One of the big reasons I decided on this camera set up is the lens. This IS the FASTEST medium format lens EVER made. Whoah. Awesome. He he he… There are a couple of reasons why it is so cool to have a “fast” lens.

Reason #1: You can take pictures in less light without having to resort to a flash. And, seriously, who wants a flash in their face? Not me…
Reason #2: You can get amazing bokeh (that’s that purdy blurry background you see below) with such a shallow depth-of-field.

The negatives this camera produces are a whopping 6×4.5cm which is almost three times the size of a 35mm negative, increasing fine detail and decreasing grain in enlargements. These are very very high quality images, guys! Image quality is very important to me, so this is a huge deal, and it honestly makes me giddy like a little girl on Christmas!

Drawbacks of the system for me so far are:
Learning curve on new camera hurts my brain… no seriously. Well, maybe I’m joking a little…
I am not used to manually focusing, so it’s certainly something I’ll need to practice with. Preliminary thoughts on the Mamiya 645 manual focus are actually quite the contrary to what I was expecting. This system is remarkably easy to use (after memorizing the entire camera manual cover to cover, of course) and once I get a few more rolls of film under my belt might even be easier than my Canon autofocus.

My dogs were the very willing and unassuming test subjects when I took the Mamiya 645 out for a spin. Unfortunately, furry family members just don’t live long enough, and I always tell myself to take the time to photograph them but I rarely get around to it. I will personally cherish these pictures for a long time, and even though the focus isn’t perfect on all of them (oops), I captured a little slice of their doggie life. That’s what I love about photographing dogs really. It would be interesting to be a dog for a day, I think. But, that’s another post for another day.

All images below were shot on 120 Kodak Portra 400 and generally exposed for the shadows, all at f/1.9 and around 1/30-1/125th sec exposures. I love how this film was able to capture the details on a white dog with black lips and dark eyes… such amazing film!
My handsome man: Charlie Brown, who was rescued from a gas chamber in Los Banos, CA by the nice lady from ARF: Animal Rescue of Fresno when he was just 3 months old. Then he came to live with me, and I’m so so so happy he did! After we got him he got very sick, and it turns out he had distemper! Oh noos! Fortunately we were able to nurse him through and he’s been my boy for almost 13 years. I know everyone says this about their dog, but he IS the best dog in the world. Period.
This is Lady. She was found severely emaciated at San Joaquin Country Club by a good friend. She was covered in ticks, starving, and on her last legs when he lured her into submission with some hot dog pieces. After several months of good food, medical care, and a real family (probably for the first time, ever), she had regained her strength and is now a proud member of our pack. She is still pretty skittish around new people, but is really just a love bug who licks everyone all the time… Her nickname is Lady Bug.
This is what Lady looks like when she dances and smiles!
Sundance is a spoiled little man, but he loves his people! This guy was rescued from the side of Highway 99 by someone and taken to the CCSPCA. On his last day at the Fresno SPCA before he was marked for death, he got a cell mate named Hampton. My sister was getting Hampton a “get out of doggy jail free” card that day and when she saw little Sunny-D with the red mark across his chart, she brought him home too, not even knowing what to do with him. Hampton found a very nice home through the help of the people at ARF while we fostered him. But Sundance… He convinced us all that he would be better off staying, so he did. He just weaseled his little booty into our family, and although he did drop out of dog obedience school (eh hem, failed), we’re very happy he’s here!
“This is MY pine cone! You can NOT haz my pine cone!”

One of the major reasons I love my Holga is that the pictures are inherently imperfect. Huh? I know that sounds odd but let me explain… I am a major perfectionist in my photography. I painstakingly pour over pictures I take analyzing what I could have and should have done differently, but with the Holga, I get to focus on the moment. I appreciate the imperfections in my photographs more knowing that I captured something uniquely that will not ever be able to be replicated with the latest iPhone photo app… simply a moment in time. It’s what makes me love photography again, but even more importantly it makes me a better photographer even when I’m not using it. Yay for the Holga!

Voici des fruits, des fleurs, des feuilles et des branches (Here are the fruits, the flowers, the leaves and the branches)
Et puis voici mon coeur qui ne bat que pour vous. (And here is my heart, which beats only for you)
Ne le déchirez pas avec vos deux mains blanches (Don’t tear it apart with your two pure white hands)
Et qu’à vos yeux si beaux l’humble présent soit doux. (And may this humble gift be sweet in your beautiful eyes.)
~Paul Verlaine

And so, voici les fleurs (here are the flowers).

Kodak Portra 160NC, overexposed a stop.

This little camera made me fall in love with film again. I'm really just an old film photographer from waaaaay back. I learned photography by shooting on film and hand developing in the darkroom at school. I've always held a special place in my heart for huge negatives and a dynamic range that cannot be replicated with a digital sensor... but anyway...

The Holga is a very low-tech camera, entirely manual and sometimes, eh hem, not precise. But the lack of technology somehow allows me to focus on the image, and in my opinion, take better pictures. I think less, and shoot from the heart. It brings me back to what I have always loved about photography, and for that, I am forever grateful. Here's some Holga love!

For my fellow photographers, these were all shot on Kodak Portra 400 and developed and scanned at Fotech in Fresno, California.