film, but you can always enlist a small nearby child to help out. Things are made slightly easier than on the Diana Mini in a couple of aspects – firstly loading a roll of 35mm film in is somehow as easy as putting bread in a toaster, and secondly the GH is fixed focus, so you only have to adjust the aperture ring for a shot (cloudy/sunny/flash).

In general, the results are as you’d expect from a “toy” camera like this – as you can probably see from the images here, results are clear but obviously not pin sharp, and nor is there much in the way of vignetting, etc. The GH does seem to handle light flare with some scythe-like relish though, and I’m pleased with a lot of the into-the-Sun shots I’ve taken.

In general, if you like cute things and were to buy a GH in one of its guises (including a Hello Kitty version), you won’t be disappointed. So apart from the size and the relative ease-of-use, why am I writing this?

Well, there’s clearly an economic argument for these tiny half-frame cameras – 72 images (or more, if you’re good) on a 36-piece film means you can click away twice as much for the same spend.

This is kind of how I started – mixing single shots with the odd moment for an odd attempt at a diptych. But getting the results back on CD, I found this pretty hasslesome. As labs expect full-frame shots, they generally pair up the half-frames for each print/scan. If you’re lucky and have taken an even number of single shots, the diptychs you planned line up with the lab scans. Otherwise, you do get the odd interesting, yet random, result where unexpected combinations crop up.

Being lazy and not wanting to scan too much in, I decided to see if I could get each lab scan to be a diptych, as planned, in its own right. This meant seeing each photo not as a single image when taking it, but as a pair of images instead. (Handy hint: on the GH, this means taking the right-hand image before the left-hand one if you want them to come out in the proper order.)

Once you start seeing the photo world this way, the “art” of the diptych starts to open up. I found the simplest method was obviously just to take two images that lined up. Subtle differences in where these overlap (or not), and the angle of the camera for each, make this an interesting take on a normal landscape-format shot.

Getting tricksier, you can start to get diptychs to “tell a story” – often by some kind of shared object between the two frames. This might be something that starts in one frame and ends in another, something that moves from one to the other between shots (people are good for this), or even just a shared background with different foregrounds.

Alternatively, you might just want to offer two views onto something – whether this is a cubist-approach to an object, different aspects of a person, or two viewpoints from the same position. This is the fun of diptychs – by using two images, you can invite viewers to contemplate transition and contrast. The gap between two frames, so to speak, is a world of imagination.

More information and examples:

20 amazing diptychs
Flickr Golden Half group
Flickr Diptychs group
Flickr Holga Diptych group

The Winners

Winner: First Place

Congratulations HRH Ken!  Ken won himself a shiny new Holga TLR and some rolls of mystery film from Four Corner Store! As well, he will be featured on my blog in the upcoming months.

Winner: Second Place

And Doktor Z. said:
I ‘ve never made any portrait of myself. Not that I was intimidated or something, but I just didn’t feel the pretension of finding me interesting enough to lay my image on film.

Self portrait always appeared to me like some kind of egocentrism, or narcissism. I mean, I can see my reflection in the mirror everyday and I know what I look like so there is no big deal of having pictures of myself… On the other hand I prefer shoot other people because you can get more control on the picture you want to get, and it’s easier when the viewfinder is on your side

That was my point of view before I read Jennifer’s article on Holgablog.com.

Then I understood that I missed something, that self portraiture wasn’t quite so I though it was. You only put yourself in front of the camera, try something and see what happens! When I started in Holga photography I was seduced by its lack of perfectibility and its randomness. I realised it was basically the same with more imperfectibility and more randomness!!! So I had to give it a try. Now that I did I have to admit it is a different sensation and I do enjoy it! The result turned out to be very different from what I expected, but I am really satisfied anyway.

I like challenges because it brings you where you would have never gone by yourself while putting your creativity to the test. Thank you Jen for daring Holgagraphers and giving them the opportunity to out limit themselves!

Doktor Z. wins a Holga Micro 110 and some film from Four Corner Store!

Winner: Third Place

This is just awesome and made me smile!  Nate wins a pack of Fuji Pro 120 Film from Four Corner Store!

Overcoming the Challenge

I had also asked for stories on how people view self portraiture and how they’ve over come the fear, if they had any, of taking them. I’d like to thank Doktor Z. (above) and Isabel (below) for taking the time to do so!  Isabel wins a free 8×8 print of her choice from my portfolio.

Isabel said:
My main fear about self-portraits is not whether I will look good or not. Is more or less the same fear, the same expectation that comes with taking film photographs: I don’t know what will come out at all. Will the pics turn out great? Will they be boring? Will the parallax error mess them up?

So taking this self-portrait and seeing it turn out so good is helping me overcome the fear of film photography in general. I am starting to appreciate imperfection. I am beginning to not give a damn about what comes out. I mean, look at this picture! The black spots happened because the sponge inside my 120 camera (the one that keeps the roll in place) broke mid-roll and got tangled in it as I wound it. It seems the developing chemicals broke the sponge down and it looks as if the little pieces “melted” and got stuck to some parts of the negative, creating this wonderful effect.

So this picture has helped me overcome any preconceptions about what a good, beautiful picture is. Just as in people’s physical beauty, there are no ugly pictures, just some are more magical than others.

More Self Portraits

There were so many good entries, I felt like I needed to show off some of the diverse photos that were submitted.  So, here are a few more great shots:

by Marcus Lindqvist
A good thing with shooting your own face is, you are always there and willing to cooperate. My strongest tip is: shoot only parts of yourself. Make it abstract. That’ll make it easier because there will be no embarrassing looks.

by Carl Zoch

I hope you all had as much fun as I did!  Thank you again, and keep practicing those self portraits – you never know when we will have another contest!

~HolgaJen

It’s that time again! TGIF!!

Our theme this week is: Other-worldly

We suggest clicking through to that person’s Flickr page to leave a comment and check out the rest of their photos.

And… some Friday cuteness that I couldn’t resist

Simply upload your photos to the Flickr group.

Read the original post for more information.  I look forward to seeing all of your photos   Lots of great work so far!

It’s that time again! TGIF!! I’ve been negligent in my Flickr Friday postings these past couple of weeks, so this week will have no theme… I will be picking some of my favorites from the first half of July.

We suggest clicking through to that person’s Flickr page to leave a comment and check out the rest of their photos.

To Heaven by Menno Ophelia

by the.world.in.light.of.strange.

by Jaci Sue

the boy. by ingileif

Through the Flower by Arurin

2010-07-09-holga-011 by mauroruscelli

by East Ham

by Anali_T

by jenny murray

by -88-

Looe Island by kitty b wonderful

a place of escape by microabi

The Sailor on The Roof. by colster.

the view across the room by Comtesse DeSpair

by Kaometet

by C.Y.R.I.L.

legion of honor by apasciuto

by *martirja

by ★JJ★

Outside Looking In by Matt Brown esq

* by skippymarv

WOOTON STREAM by mrs paul

Indian industrial designer Saikat Biswas has come up with a novel and frankly, fantastic looking digital Holga.  He calls it the Holga D.

Saikat has managed to merge the key elements of the Holga and combine them with a digital sensor.  We would love to see Holga make something similar.

More information available on his site:

http://www.saikatbiswas.com/web/Projects/Holga_D.htm

It’s a really interesting read, and he has put a lot of time and thought into designing this Holga D.

So what do you say Holga…time to make the Holga D

According to Wikipedia, sun-print paper is made using a Potassium dichromate solution, so now you know. If you’re mildly chemical-minded, you can have a go at making it yourself. But otherwise, if you’re lazy or busy like me, then have a look round for “Tobar” paper.

The instructions say to a) place interesting and exciting objects on top of the paper, and b) expose to direct Sunlight for 1-2 minutes, before c) dunking in water for a couple of minutes. This I tried, with limited success (click any image to view larger):

Hmm.

It was time to work out how this stuff worked. Calling on AUTHENTIC darkroom techniques, I ran some stripped exposure tests, giving each strip 30 seconds more than the last. At least this proved the paper worked:

Stripped exposures

So what have we learned today? 1. Exposure times aren’t exact. 2. Don’t move anything once the exposure is under way. In fact, what I resort to now is to set everything up under a blanket to keep as much Sun off as possible. Once everything’s in place, I whip the blanket away and start the stopwatch.

A few more tests later and I’m starting to get the hang of this. The mash-up of solid shadow, penumbra, and transparent refractions holds a certain mysticism – is this the photographic equivalent of Plato’s Cave? Curves stretch outwards. Flowers bloom like explosions. Each object leaves its own trace, from paper cut-outs to enlarged negatives, to kitchen glasses and bits of food.

Success 1

Success 2

Success 3

There’s also a wonderful sense of texture in the finished item – the soaking and drying process leaves the paper more rigid, and crinkled. A small stack of results starts to resemble the rescued leaves of some ageing book – refreshing, after the virtual two-dimension-ness of browsing photos on screen.

After a while, one can start to look beyond the basics. This is, essentially, a much more tactile, hands-on form of “slow photography”, so interaction is everywhere. Some trials of scrunching up the paper before use, and laying objects across the crumbled surface yielded some encouraging results.

Pressed flowers and rice

Crumpled knitting needles

Crumpled, tea stained

Other things I want to try include curling the paper, origami techniques, maybe even burning through it. I love the idea of an image not just as a negative, or a digital copy, but as a thing in itself – a unique object that only reveals itself fully though touch and smell, as well as sight. Might have to order myself a new pack.

More Links:

Anna Atkins’ Cyanotypes: the first lady photographer?
“Cyanotypes” Flickr group
“Sun printing” Flickr group