The arrival: HOLGA 120GN

The Holga has taken the moment for now. Everything about it has been awkwardly strange or putting it simply, 'off'. From getting it shipped to the right address to everyone's opinion on me owning one, its just been different. Not to mention the amount of attention it's attracted on shooting... From perfect strangers. They seemed to find everything about it weird. Its looks off, the film is unusually large and it seems like the wrong camera to be specialized in anyway (huh... That's what they think!! :D). For me, the Holga is a getaway. There's no way the plastic over-priced US$27.00 camera will have any kind of monetary return in the near future. If anything, the shear cost of medium format film is somewhat unjustifiable if I were to look at it in a purely business sense. That said, I think that's the point of the whole purchase. The benefits of this purchase are for me and me alone... It will be a while before I begin to get something that is even close to being marketable.

The journey to get the Holga:
I'm not sure my bank really considers me a worthy client in anyway. I'm almost always putting in money and emptying out my bank account (Thanks to Photography). Sure I sign up for a few of their insurance policies as a favour to the bank to keep things moving forward but if there's anything that the banks got me on its all the over-charges that I seem to look past. As a matter of fact, I happen to be such a good customer that they keep calling me back to sign up for another one of their plans. Those bastards. I just saved their number and keep rejecting it! :)

Anyways, the Holga's purchase is yet another one of the many interactions between paypal and my bank account. Apparently, tellers keep a a sheet of paper to tally on how many customers show up with a PAYPAL line on their bank records. Its some kind of competition to bring some excitement in one of the world's most boring jobs. So that's the case with CIBC tellers in Vancouver (according to a friend thats a feared and double-time champion of PAYPAL tally wars). But I'd like to believe that the same trend has extended across Canada to Montreal thanks to the difference in treatment in the months that I actually make a purchase on ebay.

So sure enough, this purchase was made and thanks to the ridiculousness of the Canadian dollar's weakness, I ended up paying CAD$40 for this piece of plastic has a pretty high probability of not working in the first place. Also noteworthy is that I purchased the camera from Hong Kong. In the past, I've purchased batteries, a compass, watch, a bicycle distance recorder, another camera, and a studio flash plug adapter... All these have one thing in common: I never use them. The adapter doesn't work, the watch broke, the rest don't ask... Even the wooden camera that is in top notch condition is a fair bit of a push to use. So naturally I wasn't expecting anything extraordinary from this purchase. If anything, I am more than hoping that it will be a good one. Though in the case of a Holga, one who really understands pop culture would ask me what exactly I meant by that... Good question!

Clearing things up: For one, I didn't buy this camera because of the light leaks or because I thought US$27.00 was the best deal in the market. I bought it because I wanted to explore the world of medium format and use a camera that doesn't require me to sit by a tripod and do my homework while the picture is being taken. Also because of the severe constraints. One often uses aperture priority or shutter priority or goes all out manual. How about film-speed priority? Yes, there are several constraints that the photographer has to deal with:

1) Only two aperture settings: f/8 and f/11

2) One shutter setting: 1/125s
and the focusing takes a trial and error approach for the inexperienced. And before I forget: The absolute horse-shit lens... I actually bought the G-series (glass) lens which is apparently 'better'. Holga have their own definition for the word 'better'.

3)There is no preview of Depth of field which means you have to guess it. There is a guide though. It shows one person for 1m, 3 for 3m several for 6m and a mountain for 10m-infinity.

4)The view finder is very basic and doesn't account for how wide the lens actually is. Holga say their lens is 60mm(ish)... Ummm.. Sure... You just have to guess whats what and take the damn photo.

5)You realise how much the shutter sound contributes to the feel of photography when you, well, don't have a shutter sound...I went through an entire roll of film without knowing if I even exposed a single shot while the actual art of capturing the image was a serious anti-climax. Oh well, turns out I did manage to expose the film and work out the focusing.





Not bad if you ask me. Work on them include exposure, curves, and white balance. For the first one, I reduced purple saturation as I found purple snow quite funny...

All said, such is my experience thus far with the HOLGA. I hope to one day manage to produce pretty decent images with it as I understand it better and better. One of several adventures that I will take in this beautiful world of photography, one that I will be certain to share with you all.

Business ethics: The issue of craigslist

I think classifieds are very important as they bring buyers and sellers together without all the additional charges of advertising and commissions and what not. Its simple and easy... Just a phone call and you've suddenly bought yourself something nice for a pretty good price.

Nevermind the market for lemons, I personally think with e-commerce and the access to the worldwide market, everything is well priced and well worth what one is willing to pay. As opposed to previous times of where the only way to find a quote for the price of something would be to call and find out while your ability to get a good price might simply be dependant on the number of phone calls you make. I suppose you can say the same thing with the internet but mind you, I purchased a Minolta 700si film camera for $50 off of ebay while Simon's, a camera store in Montreal, still sells the the Maxxum 5 (A camera more inferior) for $200. These are simply people who haven't seen how the market has evolved. With todays market, we know with certainty the rounded off true value of our camera (perhaps right to one or two standard deviations).

The first time I learned about the market for lemons (Market for lemons), I thought it was the greatest concept since airplanes but much has evolved and the market for lemons is out-dated or very restricted to some low info market. With today's prices, I think its fair to say that we've hit a point of perfect competition for certain kinds of goods, especially in the second hand market. As we learn that non-lemon cameras and what not make it into the market, we find ourselves trusted sellers that offer us tons of warranty while successfully managing to undercut everyone else in their price offer. Ebay works. It lets people decide the price they are willing to pay, and as auctions go for goods in high demand, some auctions push buyers to spend somewhat more than they were planning to spend. Its a pride thing. Especially among photographers hunting for much needed gear.

Ok, so this isn't quite a lesson on economics, but is instead a light on what I've been through in trying to sell my precious Sony Alpha A300. Given how much I've learned from photography with this angelic piece of electronic, I never thought selling it would be such a hassle and to some extent, a learning process.

First assuming it to be an easy task, I threw in some posts in craigslist and kijiji. Kijiji being limited to Canada and relatively unknown to the United States (and most Canadians) is probably the most legit in business transactions and therefore much more trustable to either sell your stuff or not... Craigslist on the other hand is full of scammers from Nigeria (or some freakazoid seated in California pretending to be from Nigeria). So far craigslist's legitimacy rate states at around 20%. That means 8 out of 10 people ask me to ship them the item. Some will cleverly sound legit to establish contact and then come out of their hiding.

I have several problems with these low life ass-holes. For one, they do a terrible job at sounding convincing, especially given the amount of information that is available to identify a scam, and secondly, there's so many of them sending the same emails that you're bound to assume something is wrong. There are some clever ones though, but not by much. They soon show their true colours in some form or another.

I got an email from a Reverand John Campbell. Thank God I'm not a dogmatic believer who shreaks at the word Reverand, perhaps even going further on to give him as discount so that he can buy his daughter a nice birthday present. I'm sure he's had some success in the past. Still he was stupid enough to not see my craigslist post 'titled' MONTREAL BUYERS ONLY! and when I informed his of it, he mentioned that his company will wire me the money. #*^!ing Reverand...

So all in all, I've had a horrible experience with online classified ads. I've learned that the vast majority of offers are just completely ridiculous in this sort. There are so many scammers that they even compete with one-another to a level where people make offers for bicycles and pianos. Its one of those take what you can get industries. In fact, there's such an abundance that this brings interesting economics research prospects. Perhaps something in Micro-economics or criminal economy or more specific in Micro, game theory.

So my camera is still unsold. Business ethics are still on holiday and the economy is still in a recession. I'd like to go on to talk about the AIG bonus payouts but I've already ventured far away into a land that would have been completely disconnected to photography had it not been for the fact that it is my camera, a Sony A300 that I am trying to sell. If you click the link you will see the beautiful pictures taken by various photographers and yes you're right, I'm totally trying to sell my camera... Because I need to pay rent for next month!!! :(


Nevermind, back to the topic. If you are to post anything on craigslist:
a) EXPECT these weirdos to mail you and expect A LOT of emails.
b) Don't trust any of them. You could play with a few if you want and continue to play catch and ball until they give up (always thought of this one)
c) ALWAYS DEAL LOCAL!!! Don't even think about taking seriously any kind of shipment deal. If such is the case, do it over ebay so that ebay and paypall will cover you as the seller.
d) Try to state it clear in your email that you will simply ignore any non-local emails. Don't say you'll swear at them as curiousity will get them to email you anyway.

I am still waiting for my Holga. Will post again when I get it and hopefully I'll shoot my first roll with PanF Plus, my favourite film! Can't wait...

A Holga?

So back into the world of photography...

There's been quite a bit that has happened since my last post.
a)I just upgraded my camera body and now shoot with a Sony Alpha DSLR-A700,
b)I just purchased the Holga GN120 - The 'G-series' glass lens version of the Holga
c)Immersed myself into the world of FIBER PAPER!
d)Feel like I might actually be going somewhere in the world of photography

First things first though, The A700:
Its a stunner and I can't believe the noise comparison at ISO 1600 to the A300. Whats more, I can actually use the ISO 3200 and a somewhat unusable but still handy to have ISO 6400. The body and feel of the camera are much better and the larger view finder makes a world of a difference... I think a larger view finder is key in getting good composition. I always marvel at how much better my film photographs tend to be and often credit it to the amazing view finder of the Maxxum 700si.

I have as a matter of fact achieved exactly what I wanted to: To get sister bodies of Minolta's 700 series with the Sony DSLR-A700 and the Minolta 700si, the later being 2 generations older (Previous bodies include the Konica Minolta 7D, the insanely amazing Maxxum 7).

Still I have to say that buying the A700 made me realize that this isn't quite what I was geared up for. I feel that the digital world is amazing, but my passion for event and studio photography are close to nothing, especially when I'm not being paid very much for using so much of my precious time. Most people don't realize the time commitment that one has to put in to take good photos and then work on them later on... There are constant requests to take pictures at an event free of charge, and the favors don't end here. They want additional work like a CD for example instead of just getting it straight off my website, and that I have to contact this person and that person. I personally cannot understand people who approach you for pro-bono event photographs that take up the bulk of your evening and more time to process and work on the photos. I once read a professional photographer's blog that talked about how shooting for pro-bono makes you exactly that: A pro-bono photographer and because you worked a couple of times for free, everyone expects you to do the same for them. The trap is way too obvious at the beginning and one has to be careful to what extent they take on these jobs.

When I just started shooting, the idea of commercial photography was something that I thought of as exploitation or extortion, especially the ones that charge up to $500/hour. 2 years ago, I would have been honored to take pictures at an event although with little confidence. But I guess its a complicated question here. I would hate to do a bad job and get paid for it. Whats better is that by doing it for free, you start of with low expectations and once you've done well, the praises do a great deal to boost your confidence. Back then, I would have taken whatever I could get as photo opp!

Things have changed now. My roommate and I decided to make something out of event photography as it would fund our much needed and ever ending desire to purchase new gear while giving back in the form of good quality photos. We created a website and decided to go from there. Our first few jobs in the paid photographer league were way below what someone else would have gotten. We averaged some $6/hour each after adding processing time... It felt somewhat bad to know that you're paid below minimum wage while doing a job that deserved so much more. But that's how contracts work. We had agreed to it and were going to a good job no matter what. We've matured quite a bit since, taking on probono contracts only for charities or causes that we truly believe in. For example, both Tyler and I are volunteer photographers for all UNICEF Quebec events. Its our gift to the organization and its efforts and we give in our 100% and enjoy it because we know the value of these pictures. Later this month we are doing the same for a management organization raising money for AIDS. Yet another great cause and I will gladly support it. For everything else though, we've decided to stick with the market (with a slight under-cut since our prices are for two photographers).

You might ask why I've decided to really look so deeply into this issue... The thought really, has come about since it's been a while since I've taken photos for myself. Its been months since I've wandered off to the Old port or somewhere else on my very own adventure, meeting people and asking them if I can snap a quick portrait of them or thinking about the perfect composition of a particular subject. I've even put off darkroom work for a very long time and there is very little that I could call personal in my work as of late. I think its fairly common for people to question their direction and often one finds themselves with a ridiculous answer to it like "I dunno!"

Yesterday evening, I thought I'd finally bite the bullet and make my way into the darkroom to give the new fiber paper a shot. Very expensive it is. Each sheet costs more than a dollar (more than double the price of RC Paper), but from professionals around the world still specializing in darkroom work, I learned that the extra dosh is worth the final quality. I decided to start small and print something a little smaller than 4X6 and giving it a nice panoramic frame (5X8 in total size). This was a special time for me. It brought back all the things I loved about photography and what initially got me into it in the first place. It wasn't just the feel of the shutter as you pressed the shutter release or that thought just after the click of a shutter where you know that 'this one's a definite yes' out of the 36 photo acceptance process. Its the lone times in the darkroom where I would think through things and ease off pressure, in a somewhat meditative environment of slow running water and safety lights. A form of getaway, doing something where the final product is a result of my very own work and very own effort.


One of my favourite photos, that's Razvan with his fancy umbrella. He claims to only buy the best umbrellas in the market... Yet he loses so many... This photo was taken with a Minolta 700si with Minolta 50mm f/1.7 lens at f/1.7, shutter speed 1/60 seconds with my favourite film, Ilford Pan F50 Plus


So this is why I took the plunge and purchased the Holga. It would be a step forward in the dying film world and I find both pleasure and fear in knowing that I might be one of the very last people to stop film photography because there is no more film left... Is that even possible? Pleasure because I will take pride in sticking to traditions and still valuing the 'old ways' (like being fluent in Sanskrit or something) Fear because it brings about scenes of Children of men in my head. (Shiver...)