Decorating the Holga

While exploring the Holga community online, I soon learned that half the fun of owning a Holga is personalizing it. I've seen pics where people did everything from paint their Holga's to putting zebra fake fur on them! You know, I'm always up for decorating pretty much anything, but didn't want to make any permanent changes to my camera. My solution- something that is very me, eclectic, girly and a reminder of why I got this thing in the first place...memory charms. I gathered memorabilia from my scrapbook embellishments, broken pieces of jewlery, earrings that were missing their mate, tiny shells, beads, and a couple of charms I loved from the "Industrial Chic" collection of steampunk style charms at Michael's. Here are the results:

 I added a rustic kind of chain from Michael's for the neckstrap, a turquoise pendant from a broken necklace, a bird charm that was once an earring, a prayer box, a jeweled charm, and a couple of engraved tokens and washers that say "Artful" and "Enjoy". I used little ball chains and safety pins to attach things and added a few crystal beads to up the girly factor.

On this side, I added little tin angel wings, a vintage button, a couple of shells, a bird charm from a necklace, and a few other beads.  All my charms remind me of the things I love: vintage stuff, the beach, vacations to New Mexico and Arizona, my faith, art, and singing birds!  I will probably bling it up a little with some adhesive crystals too.I'm sure that I will continue to add to it as I find more things that remind me of family times and the great memories I have from my very blessed life.

My newest hobby...like I really needed another one!

I recently became fascinated with lomography, taking photos with old-school cameras that give your pics a cool, artsy spin. I bought a Holga, the iconic style of camera used for this, and a fast-action camera that takes 4 pics in 1 second, with just one push of the button, and divides the picture into quarters. I also purchased some really great KOLA filters (Kolor of Life, not sure what the A is for) that you can place in front of the lens to tint your pics different colors, like these:

Step back in time with me and remember the time when you had to send your film off to be developed, relying on the good ol' U.S.Postal Service not to lose your precious images and get them to their destination in a timely manner. Back then, you had NO idea what your pictures were going to look like or even IF they would turn out. Did you forget to take off the lens cap? Would someone be blinking in the family shot? Or worse...making bunny ears behind someone's head! It's actually kind of fun going back to that sort of uncertainty. I had never shot with 120 film and got pretty spoiled in this digital age. This type of film and camera are interesting because you can purposely make double-exposure shots by just not rolling the film advance wheel all the way. My camera doesn't have a flash, so all I've taken are outdoor shots, but can see that I will probably be purchasing the flash to fit it in the near future. So the first roll I shot has been sent and I got back the email showing me the pics (didn't have THAT luxury in the 70's and 80's now did we?!). The result: some really cool double-exposed pics of the white roses climbing the trellis in our back yard and a couple of shots of my baby son eating a popsicle. They turned out just as I hoped, perfectly imperfect, with an artsy, retro feel!  Can't wait to see how the next roll turns out. I took them downtown where there is some cool old architecture. Of course, they may not turn out at all, the waiting is the hardest part!