Holga photo: Sydney Harbour Bridge

The Sydney Harbour Bridge; Sydney, Australia; 2007 © Gabriel Ponzanelli

I've been playing a lot with a Holga lately. It's a cheap, plastic camera that uses medium format film and is a lot of fun to play with. The lens is also plastic and of very bad quality, so it produces a lot of distortion and focus is all over the place. There is no control over exposure other than a "bright/overcast" button that I don't think does anything really. To make it even worse (or better, depending on how you look at it), the casing isn't really well built and lets some light in randomly. I've found that at least with mine, light leaks depend on how hard I press the camera!

Anyway, all of the defects above are actually what make it fun. Holga's produce a very distinct look that can sometimes be used to an advantage. Of course, it's not to everybody's liking, but I enjoy shooting with it and sometimes really like the results. It's liberating shooting with a camera that all you can do is truly point and shoot.