First Roll Processed

Finished my first roll today. Learned some valuable lessons from it too. Don't shoot 400 speed film outside with a polarizer. I ended up with some really thin negatives. Here is an example image taken by my little WOCA.

There is a heck of a lot of fall off to but these are from way under exposed negatives.

I also learned that my Epson 4490 can be tricky. More on that later.

It's A New Day

I've been thinking about getting out and taking some pictures with my WOCA. I need a theme. I guess I'll have to think on it for a little while.

Looking up is a possibility. Maybe some street candids downtown. Not much going on downtown on a Saturday I don't think. Churches? One thing this town has a lot of are churches. How about big? All things big? That could include churches. It could also include the giant statue at the fairgrounds. An artist is supposed to be building a giant statue of a Native American somewhere around here, not sure if it's started yet.

What a freaky winter! Last Sunday it was nearly 80 degrees out. Plus we've had no real rain or snow to really think of. One rain storm the December 24th and a snow storm before that (can't remember when that was) and that's really it. I keep checking the ten day forcast at weather.com and it will look like we are going to get some rain but the rain is always way out there. The closer you get to now there's nothing. It seems like the west coast is getting most of it. I wonder why it doesn't reach here?

Maybe I'll take some pictures and stop worrying about rain. Pray for rain for us, we need it.

You're Outta Here!

Well I now have the felt off the back and it's a lot easier to turn the film advance. Surprise surprise! I was on 4 or 5 without knowing. The numbers on the back of Ilford's XP2 are very hard to see thru the window.

I also bought a 46-52mm step up adapter so I could use my 52mm filters. I have a polarizer and an Orange plus the Holga filters which use a stick on holder.

Too Much!

Dang! I loaded the camera with film and it's impossible to wind. Too much felt on the back. Probably one layer too much. I have a total of three layers so I guess I'll remove one and try again.
I stuck some paper under the take up spool and this has helped to put enough tension on the spool.

A Day Later

Thanks to Justin for pointing out the typo in my first title. Early this morning I uploaded images of the camera itself with modifications to my PBASE. Today I am going to get a take up spool (one comes with the camera but it's not right, too wide and leaves a gap for light to fog the film after the camera is unloaded.

My goal is to take some pictures today. Hopefully.

Josh wanted to know what my fetish is with this camera. I don't know. It's neat. It's different. It's not digital. There are so many reasons. Besides, I have a scanner (Epson 4490) than can scan the negatives so I might as well put it to good use.

Bill

My First Holga

OK so it's not really a Holga. It's a WOCA, a HOLGA with a glass lens. My son gave it to me for Christmas along with the filter holder and filter set.

There are a lot of Holga resources on the web regarding mods and what to do when you get your camera and I wasted no time. The first thing I did was remove the lens and tape up the camera so i could flock the interior. I also got the 6x6 insert and flocked it as well. The fake leather-like sections of the plastic I painted a glossy blue. For the interior I used America's Finest Ultra Flat Black. This was two days ago.

Last night I drilled a hole in the bottom and epoxied a 1/4" Cap Nut for a tripod thread. Next I plan on working on the film plane and adding tensioners to keep the film taught. I might also buy a newer Holga to get a shutter with Bulb so that I don't have to modify mine.

What I would really like to do is add a Prontor shutter and still have the Holga lens.

Another mod I am contemplating is removing the glass lens and taking it to an optician to have it coated. We'll see.

Images will be posted to my Pbase page:
http://www.pbase.com/billkaroly/

Later...