Erratic #2

At Horn Pond Reservation.
Woburn, MA
Holga 120N

MIT

The Stata Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. It was designed by world-famous

architect Frank Gehry. Oh yeah, it leaks.

Taken with a Holga 120N camera.

Ask

Lowell, Masschusetts
Holga 120N

Waiting

I consider this shot a placeholder of sorts.
I love this scenario, but I am not crazy about my photograph. I need better light, a deeper sky to delineate the figure (a 25 red filter perhaps), and I need to step back about five or ten feet to include more space and perhaps even a passing car. But here it is, with all it's faults, nonetheless. This was taken in Revere, Massachusetts with a Holga 120N.

Star

Shadow of holiday decorations on a utility pole in Everett, MA.
Holga 120N

Bird Man

Revere, MA
Holga 120N

Not the Regular Route to Wonderland

Revere, MA
Holga 120N

Passage

Breakheart Reservation, Saugus, MA.
Holga 120N

Another "Isolga" image

Another image from the first roll shot with my Agfa Isoly with a Holga lens.
More info in the previous post.

The "Isolga" hybrid camera

I have always loved my Agfa Isoly camera. I always thought that if I had to design a toy camera from the ground up, it would have the build quality of the Isoly. The original Diana cameras were based on the Isoly. Of course, cameras like the Diana and Holga have those wonderful cheap plastic lenses and the lens on the Isoly is pretty blah (although I like the quality of flare you get with it).

Recently, with some spare time and a lens from a busted Holga, I decided to attempt a lens transplant. Removing the lens element from both the Holga and the Isoly is a pretty straightforward process. It just involves removing a couple of screws and popping the lens element out of each lens barrel. (I am not transplanting the entire lens barrel here, just the lens element). The Holga lens has a clear plastic flange around it which does need to be filed down to fit snugly into the Isoly lens barrel. The whole process took only about a half an hour. (Sorry that there is no accompanying step by step video but that's just not my thing.)

I  like the resulting image quality from this camera. The results seem softer than I get with a Holga. It also seems to flare quite easily when pointed at the sun. You also lose the Holga vignetting as the lens is only covering a 4x4 image rather than a 6x6. But you do get 16 square images on a roll of film rather than 12. And although there is no double-exposure capability on the Isoly, there is an additional shutter speed of 1/30th of a second (in addition to 1/100th and B) with apertures

of f8 and f11.

This is hardly empirical testing since it is only based on my initial reactions to shooting one roll of film. But it is something that I will continue to shoot with for awhile and I will post more images

both here and on flickr. If anyone wants more info or has a comment, drop me an email (or leave a comment here).

Jim

Rings

Another image from a recent photo outing to Lowell, MA. Taken with
a Holga 120N camera.

Setting Sun

Lowell, MA
Holga 120N

The Lighthouse Photograph

Salem, MA
Holga 120S

Growth

South Boston, MA
Holga 120S

Door Number Two

Dorchester, MA
Holga 120S

Halloween #7 - Tree Ghosts

Stoneham, MA
Holga 120S

Halloween #6 - Polyethylene Ghosts

Another one from Halloween 2009.
Stoneham, MA
Holga 120N

Halloween #5 - You Can't Keep a Good Man Down

This is from Halloween 2009.
Stoneham, MA
Holga 120N

Halloween #4 - Meet the Neighbors

Stoneham, MA
Holga 120S

Halloween #3 - Eight Skulls

Stoneham, MA
Holga 120S

Halloween #2 - Attraction

Behind the Haunted Mansion in Kensington, PEI.
Holga 120S

Halloween #1 - Cliff Skull

The theme this week is Halloween.
Here's the first image from Breakheart Reservation in Saugus, MA. Taken with a Holga 120S.

The Arborist's Dream

Another "inverted lens" image taken with a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash camera.
 This image was taken at Breakheart Reservation in Saugus, MA.
Lots of scratches from respooling the incredibly fragile Arista.edu film onto a 620 reel.

Mountain of Skulls

You may want to click on this image and view it larger. This is the cliff face of an old quarry in the woods in Lynnfield, Massachusetts.

 A graffiti artist painted the entire cliff face in skulls.

This is a popular spot with rock climbers.

The cliff face itself is about 50 feet high.

Taken with a Holga 120S camera.

Cottage

Lower Darnley, PEI
Holga 120S

Hatfields vs McCoys

Good fences make good neighbors.
South Boston, MA
Holga 120S

Dune Fence (and an explanation)

Lower Darnley, Prince Edward Island
Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash (flipped lens)

I didn't add a texture overlay of scratches on this.
The scratches were caused by either re-spooling
Arista EDU film onto a 620 spool, or too much tension on the film as it passed through the camera (or both). I like Arista EDU film because it's cheap, but it is extremely fragile. I am having a hard time getting it through any of my toy cameras without scratching these days.

Liberty Enlightening the World

South Boston, MA
Holga 120S

Driveway

North Rustico, Prince Edward Island
Holga 120S

Tethered

North Rustico Harbor, Prince Edward Island. Holga120S

Country Days

I am happy to be part of the excellent currently running "Country Days" show over on the 591 Photography Blog. You can check out my images here.
All photographers' country themed images posted so far can be seen here.
Check the entire blog out as well. There are always consistently great images being posted here.

Endurance

Taken at Cabot Provincial Park in Malpeque, PEI with a Kodak Brownie
Hawkeye Flash camera with an inverted lens.

Hay Field House

Off the Cape road between Park Corner and New London, Prince Edward Island.
Efke infrared film in a Holga 120N.

Shore to Shore

What the heck. Might as well make these
beach images a triptych of sorts.
Lower Darnley, PEI
Holga 120S

Waiting on the Tide

In keeping with the theme from my previous image post, here's another
 one from an evening walk along Darnley Beach in Lower Darnley, PEI.
Holga 120S

The Way is a Vow

Title stolen from the Johnny Flynn song "The Water". Lower Darnley, Prince Edward Island.
Holga 120S

Museum of....?

Union Corner, Prince Edward Island
Holga 120S

Beach Day

Jack on Darnley Beach in Lower Darnley, Prince Edward Island. Taken
with my Anny camera, a Diana camera clone.

Foundation Crack

Wakefield, MA
Holga 120S

Anchors

At the harbor in Mapeque, PEI.
Holga 120S

Ghosts of North Rustico Wharf

The abandoned wharf at Noth Rustico, Prince Edward Island.
Holga 120S

The Whale Skull Garden

Like the sign says, a garden made out of a whale's skull.
North Rustico, PEI
Holga 120S

Cityscape

Boston, MA
Holga 120N

Diamond Mine

Boston, MA
Holga 120N

Aqua World

Boston, MA
Holga 120N

Express

Stoneham, MA
Holga 120N

Krappy Kamera XII Blurb book

The new Blurb book for the 2010 Krappy Kamera photo exhibit is now available.
There's some great images in the book. Check it out here.
I had two images in this show so I get my own little spread.
Pick one up. Cheap at twice the price!

Face

Wakefield, MA
Holga 120S

Holgaville

Check me out on Diane Peterson's cool Holgaville site featuring photographers shooting with (what else
but) Holgas.
That's it for now.

Revelate

South Boston, MA
Holga 120S

Blog Post #100

So this is it, the big post 100!
No image this time.
But as a way of saying thanks to those of you who are followers or who take the time to post a comment,
I am giving away a print to the first two people who leave a comment here. If I am in a benevolent mood,
perhaps I will send a print to the first three folks who comment (if indeed three people leave a comment).
This isn't an original idea. I have seen Robert Holmgren do this on his blog.

And I an not going to tweet this. I will just let people find this post on their own this time.

Two things.

1. You pick which image you want from my blog or my Flickr stream. I will print it for you with one of
my dedicated B&W carbon ink printers on an archival cotton Rag paper (most likely Hahnemuhle Photo
Rag). And I will sign it on the back of the print as well. The print will most likely be 7x7 on an 8.5x11
sheet of paper. If it's not a square image, the largest dimension will probably be about 9 inches.
And give me a week or so to get the print in the mail to you.

2.  I am going to limit this to U.S. and Canadian commenters only this time. I will do this again for
folks outside North America in the future. I promise.

Email me with your name and address if you are one of the first few commenters and you would like a
print. If you don't want a print and just want to leave a comment, that's cool too. And please remember to give me the title of the image you want.
Email me at jimrohan@verizon.net

Thanks again for taking the time to look at my blog. I sincerely appreciate it.

Jim

Ships don't really pass in the night, do they?

Halibut Point, Rockport, MA
Holga 120N

This is blog post #99. Stay tuned for
#100.

Foghorn

I love that period of time where the sun
is out but the fog has yet to clear.

South Boston, MA
Holga 120N

Plastic Fantastic Show

My image "Hemlock Pool" has been selected for the first annual Plastic Fantastic show at LightBox Photographic Gallery in Astoria, Oregon. I selected this image for submission because (being the lazy guy that I am) it was already printed and framed and hanging in my home.
Guess I'll have a bare spot on the wall for a bit.
Anyway, the show runs from June 12 to July 7.
This was taken with a Holga 120N in
the Middlesex Fells Reservation, just north of Boston.