Holgashop

This was a word I came up with in 2005 for some images I had uploaded to Flickr. As you may have guessed it comes from the Adobe software package "Photoshop", which allows you to layer multiple images together as one. At the time I hadn't seen anyone doing this technique, so I decided I would create a new genre of holga photography and call it "Holgashop". The idea is that all of the layers and photo effects are done by the camera and not on the computer.

Years ago a co-worker and good friend got me to try shooting with a Holfga toy camera. Without knowing much about the camera I started to experiment with it. When the holga was in it's initial production phases, it didn't have any of the bells and whistles that holgas have today. It was an inexpensive plastic camera with unpredictable results. It's unpredictability is what makes shooting with a holga fun and rewarding.

I noticed after a few rolls that the film wasn't wound tightly when I would pulled it out of the camera - thus all the light leaks on the top and bottom of the roll. I was curious about how the light leaks started to interact with the image, so I made no effort to try and modify the camera to makes this stop. Now most holgas come with a little piece of foam that makes the film "snug" inside the camera. I liked the "warping" effect that this "problem" caused and miss seeing it pop up when I use my newer holgas. I guess you could always take that piece of foam out and set it aside if you wanted to achieve that effect with the newer holgas.

I then experimented with not looking at the film advance window when I was advancing the film. This allowed me to stay "focused" on the subjects happening in front of me without losing time and attention to my subject matter. I also added a large flash to my holga that had a "wide" setting on it. This way the light was spread out over a large area, as opposed to the narrow flash area of on camera flash. I think the flash it key for creating these holgashop images. It help fill in the shadows and the frames blend into each other more evenly. You can buy and inexpensive flash from a garage sale or flea market. Remember to make sure it has a "wide angle" feature.

The next step is to find subject matter that works well together and the rest is up to you. I find that 2-3 turns of the film advance knob does the trick for me, but you should experiment on your own to get the results you are looking for.


Good luck and have fun!

© 2007 CK Photography // Chris Keeney Photography, San Diego California // holgashop // holga // panoramic // experimental // toy camera