My first experiment with middle-format film and a Holga camera - a total disaster! In all respects. I decided to ignore my embarrassment and let you have a good laugh on it! Here come all the images from my first roll of film.

So what went wrong? To start with, this is a standard C-41 color film. As you can not see. Why? The lab decided to develop it with a black-and-white developer instead... (Real professionals!) They realized their mistake and with the massive help of digital technology (how ironic!) they managed to squeeze almost bearable black-and-white images out of the tortured film. So far so good. Just some dried liquid and plenty of goo remains on the negatives from this mistreatment. But given they are not my 20.000,-$ fashion shots, I do not care much. The good side is they now really know me (the weirdo with the crappy medium format pictures that were actually in color!) and greet me by name when I enter the shop... (and it is a very busy shop near Congreso!)

I will blame all lack of aesthetic and photographic quality in these pictures on the above-mentioned fact of the misprocessing! Nothing to do with the photographer... ;-)

One thing I honestly do like about the pictures is the square format - but that can be easily achieved by cropping in conventional (i.e. digital) photography, too.

A characteristic that is almost entirely missing, is stray light. I was obviously very anal with the black plumber tape to seal the camera... Stray light on the film is, according to some, one main identity feature of the Holga!

P.S.: A little remark on the Holga from earlier on: http://captainchris.multiply.com/journal/item/61