Lomography

Two months after coming back to the States from my summer study abroad in Paris, I received my first analogue and lomography camera as a birthday gift. Read on to find out which camera I received and how I fell in love with it!

Photo by jeffr

In October 2010, I received the Holga 120N from my best friend Matt as a birthday present. I was really shocked because I didn’t know much about the Holga and I wasn’t an avid photographer at that point. But I was immediately fascinated by the fact that the camera was almost completely made out of plastic and used medium format film!

Photo Cred: Amazon

I have to be honest though and say that it took me months before I got through my first roll. When I got the Holga, I was extremely busy with schoolwork (lame excuse I know). But months later I loaded the camera with a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus and after shooting in my hometown of Brooklyn, I was in awe at how amazing the photos came out. I’m not trying to brag but this was my very first roll of analogue film – I really give most of the credit to the Holga and the film.

Photos by jeffr

While going through the roll, I remembered “oh yeah, I could take that thing called ‘double exposures’ with this camera,” so I tried it out. This is my first double exposure.

Shaky Bridge

It wasn’t what I expected nor does it represent the advantage of overlapping two completely different images. But I love the sort of shaky feeling it gives the photograph.

Manhattan Bridge

Before taking pictures with the Holga 120N, I already loved that it looked and felt like a toy. But after going through my first roll, I loved even more that the resulting photos were square, had vignetting, and they all had a dreamy look to them. This article is for Matt – the reason I’m a lomographer.

Matt

To see more of my Holga photos, check my black and white album and Cabo Mexico album.

What was the first Lomo camera you owned and fell in love with? Share your stories and check out our requested posts for this month to earn more Piggies! Meanwhile, you can check out other Love at First Lomo stories from our community members.