Back to plastic: shooting film in the underground again

 Hey folks,

Last Saturday, I sort of took a trip back through time, to a period very early in my photo career. I did this by digging out one of my old Holga plastic film cameras--specifically, the Holga 135. Bear in mind that I had not shot with a plastic camera of any kind since before the pandemic...so it's been a while. But, having heard the call from the muse, I had little choice but to obey. I took the Holga down to a warehouse party at a secret location in DTLA, just like I did when I was first getting involved in the scene back in the mid-Nineties. 

I decided to throw in some very old expired film--some great old Arista 400 B&W that was at least a decade past its "best by" date. It had been sitting in the refrigerator for maybe fifteen years, patiently waiting for the moment that I would call upon it. I had no idea what was actually going to end up on the film...when it's that out of date, it's quite possible that no good results are going to come about.

Fortunately, I didn't need to worry about that, as the film came through with no issues. The only issue I had was that the camera itself refused to work in Bulb Mode, so I wasn't able to do any long exposures. As a result, I was forced into shooting in a very minimalist style, the kind of stuff I was forced to do back in the early stages of my rave photojournalism days. While I was on the dance floor shooting, I was wondering if anything worthwhile was going to come out of this. As it turned out, my concerns were pretty groundless.

It really is remarkable what good results a plastic camera can deliver. Remember, that means that even the lens in made of plastic. As you can see, it still produces some great results.

It's good to see that the old photo instincts are still in there.