Holga Daze Down On The Farm

August 1st, 2007

Still not making any organized progress on the huge editing task that I’m so behind on. So today I just felt like posting this photo for no good reason other than that.

This was taken on a farm in Ohio where I’ve had a lot of good fortune with photos. Two photos I took there have ended up in French PHOTO magazine. This time I was there with my friend, Dave Rudin http://figuresofgrace.blogspot.com/ and a couple wonderful models.

Now, fair warning, I’m about to begin an equipment rant. This photo was taken with a Holga lens. It was mounted on my Nikon D200. I found out about this possible perversion of modern technology from this blog: http://thefstops-here.blogspot.com/ and I ordered my Holga lens in Nikon mount from this site: http://holgamods.com/

Now I’m not a big fan of Holgas. I’ve never actually shot with one, although I did work with the similar Diana F back in my days at photo school. While I appreciate the effect that a shitty lens can produce, I don’t care for the random light leaks and other “features” of these cheapass cameras. I also don’t have much use for the lensbabies that are the current soft focus fad. They are way overpriced for a cheap shitty lens.

I’ve had a classic single-element soft focus lens in Nikon mount for many years. I use it from time to time and sometimes refer to the results as “digital Holga” photos…much to the consternation of some Holga fanatics. But that lens is a 100mm focal length which limits its usefulness on a digital camera with a smaller-than-35mm sensor. The Holga lens is 60mm…much better suited to my D200. And, of course, no one can argue now that I’m not actually using a digital Holga. And, no, I’m not going to punch any holes in my D200 to add light leaks.

Soft focus lenses are nothing new. For a long time they were all that was available to photographers. Then they were preferred by the pictoralists because they could simulate paintings. The F64 group brought sharp focus into style. Soft focus was discredited for a long time. But I think there is a place in the world of photography for the full range of tools and techniques that are available. So I like to stick a crappy lens on my fancy digital slr now and then to make something just a little different. But I’m not going to let the lensbaby folks rip me off for all that money when I could build the same thing with a $5 magnifying glass from Walgreens if I wanted to…in fact I have done that, but with the lens mounted on a lens board for my 4×5.

OK…end of equipment rant. Enjoy the photo and the lovely Sarah Ellis. There’s lots more from the farm shoot to come…it’s in the que to be edited.

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About this Blog

Photos and comments by Dave Levingston. This is the place to see my most recent work which may include nudes, dance, landscape, nature and whatever other kinds of photos I feel like taking.

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