I recently offered to dog sit for this hairy beast while her owner was away on holiday.
It’s always a pleasure to do some dog sitting. It gets me out and about and gives me a reason to take some exercise. It’s also rather nice to have the company.
I took this using my Mamiya C330 and natural light.
I had to work quietly, though. I didn’t want to wake the dog.
While Autumn can bring bright, cold days with plenty of sunshine, the leaves begin to fall from the trees, changing from green to yellows, oranges and reds.
This photograph was taken from ground level, looking across the leaf litter covering the ground. The light is beginning to fade, but I think that adds something to the photograph.
This is Autumn.
This is the first in a short series of autumnal photos taken on my Holga 120 GN.
I do enjoy this time of year. It has everything: cool but not cold days, beautiful colours in nature and cosy evenings.
For this photo I used a magnifying glass as a close-up lens.
It’s another example of the fun you can have with a Holga. You don't necessarily need the right equipment. Sometimes you just need to look at what you've got and think, I wonder what happens if I try that?
When a Polaroid camera nails the focus and exposure, the results can be compelling.
This exposure shows that the camera is capable of getting genuinely sharp focus. More importantly, it shows what the film can do.
It’s still not an accurate record of the scene in the way that shooting with a digital camera might be.
But perhaps that’s precisely the point.
It’s more interesting than that.
There is something quite extraordinary about the way Polaroid i-Type film renders a scene.
It isn't an absolutely faithful recreation of a moment.
It's more like a half-remembered dream.
The colours are exaggerated. The whole thing has the feeling that an artist must have painted it rather than a camera captured it.
It's a unique recollection of a place that you can't quite put your finger on. You know you've been there, but you can't quite remember where it was.
It reminds me of Roger Waters lyrics:
When I was a child
I had a fleeting glimpse,
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone.
I cannot put my finger on it now.
The child is grown, the dream is gone.
Perhaps that's what I like about instant film.
It doesn't necessarily show you what was there.
Sometimes it shows you what you remember.
