This weekend started just like every other weekend. I got up at the crack of dawn, because our kitten, Gracie, has decided that I needed to serve her breakfast. Off I went downstairs, before the Sun had come up, and reached into the fridge for that first Red Bull. Then its off to the living room where Harley, my beautiful American Pitbull Terrier, has also decided that it’s time for breakfast. So with both pets fed and content, I am off to check my emails at last. My emails tend to come at very strange hours as I am in the States and most of the vendors and camera companies are in Japan or Russia. So emails checked, deal cut on some Smena 8M’s… off to wake the Wife and start the Day. First stop was our Po Box by the river in Montchanin, to grab the mail and take a second to enjoy the waterfall behind the Post Office that was a mill back in the 1800’s. It’s a beautiful way to start the morning, and my Aunt’s gallery is on the second floor, so often we are treated to a private viewing of Wyeth paintings and other great works of art.

The usual start to every weekend is breakfast at our favorite diner, Lucky’s. Egg Sandwich and coffee for me, eggs and a diet coke for Kristen. We’re there so much they just serve us without even really asking.. not sure if that is a perk, or quite sad. So where was I? The Holga 135. Over the last year, the Holga 135 had revived my belief in 35mm. Before I got my Holga 135, I had not shot 35mm in years.. many years. I shot all 120, all square- with either my Mamiya 6mf (my Rolls Royce) or my trusty collection of assorted Holgas (the Hyundai’s and Yugo’s). 

Shooting 35 again not only expanded the range of cameras for me to shoot with, but made the images much faster to access. With a one-hour lab, I can drop off my roll of 35 and have a CD back within an hour containing 1500 pixel scans. They are fine for the web, and if I like one in particular, I can do a highres scan myself. As a bonus, the whole process costs about $5.00, which is less then the processing cost for one roll of 120, which I have to scan myself.

The Holga 135 not only filled a void in the camera collection, but has also made me shoot quite a bit more then usual. Each weekend brings roll after roll after roll- some off to the one-hour lab, some off to PhotoworksSF for Cross Processing. The Blackbird, Fly was the next camera to really make me want to shoot 35mm. I love my Yashica 124g, but don’t always want to break out the rolls of 120. The Blackbird is a great alternative, and it’s little cousin, the Golden Half is always in my bag as well. 

So where was I? Oh yeah, my Holga 135 disintegrated a few weeks back. And the weekend jaunts are just not the same without it. I kept it loaded with Kodak 400cn, a Black and White film you can process C-41. The film and the camera seem to have a synchronicity that just oozed out dreamy images. The film has a great range, which compensates for the contrasty processing of the Noritsu at the local one-hour lab. You don’t have to do anything to it in post, which is something that I appreciate about this film. I don’t like to make color images Black and White, I feel like its cheating. I like to either shoot for Black and White, or shoot for Color. No sepia, no selenium toning.. none of that. Shoot the image you want in camera.

So as we left breakfast and headed to our favorite garden shop, Terrain, I had a chance to snap some shots of the beautiful Tibetan art that they have for sale. While Kristen has a look around for spring plants, I wandered the walkways and enjoyed the amazing water features. After Terrain we decided to take advantage of the warm weather with a walk around Rockwood park. Rockwood is a small park on the grounds of the Rockwood Mansion (the cover image), and a nice little place to stretch your legs on the way home.

So where was I? Oh, yeah. My Holga 135 is broken. And if you’ve read this far, you realize that none of this has anything to do with that Holga. In fact its just a rambling stream of consciousness. I just didn’t want you to focus on the images, because this was actually a camera test. Half of the images above were shot with my Leica, and the other half with a Special Moments 650, which costs exactly $1.00 and is purchased, you guessed it, at the Dollar Store. Can you tell them apart? I doubt it. Even I had to mark them so I would remember which was which. I shot every frame exactly the same with each camera. So there are two identical rolls of film. What’s the point of this? It all goes back to the Holga, trust me. But you’ll have to wait till tomorrow to find out why.