Autumn - No. 2

For number two of my Autumn series,  I've chosen a Holga photo full of Autumn colour.

Autumn - No. 1

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?

More Interesting photo

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.

Remember what's there

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.

Polaroid Magic.

There is something rather exciting about instant film.

You take a photograph and, within moments, you have a unique print in your hand.

No messy developers and tanks. No scanning negatives. No messing around in various software tools trying to turn a negative RAW scan into a positive image.

It was Edwin Land, the designer of instant film, who made the promise:

You press the button and out comes a picture.

I first experienced instant film when my maternal grandmother bought a Land Swinger camera that used peel-apart film. From the get-go, I was mesmerised by the camera, but even more so by the instant print it produced.

More than 50 years later, I now own a Polaroid I-2, a £500 flagship of the Polaroid range.

And the excitement of instant photography hasn't lost any of its edge.

I took this image on Friday afternoon, and I love the unpredictable nature of i-Type film. Every print is slightly different. You don't quite know what you're going to get until the picture develops in front of you.

That's part of the Polaroid magic.

You press the button, and out comes a picture.

Half Remembered

This photo was taken by me in Bristol on my Holga 120 GN.

I used Kentmere Pan 400.

It has all the elements of a classic Holga frame. The weird out-of-focus areas and the inexplicably sharp centre of the photograph where the old cargo ship is moored, contrasting with the ultra-modern building behind it.

The picture looks less like a photograph of Bristol and more like somewhere you’ve half remembered.

It’s really satisfying.

Looking and Seeing

When you're out in the rain, you have no option but to look for scenes that show how the weather is affecting people.

In this photo, a group of people huddle under their umbrellas while the street is slick with rainwater.

If you look you'll see this everywhere.