Ode to my little holga...

Way back when, I bought my first film camera in a number of years, the camera that started me back on my film photography journey - my Holga 135bc.

Yesterday I read that the Holga factory has been closed and my heart sank. So today's post is dedicated to this plastic chunk camera which started a change in my life and was the first stepping stone on the varied journey that has been my relationship with film cameras.

Way back in 2009 with my new toy :)

Way back in 2009 with my new toy :)

I haven't really used my Holga properly in a few years if I'm honest - the results that you get from a Holga aren't exactly what I'm looking for now, so I tend to use SLR cameras - however as an introduction back into film for me, this little camera was perfect. The colours and the black corners created bright results and the challenge of having such limited control of the results was just what I needed straight out of University.

So here are some of my favourite photos from my little Helga the Holga camera 

I do feel like I should try taking this camera out again now though and see how I do with it - if my changed style of taking photos reflects with this camera or even if I could consistently get a good roll of results from it (this has not happened yet haha). Maybe I'll pick it up this weekend and see what happens :)

Some of my favourite posts have also been written because of my Holga - this post about why I love this photo (which actually led to an unfinished Blurb book - I should really finish that!) and also this Diana Mini vs Holga 135bc comparison. I took my Holga to Wales, to Paris, to Krakow... for a while it was the only camera I took with me anywhere and we had fun - I loved my holga and it loved me too.

Also, if you want a Holga camera, you probably should grab one asap before the prices go a bit crazy!

Everything's the same. Everything's completely different.

One of our wedding photos taken by the extremely lovely and crazy talented Katherine Mager - and its taken on film (we had digital and film hurray) at an abbey ruin, with a real film light leak on our wedding day. Be still my heart... thank you Kat.

Before we got married, everyone told us that 'nothing changes... you're still the same people and life still goes on'. And now that we've been married a month I can see that its true. We're back at work, back to watching our tv shows and films in the evening and now we even have spare time - I'd totally forgotten what that was 1 month ago haha.

But what no one told me is that at the same time - everything is completely different. Sure there's the seemingly obvious things like wearing a wedding ring and changing your name (which someone should have warned me is the biggest faff ever)... but its the surprise times you notice - holding Thomas's hand and feeling the ring there or seeing it on the counter when he's washing up. Getting post that actually shows your new name and the slight bewilderment of seeing it on paper. Perhaps at some point I'll be so used to these things that I barely notice but I kind of hope not, I want to enjoy it all as much as I can.

After the wedding, Thomas asked me how I was and how I felt and I replied

"I feel like I've gained something I didn't even realise I was missing." 

And that's the best way I can describe it - everything is the same but everything feels different, I feel different, we feel different. I still can't really believe its happened but I like it and now I can't imagine life without that feeling.