A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

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Film Still Lives – 2013 HooHaa Challenge: My Life

Many years ago, I stepped away from film photography.

With the onset of digital, I jumped in. First, it was with a Canon point-and-shoot. Then, it was a digital Rebel. From there, I went to a 30D to my current 7D, which I’ve had since early 2010.

I’m a digital junkie, too. I like being able to see things instantly, so I can adjust settings, the setup or whatever else. It’s also nice to have the “digital negative,” so I can correct things if needed on the computer.

The camera I used for this challenge.

I started with digital in 2006 and haven’t really looked back. Film cameras have gained dust, outside of me occasionally using my Holga. But with the addition of a Holga (as well as a Diana and pinhole) lens for the digital camera, I’ve truly phased out film.

That being said, it’s kind of fun to shoot a roll of film sometimes. It’s still kind of cool to go back to how things were and how I learned photography.

Then there’s reality. Shooting film is way more expensive than digital. Film costs money, it costs more to develop etc. Some develop their own (I used to, but never did color), but I no longer really want to deal with that.

Besides that, there’s the whole forgetting thing.

See, this challenge was to shoot two rolls of film — one color, one black and white. When I finished the color roll, I went to rewind. Little did I remember that I needed to hit the button on the bottom. Little did I know, that was big. So I tried to rewind, and instead pulled the roll right out of the canister.

Great.

Thankfully, I had access to an old dark room and had some old reusable canisters. I saved the film, for the most part, so that’s a good thing. The black and white roll went better.

Still, I went without prints. I got the negatives and a CD and it cost me $10 per roll. Consider the fact that when I go out for a day of photo taking with the digital camera, I often take 250 or more shots. I play with settings and do different things. Let’s say I had 36 exposure rolls — that means I will need about seven rolls of film. So, at $10 a pop, that’s $70 if I have a full day of shooting.

No thanks.

I’ll stick to digital and use film on those special occasions. This was a fun challenge. I did it over a couple of days and I like, for the most part, the results. Even with a light meter, my settings were off slightly, but I also was using this film camera for the first time.

So, the rules for this challenge were pretty simple — take two rolls of film with the theme “your life,” making it easy to interpret. When done, do a blog post with 15 of the images. Below will be my 15. Below that is the link list where others who participated will put their links. Hopefully some have done this and there will be some fun things to look at.

Without further ado, here’s my submission …

1. Car Wash is open

This sign is usually out in my town. I have photographed it before, but still love the look of it.

Open.

 2. Indeed it is

The car wash definitely is open. This is one of the shots, though, that must have caught a little light when I screwed things up with the film.

Light on the right.

3. Railroad crossing

I love the look of rail-related things in black and white.

All clear.

4. Stay off the tracks

Photos of the tracks are always classic and cool, I think.

Train a coming.

5. Go buy!

If you need hay, you know where to go.

Come buy some!

6. Santa parade

Watching the Christmas parade in town.

Watching along!

7. Mr. and Mrs. Claus

Santa and the missus made a stop in town for the parade!

Here comes Santa Claus …

8. Cold picnic

Hot dogs? Hamburgers? What do you think?

Good day for a BBQ.

9. Which way?

Oh, the choices. As a baseball nut, Cooperstown is usually the easy choice.

It’s always time for baseball.

10. Get the map

If you go to parks, it’s never a bad thing to check out the info.

Need info?

11. Go walk

It’s never a bad day to go out for a walk or an easy hike.

Off we go!

12. Handle with care

This was one of the first shots I took as I was testing settings. I actually like how it came out.

Is it really fragile?

13. Back road

Back roads in the winter are so serene.

There’s some ice on that road…

14. Hay

I don’t think this is the same hay that is for sale in the photo from earlier.

Snow-covered hay.

15. Posted

Posted property is quite normal around my area.

Posted.

That’s my 15 shots for the challenge. I won’t lie that it was a hard challenge. It’s one I’ll likely do again, but maybe plan a little better. I do like what I came up with, but I also wish I didn’t have the issues I had with my camera as there were six or seven shots that somehow got wiped from the color roll, which is disappointing as one or two of them could have been cool.

Ahhh well.

Anyway, if you were one of the ones who participated, link up below (film only, though)! I look forward to checking out other posts and what you came up with!

Thanks to all who participated and I look forward to trying this again!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Date for film challenge moved

OK, so as those of you in the Facebook group and/or with an e-mail who had expressed an interest in this challenge already know, I’ve postponed the date of this challenge.

Now, to be fair, it’s on me. I slipped and screwed up. So I’ll take the blame. That being said, hopefully the added time will help.

I’ve had a ton of things happen over the past month. And this week, even, which is why I’ve been a little sporadic with any posts. Next thing I knew, boom, the deadline for the challenge was here and I had taken, oh, no photos.

Jeez.

So, I’ve decided to postpone the date. With that in mind, if you post ran today — awesome. Keep it in mind and come back here and link it up when we do it. That way, it’s a quick hit, hopefully. If you didn’t have things done, bonus for you, too!

With that in mind…

I’ve moved the deadline to Dec. 12. That’s adding several weeks, I know. But it also allows people to get things done and set up. It also gives some others a chance to hop in, should they choose to do so.

If you are interested in jumping in late, all the information can be viewed in this post.

Thanks to all for understanding. I’m hoping to have some posts updating the things I’ve been doing recently. My plan tomorrow is to get all the film stuff ready and hopefully snap a few shots through this weekend and see what I can get into.

So come back Dec. 12 and link up. And if you want a reminder, either let me know in the comments you’d like an e-mail or drop a note in the Facebook group.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Film still lives: The 2013 HooHaa Challenge is here

I seriously can’t believe I’m going to do this — but I am.

It’s time to use some film, folks.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a total digital film buff.

Despite learning on a film camera and working many years in a true darkroom, I’ve become fully engulfed in digital. I love the instant gratification of a shot and knowing I can rip off a dozen or more for an action sequence and still have hundreds of images left to shoot on a memory card.

Film makes things a bit more interesting. And it makes you think more about the shot and settings. This is one I took in the early-to-mid 1990s.

But, there’s still something about film.

Film is classic. Rolling or unrolling a roll of film is amazingly cool. Waiting for the images to come back from the lab to see how you did is high in anticipation. And the best part is the look. Maybe you have an older roll and it has some light leaks. Or if you used a Holga camera, maybe you have a really cool look.

Either way, film is great.

While smartphones these days can mimic a lot of what film did or does, it still isn’t the same. Sometimes, it’s just really fun to shoot a true roll of film.

More than a year ago, I set out to do a film challenge on the blog. Six people — including myself — got together to shoot a couple of rolls through a Holga camera. The rules were simple — take two rolls (one color, one black and white) of the same ISO film, with 12 exposures on each roll of 120 film. Participants took photos from their home area and, when finished, chose 12 (a minimum of three from each roll) for the final project. Once done, they wrote up a blog post and we did a week’s worth of posts on this blog.

The breakdown we had was incredible. We had three men and three women. Three of us (all the men) were from the United States. The women represented England, Kuwait and Switzerland.

The results were incredible! You can see all of these posts by clicking here.

So, why not do it again?

Alas, this time I wanted to open it a bit more. I wanted to make it any film camera. You want to use a Holga? Feel free? An SLR? Sweet. A point-and-shoot? Have at it.

Just make it film.

The theme is simple — your life. Anything going on in your life. Anything at all. Travel. Your town. Sports. Hobbies. Kids. Whatever.

You have about a month to take the photos, give or take (I’m taking into consideration time to get the film developed, or do it yourself, scanning etc.), which is why the challenge runs longer than a month.

The rules for this year’s challenge are simple enough:

  • Film only. Please no digital, no matter what you can make them look like.
  • Two (2) rolls are to be used (24 or 36 exposure is fine) — one color, one black and white.
  • The photos should show pieces of your life over the time frame.
  • Fifteen (15) photos will be selected to be used for your post.
  • You post these on your own blog (can be any blog you write for — Tumblr included). This way, you can format and write as you see fit.
  • On the day we are to post, come back here and link up. I’ll have my post live by 3 a.m. Eastern time.
  • Check out and comment on all the other blogs for the challenge and let’s make this a fun community event!

The dates:

  1. Challenge starts: Today (Oct. 7, 2013)
  2. Challenge ends: Monday, Nov. 11, 2013
  3. Have blog posted on and come back here to link: Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013

If you would like an e-mail reminder about a week before things end, let me know in the comments below. I’ll grab your e-mail address from the comment (nobody sees your e-mail, obviously). Also, please let me know in the comments below if you are participating so I have an idea of how many, just as a curious thing.

You can also join the Facebook group I set up last year for the Holga Challenge, as I’ve made that the “film” challenge.  I’ll do my best to keep things up to date there.

I hope many will join as I’d love to see how people look at their lives through the eyes of the camera — with film.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

HooHaa Holga Challenge: And that’s a wrap!

When I originally thought up the HooHaa Holga Challenge, it was with the idea that I could find a couple of people who took photos with a Holga and have fun showing off their town.

What I didn’t expect is what I got.

Another of the rejects.

Through Twitter, five others jumped into this challenge. And with that, we had a wonderful variety of photographers from all over the United States and the world. Three women, three men. The USA. England. Switzerland. Kuwait.

What a view!

I’ve always fancied myself a bit of a traveler. Maybe not one who has traveled a ton, but one who would love to travel more. There are many others who have been more places than I, but I’ve had the opportunity to see a lot of stuff in the States, and I’ve been to different places in Canada and traveled to Ireland.

In my lifetime, I hope to visit more places. Some of those places include the ones we saw in this challenge. The photographers who brought you these wonderful pieces showed life from around the world.

Reject 3.

In my own country, Mike made Waco, Texas look like a great spot to visit. And Jeff’s take on Seattle made me almost want to move there!

As we got out of the country, Becky’s view on Totnes, England made me want to see some of this town as it seems like there would be some great places to explore. Shaima gave a nice feel to Geneva, Switzerland. And despite the reality that I will likely never be in the Middle East, Nada’s piece on Kuwait City reenforced my belief that the Middle East would be one heck of a great place to travel for photography reasons.

Photography — and writing, for that matter — are ways for people to share their lives, culture and things around them. Without this challenge, I would have never seen many of the items that others featured.

That’s what I learned about others. I learned some things about me and photography as well.

I do still enjoy film. I will never go back to film fully because I love the advantages that digital gives you. I also like that I can take a couple of memory cards and not worry about the money of buying rolls of film and getting them developed.

Another of the rejected photos.

For example, this challenge was two rolls of film. The film cost me, give or take, about 10 bucks. The developing, including shipping, cost me about $15. That’s $25.

Depending on the brand I choose, I could get about 32 gigs worth of memory cards for my digital camera for that same price. And those are reusable.

Film is great. I do love it. But financially, it’s not the best way to go for me. I like to shoot a lot of photos. Are all perfect? No. And they are easily sent packing with digital. But 5-6 screw-ups on a 24-exposure roll of film is quite costly.

I will continue to use the Holga. I’ll just likely pick and choose a little. I like how it works and such, but I want to make sure that when I do use it, it’s for things I want to see with the Holga feel or on film.

Film is special. That’s how I treat it, too. It’s not my everyday medium for various reasons, but one of those reasons is because it’s a special thing and I love to have that feeling when the film arrives. By happening too much, that feeling would shrink. As would my wallet!

To go back and check out all the Holga Challenge pieces, click on the links below!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Holga Challenge – Your Town: Delhi, NY

This gazebo, located on Delhi’s Courthouse Square, is a somewhat iconic place for our village. The square is where many area happenings go on, including the annual Fair on the Square, which runs each Friday in Julys.

Note: This is the sixth and final in a series of stories that are being done by participants of the HooHaa Holga Challenge. The series ran Sunday through today. See links for the rest at the bottom of this post.

This has been quite a challenge – especially in a photography way.

The others in this challenge, it seemed, had bigger areas to explore, discover and shoot. That’s one of the reasons I made this challenge within a 15-mile radius of your home area.

When this first started, I went back and forth with Mike about his “town,” which is Waco, Texas. His “town,” you see, is a city. With the space and population he has (including a major college), there were many possibilities for him.

See Jeff, who brought us to Seattle.

We also had close-ups of places like Geneva, Switzerland and what life was like in Kuwait and England.

And then there’s me, with Delhi (pronounced Del-hy, not Del-ee, like the city in India), a small town in upstate New York.

Though the business that owns this car wash has changed over the years, I remember it best when it was owned by a local car dealership. I had a lot of work done on cars there and bought a few cars there as well. Back in the day, there used to be three dealerships in town. Now there’s one. It’s much like everything else in this area when it comes to business – it’s hard to stay above water.

Nestled in the Catskill Mountains, Delhi is a wonderful little town. It’s an outdoorsman’s paradise in some places. We have a lot of history here and during the summer, it’s quite the peaceful place.

During the other months, our population swells up with an additional 2,000 or so people when the students of the local two-year state school come back for the year.

Despite all of these outdoorsy things, it’s still sometimes hard to get creative with photography. For someone who is a city dweller, I’m sure this would be a great place. The chances to shoot nature and see something different other than a concrete jungle would likely be welcomed.

For me, the city is where I’d like to be. Maybe not a place the size of a New York City, but somewhere slightly smaller, such as Albany, our state capital.

A lot of people say their places are small – as Mike. He thought Waco was small. But when I say Delhi is small, I mean small.

As with many rural areas, Delhi – and our county in general – has quite a few old cemeteries. Many of them aren’t active anymore, but they are a source for history, local and afar. I’ve come across many cemeteries with graves of people who have fought in the Revolutionary War. There is a lot to be learned in these old cemeteries and it’s nice that most of these places are still kept up decently well.

In the 2010 Census, the village of Delhi had a population of 3,087. If you go a little bigger and make it the town of Delhi, we’re now up to a whopping 5,117.

Let’s put this into a bit more perspective.

Delaware County, which is where Delhi is located, had a total of 47,890 people, according to the 2010 Census. The county isn’t small, either, as it’s a total area of 1,468 square miles. Of that land mass, only 22 square miles are water!

We’re surrounded by rolling hills and mountains. Trees are abundant. If the Census counted cows, our population would drastically rise.

It’s a great place to be and a nice area to raise kids. The crime rate isn’t high (crimes do happen, though) and, for the most part, one can feel safe being outside at most hours of the day.

In Delhi, there isn’t much to do.

I had to leave this photo in for two reasons. First, it is one of the photos that got hurt when the back popped off my Holga. Second, it shows something this area is really known for – it’s fishing spots. Whether it is small ponds or our branch of the Delaware River, there are some great spots to fish. And with there being a lot of DEC land, there are more opportunities for other outdoors adventures.

If you’re under the age of 21, you can scratch off the local bars for hangouts, too, so it becomes even less exciting. Despite being the county seat, Delhi doesn’t have any movie theaters, malls or shopping areas.

There’s an outdoors basketball court and a few parks. There are also some softball and baseball fields; soccer fields and some nature trails.

Heck, we don’t even have a village pool anymore, though they are trying to raise funds to put one in again.

Oneonta, which is in Otsego County, is the nearest “city.” It’s not even that big with a population just shy of 14,000. There are movie theaters there and some other activities people can get involved in, but it’s a 20- to 25-minute ride.

As I said, that makes challenges like this quite difficult as you need to open up and see things slightly different.

The village became incorporated in 1821 and has been featured in some pop culture places.

One thing about this area and the mountains is that it produces a lot of excellent spring water. In some places, hoses run off the mountain and people can stop and get cold, crisp water from the source. It’s a wonderful treasure and one I try and take advantage of any chance I get.

The Courthouse Square gazebo was even featured in the Saturday Evening Post on July 7, 1951. It was the cover for that magazine for that edition.

Delhi was also the setting for the award-winning children’s book, My Side of the Mountain.

The village has a size of 3.2 square miles, none covered by water, outside of the West Branch of the Delaware River, which runs through and opens up the chance to canoe, kayak or tube down the river.

Delhi isn’t perfect by any means. Many people who graduate high school here leave for better opportunities. Much of the village is off the tax rolls, be it for government buildings, non-profit places or whatever else. It’s also a village with an older population.

Being the county seat means Delhi is home to the county office buildings, courthouse and jail. The DMV is also located in town.

Just outside the village of Delhi and in the town, there is this rock wall. It’s the Greek Wall of sorts as the walls are painted by the fraternities and sororities from the local college.

Recent years have shown a gradual push toward some better things, such as a few restaurants, a better nightlife and local events that draw the village residents together. Still, there’s not much to keep the younger generation here as jobs aren’t as plentiful and getting decent-paying employment isn’t easy to do.

That leads to houses sometimes being sold to people who turn them into student housing and now college students sometimes mix in with everyday residents and that doesn’t always end well. Town-gown relations are up-and-down, depending on the day.

Some kids are respectful and quiet after a night of partying, while others are loud and destructive. I witnessed one year (and called police right away) a couple of kids walking up the street and kicking cars, breaking mirrors and whatever else – seemingly just to be destructive.

Politics are not the greatest here, either, as can be expected in a small place such as this. The good ole boys network is still prevalent with some things and not with others. But many times it is definitely who you know. I imagine many small towns and villages are like this, but when you live in an area, you notice it much more.

Ahhh, a picnic with nature. This is something that you can do around here as there are many picnic tables in local parks. On a summer evening, you can grab some food and go sit in a park, watch the world go by and have your dinner. Delhi’s small park system has grown in recent years and there are several where one can go explore, walk and enjoy being outdoors.

Delhi is a massive part of my life and has been, even when I was away. And, with the latest happenings in my world, I’m realizing it will likely be part of my past soon enough. This area is tough to keep people, as I’ve noted. And I’ve tried and tried to stay here, but things aren’t working out and reality is, I’ll be heading elsewhere sometime.

No matter what, though, Delhi is always a part of me. I’m actually writing this on my laptop in one of the local parks – the Courthouse Square. It’s peaceful and a nice place to go and write and people watch. It’s times like this that I’ll miss when I move on. I have a feeling it would be hard for me to go to a park in a place like NYC and do what I am doing here, without being a bit worried anyway.

The photos I chose for this story aren’t necessarily the biggest or best things about Delhi or the area, but it’s some of the things I always relate with my home area. And it’s the things I’ll take with me when I move on.

I hope you’ve enjoyed your trip through Delhi!

Here are the rest of the photos from my challenge:

Delaware Academy. The local high school and home to the 2001 Class C state champion football team. I have to be honest – I hated my time at this school, for many reasons. But it doesn’t take away that it’s a major part of our town. It’s on a hill and it’s quite scenic from many different parts of the town. The clock tower is something many from this area – whether they stayed or left – will always remember. This shot is also a double-exposure as it has the image of a “welcome to Delhi” sign I had taken, too.

Fitch’s Covered Bridge (black and white) and Hamden Covered Bridge (color) are two historical structures in our area. The two are separated by about 10 miles. There’s another – the Downsville Covered Bridge – that’s about 22 miles from Delhi or so. These bridges are two of about 25 remaining historical covered bridges in New York State. As a big fan of covered bridges, I love being close to a couple as they are constantly a source of photographic inspiration.

Hamden Covered Bridge.

I’m not sure how it is in places where you live, but we have quite a few seasonal roads. Basically, they are roads that aren’t taken care of, say, from November to April. In reality, they aren’t kept up that well in the other months, either. They are rough dirt roads and places where you usually want to only go if you have a vehicle that is higher up off the ground and/or has four-wheel drive.

These blue and yellow signs dot the land all over our state, but there are many of them in Delaware County and in Delhi. These signs identify historical places, houses and lands or historical happenings. They are sources to help us connect to events or places that came before our time.

HooHaa Holga Challenge:

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!