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A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

photo challenge

Foto Friday: The HooHaa Holga Challenge

May 11, 2012

My uncle (left) and cousin look over an RC plane in a Holga shot I took a few years ago.

Regular readers of the blog will remember a Foto Friday post I did a few weeks ago where I talked about a fellow photographer using film. I noted the lone film I used — and even that very rarely — is 120 film with my Holga camera.

A Holga is a plastic toy camera. Its lens isn’t glass and it takes “dreamy” and old-school images. These images can have all sorts of looks, from vignetting, to a blur to light leaks to distortions. It’s really quite wild.

According to Wikipedia, the Holga camera first appeared in 1981 as a low-cost camera. It was made in Hong Kong.

The thing is, with digital the way it is, film has become a secondary medium for photography. It’s almost nostalgia. That makes it a bit more interesting, too, when dealing with the “toy” cameras, such as a Holga or a Diana. Cameras like Polaroids have cult-like followings now.

After thinking about this for a while, I uncovered my Holga and dusted it off. I knew I wanted to use it a bit more. So I tweeted Mike (who was mentioned in the initial Holga post) asking him if he had a Holga, which he does. That led me to start thinking about a challenge. And, of course, I was thinking of a way to bring it to the readers of HooHaa Blog.

So, we came up with a “My town” sort of challenge.

I also decided to see what I could find on Twitter in regard to Holga shooters. When all was said and done, I ended up with six people (including myself and Mike) who are willing to take part in this challenge. We will cover different parts of the globe — from three places in the United States to Kuwait to Switzerland to the United Kingdom. This will be one fun challenge.

The rules of the challenge are simple enough:

  • Two rolls of 120 film — one color, one black and white. ISO will be 400 for both.
  • The participant takes two rolls of their home area — a radius of 15 miles from their home address.
  • Each roll will have 12 exposures, thus 24 total photos.
  • Of the 24 images, 12 will be chosen for this challenge. A minimum of three images must come from each roll.

The challenge starts this Monday — May 14. Photographers will have a month to get things done and all photos will be taken by June 11. Then, from June 17-22, each person will have a guest blog post on A ‘lil HooHaa talking about their images, their town and anything else they want to add. It will give readers a chance to see the views of other towns in this world — whether buildings, landscape, people, sports — anything — that shows the area.

I can’t express how I am excited for this challenge. We’re doing this in a friendly way — as a way to show this medium of photography and a way to learn and see how others do things. I’m stoked to see the images from this challenge as it seems like people live in different size places and I really think being able to see other parts of the world will be fun.

Also, I hope this won’t be the last time I run this challenge. In fact, I’m already starting to think of other challenges to do with Holgas and such that I can do on the site. But one at a time!

To start this challenge, I would like to introduce you to the five other people who are taking part in it, with one of their past Holga photos.

****

One of Jeff’s favorite past Holga shots. Copyright and all rights reserved to the photographer.

Name: Jeff Soderquist
Location: Seattle, Washington
Holga used:  120N (for this challenge); Holga 120WPC.
Photo interests: Beyond shooting with my Holga 120N, I am an avid pinhole photographer. My photographic interests fall into two categories, encompassing urban and natural landscapes. Living and working in downtown Seattle I’m fascinated by the daily functions of a densely populated urban center, and strive to capture it on film. I wouldn’t classify my style as street, but it contains elements of it. I’m much more interested in capturing the human movement over time through long pinhole exposures and supplementing it with more intimate subject matter. Beyond the confines of the city, I’m an avid hiker and landscape photographer. Weekends are often spent out on the coast or in the mountains wandering alone along trails with my cameras. I find this time to be very relaxing and self-reflective and strive to convey that through my photographs and accompanied writing.
On the web: 

  • Flickr
  • Twitter
****

One of Becca’s favorite past Holga shots. Copyright and all rights reserved to the photographer. 

Name: Becca G
Location: Totnes, Devon, United Kingdom
Holga used: 120GN
Photo interests:  I shoot digital, 35mm and medium format film, using a variety of different cameras.
On the web:
  • Flickr
  • Twitter
  • 500px

****

One of Nada’s favorite past Holga shots. Copyright and all rights reserved to the photographer. 

Name: Nada
Location: Kuwait City, Kuwait
Holga used: Holga CFN 120
Photo interests: I don’t like to limit myself to one style, but I find myself mostly doing either street photography or abstract.
On the web:

  • Blog
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • Shoot-Film (contributing writer)
****

One of Shaima’s favorite past Holga shots. Copyright and all rights reserved to the photographer.

Name: Shaima M (also known as Shayouma on some blogs)
Location: Versoix, Geneva, Switzerland
Holga used: 120N
Photo interests: Basically, I love Street Photography. I love photographing my kids as well. I would do nature on very rare occasions, when there’s a scene in front of me.
On the web:

  • Blog
  • Twitter
  • Shoot-Film (contributing writer)
  • Lomography

****

One of Mike’s favorite past Holga shots. Copyright and all rights reserved to the photographer.

Name: Mike Davis
Location: Waco, Texas
Holga used: 120CFN
Photo interests: Instagram, Hipstamatic, DSLR, underwater or whatever.
On the web:

  • Tumblr
  • Flickr
  • Twitter

**** 

I look forward to seeing what these photographers bring to this challenge. I think it will be a wonderful way to see other parts of the country and the world and am excited for the results!

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

Filed Under: Cameras, Foto Friday, HooHaa Holga Challenge, My world, Photography Tagged With: film, film camera, holga, holga challenge, photo, photo challenge, photography

7 Comments

Foto Friday: 1 down, 11 to go

February 3, 2012

This is the image that started my 2011 Project 366 challenge.

One month down.

Despite swearing I’d never do the Project 365 challenge again, I’m in the process of doing it again this year. Technically, I’m sticking to my guns as this year is 366 days… but still…

Nevertheless, I’m going strong. When I did it originally in 2010, I sputtered. Though I got through it, I had times when I just didn’t want to do it and cashed it in. I took silly shots that didn’t challenge me.

This year, my goal was to challenge myself a bit more. Try and use the DSLR more than the iPhone or a point-and-shoot. To this point, I’ve stuck to it. I’ve only had one photo that I’ve used be from the iPhone. And even that comes with an asterisk. I had taken shots with the regular camera that day but then lost my memory card for a day or so.

Some of the things I’ve focused on so far for this challenge:

  • Seeing things outside the box a bit more and trying to find different things to focus on. Not everything needs to be the perfect photo — just make the setting what it needs to be.
  • Getting outside my comfort zone. In other words, not trying to focus on sports so much and going to other places and seeing different things.
  • Looking at things differently. Basically, I now can look at a pine tree and realize zooming in on the needles can be really cool. I’ve played more with depth of field and such, too.

I’ve also set aside time each day to go out with the camera. I’ll go for a drive and find inspiration. If I see something, I snap it and I’m good. I usually stop there. I also take notes and ideas for future days. I’ve found one place in particular where I could probably get a different shot a day for a full year. So if I’m not feeling it one day, I’ll go there, take a walk and find something.

In truth, being unemployed has helped because I can take a break from the job hunt and go for a walk with camera in hand. Or, as was the case one day this past week, if on an interview somewhere, I can go explore a little after the interview to find an image for the day.

I realize, too, that having done this before is truly helping me. I know what worked and what didn’t work last time around. I know how close I was to ending it several times in 2010. I stuck through it then and plan on sticking with it this year. I’m sure I’ll eventually hit that lull that is bound to come, but I’m prepared. I have ideas for that “just in case” photo to get me through a day or three.

Until then, I’ll keep plugging along.

What’s even better — in my mind — is I’ve had the photo posted the day I took it, for the most part. Though that’s not a “rule,” per say, it’s kind of neat to have it up the day it is representing. I’ve only missed that a handful of times, and that’s only usually by a few hours. Again, once I’m fully employed again, that might change a little, too!

And now, I’d like to share with you (in no particular order), five of my favorite shots from January.

"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan (Jan. 21)

Darren jumping a 4-wheeler. (Jan. 8)

Raindrops (Jan. 12)

MasterLock (Jan. 24)

Fierce timeout. (Jan. 22)

For those of you also doing the 366, how’s it going?

Have you had any issues? Photo block? What’s been your game plan? Feel free to let me know in the comments section below. One thing I’ve really found is that when doing a challenge like this, it’s always good to see how others are doing it and such. It can be an inspiration.

You can follow my 366 project at this Flickr set.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Filed Under: Cameras, Foto Friday, My world, Photography Tagged With: 365 challenge, 366 challenge, foto friday, photo, photo challenge, photography, photos

6 Comments

Geocaching challenges are here

August 18, 2011

Today is the day that Groundspeak takes the next step in geocaching.

Over the past week or two, Groundspeak (the owners of geocaching.com) have been sending short videos about challenges, a new game that will work somewhat like virtual geocaches.

A virtual cache is one that doesn’t require an actual container. It takes the geocacher to a spot where a container can’t be placed. Someone then has to do an activity or read and report something to get the smiley. Though some virtuals are grandfathered and remain, new virtuals were ended several years ago.

Since then, many in the caching community have called for the return of them.

Challenges is the answer. Somewhat.

Challenges are supposed to be launched today. The geocaching.com website is scheduled to go down at 2 p.m. Pacific time (5 p.m. Eastern) for the updates. (This was recently changed as it was originally 11 a.m. Pacific). There will also be mobile applications (iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile 7) that are supposed to be released at the same time. (It would appear that this has already been released for the iPhone).

With all that in mind, I’ve done a lot of research. I’ve read a lot of things, listened to the exclusive interview that the Podcacher Podcast had with Groundspeak bigwigs Jeremy Irish and Bryan Roth and watched the videos. I’ll attempt to break things down here for my geocaching readers.

What is a challenge?

A challenge is something that will bring a player somewhere and that person will have to do something to finish the challenge. As of now, there are two types of challenges — a photo challenge (sweet!) and an action challenge. Groundspeak is also working on a third challenge, the discovery challenge.

“You’re basically challenging someone to go somewhere and do something,” Irish told Sonny on the Podcacher midweek micro podcast. “So it’s very broad. Then the idea is the community can take that action or photo challenge … and rate it and give it some kind of value. Is it interesting or not interesting? We’re taking the responsibility from the reviewers and putting it on the community to say ‘what do you thing is interesting to do?'”

The photo challenge will require someone to take a photo at a location.

The action will require someone to do something specific, such as shake hands with a statue.

By bringing this aspect to the game of caching, it throws a lot of things cachers are used to out the door, such as the 520-foot rule. Challenges won’t be under the rules of geocaching because, well, it’s a challenge. So places that were formerly off limits, such as Disney World or a national park, is now open because all you are doing is bringing someone to a spot to complete a challenge.

Said Irish on the official Geocaching blog, Latitude 47:

What are the guidelines for issuing a challenge? Unlike caches, there aren’t any official guidelines. Instead, you can rate challenges with thumbs up or thumbs down, and there are reporting tools available in the case that a challenge is inappropriate or unavailable. We’ll be tweaking these tools and introducing new ones as the activity grows, to ensure that the community can collectively decide what is appropriate, and what isn’t. For example, there is no 520’ guideline and Challenges won’t be blocked from being issued at Disney World, or even a pub.

This is where things get interesting, however.

Reviewers won’t be approving or declining challenges. Users will submit them and they will be out there. The community will have the ability to vote thumbs up or down on what they think of the challenge. Even if you don’t complete the challenge, you can vote. That’s an interesting twist to things.

“We feel like by adding this tool set to geocaching.com website, we’re going to allow people to have more fun with location, being creative and sharing location-based experiences with one another and it should be a lot of fun to see what they come up with,” Roth told Podcacher.

Challenges, too, can be accepted without completing them first.

Basically, the community is now the enforcing part of this. There are ways, however, to get Groundspeak involved. If there is an inappropriate challenge for example, Groundspeak can step in and do what it has to do.

Finally, though people submit the challenges, nobody owns them. In other words, once a challenge is submitted, it becomes public domain of sorts. That way, users can’t go deleting logs of other people etc.

What’s this mean to me?

If you don’t do challenges, nothing.

You can go on playing the geocaching game as if these challenges never existed. They will have their own spot on the website (www.geocaching.com/challenges when it goes live) and will have a separate count for the “smileys.”

That’s something many people will wonder.

According to Irish and Roth on Podcacher, a user profile will show caches found, challenges completed and trackables logged. When people look at logs, it will show a cumulative finds total and will show the breakdown of the cache finds and challenges completed. (I was a little lost here, so it might not show the split unless one hovers over the total number. I’ll have to wait with everyone else until the page goes live to see how it works. But it sounds like it won’t count like a true “smiley,” which I think is a good thing).

“At the end of the day, we’re not changing anything related to geocaching,” Roth said. “You can still geocache in exactly the same way and if people don’t want to participate in challenges, it’s not going to effect your count at all. If they want to look at everybody else in the community and take their find count as a measure of street credibility, they’ll be able to break our specifically how much of it is challenges and how much of it is geocaching. We think that is a good compromise and gives everyone a little of what they want.”

For premium members of the geocaching.com website, this will be good for you as premium members will be the only ones who can submit challenges at first. All users can do challenges, but premium members will be the only ones allowed to submit challenges and only one every 24 hours.

Challenges will be submitted through the website, but eventually will be able to be submitted through the mobile apps. Challenges also won’t be in pocket queries, but Groundspeak is working on a downloadable GPX files (same idea as geocaches) that will be on the challenge site.

My thoughts

It’s interesting.

I personally like that these won’t count as “finds” because with no rules and guidelines, there’s a chance that this becomes an over-saturated situation. In fact, I’ll bet that it becomes over-saturated. Though I might have issues with guidelines sometimes, there’s a reason they are in the game. It’s to make sure things don’t go nuts.

Just look at Waymarking.

In that, you have things like McDonald’s being listed. Is that the way this is going to go? I could see people who want to prove a point posting a lot of silly things. There is the “thumbs up, thumbs down” voting process, but what does that do? Does a certain amount of votes archive a challenge? If not, all it means is that people don’t like something, but it still stays there.

That being said, if it doesn’t come up in normal geocaching searches, then no harm, no foul.

The thing about many of the older virtuals that are grandfathered and still out there is that they are cool. They take you to interesting spots or have you do something neat. Irish told the Podcacher Podcast that they weren’t getting rid of those virtuals. In fact, he said he figured some of those virtuals would also become challenges.

Is that where geocaching should be heading?

I won’t give my personal thumbs up or down until I know more. I am excited to check this out when it goes live and over the next week or so. The reality is that geocaching is growing. But with that growth comes a lot of bad, including with traditional containers. I have seen a lot of newer cachers placing poor caches and then stop playing the game or never go check things. People rush to do a lot of things and don’t always think or get permission to place a cache in certain spots.

At least with challenges, it’s more of photos or actions. That could be fun.

I look forward to trying them. And maybe creating a few (I already have a few ideas). But I’ll save my judgement until I’ve had a chance to see what Groundspeak is rolling out to us.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

 

Filed Under: Geocaching, My world Tagged With: action challenge, bryan roth, caching challenges, geocaching, geocaching action challenge, geocaching challenges, geocaching photo challenge, groundspeak, jeremy irish, photo challenge, podcacher, podcacher podcast, waymarking

2 Comments

The HooHaa 52 is back!

July 12, 2011

The HooHaa 52 is back for its second year.

Those of you who haven’t followed my blog might not have a clue what I’m talking about. So here’s the brief synopsis of what it is. Basically, it’s a 52-week photography challenge. I have a group on Flickr with some fellow flickrites and each week, there’s a new theme. All of the participants have a week to interpret the theme and take a photo, positing it to the group.

This year, we have 13 people participating.

That’s a good number as it gives each person four weeks where they will choose the theme.

Last year, we started with a lot of people. However, as the year went on, people dropped out. It was disappointing, but it’s not too shocking as many people drop out of long photo challenges (I almost dropped out of the Project 365 so many times, but plodded through and was happy I did it).

Several people had mentioned doing something a little less stressful, so I came up with the basic premise for the 52.

I like the group we have this year as it’s a diverse group and some talented photographers.

I’m personally really excited for this as it’s hopefully going to push me in photography again. Over the past few months, I haven’t been able to push myself with my photos. I didn’t take near as many as I wanted to at GeoWoodstock and I didn’t utilize a few other things. The reality is that I live in a rural area and, at times, it gets hard to take photos of trees, back roads and small town stuff. Though there are some bigger metro areas within 1:30 or so (Albany, Binghamton), it’s still not that easy to up and do all the time because of current gas prices.

So, who knows what this can do for my photo inspiration.

Last year’s themes were interesting. Some of the more intriguing ones were:

  • Communication
  • The Wilderness in my …..
  • Abandoned
  • Signs
  • Geometric shapes
  • Juxtaposition
  • My peeps!

Now, remember, each photographer can interprit the theme any way they see fit. For example, the “My Peeps” one. Though most people thought of friends etc., at least one person used the candy Peeps. So it can be whatever each photographer thinks. It’s very cool.

I haven’t made it “illegal” for themes from last year to not be used, but I am hoping most people will stay away from it and try and expand even more. Or, at worst, take one of last year’s themes and make it a little different.

The first topic is to be posted this Sunday and next week is the first week. I’m pumped to see what is around the bend with the photo challenge!

For those of you reading… have any ideas for themes I should consider during my weeks? Post them in the comments section!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

Filed Under: My world, Photography Tagged With: hh52, hoohaa 52, hoohaa52, photo challenge, photography, photography challenge, photos

3 Comments

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This is a personal website covering many topics! We host a monthly photo blogging challenge, and then every January hold a fun writing challenge.

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hoohaa29

Writer who loves images just as much as words! In search of perfectly poured pints of Guinness and great hot dogs. Find me on twitter @softball29.

I guess the April Fool's joke is on us, Mother Nat I guess the April Fool's joke is on us, Mother Nature? Oh .. ha ha ha.
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I also guess this is why hitting back roads to work is good -- you can stop and take a photo and not worry about anybody coming (usually)! Main roads around here are fine for now, but it's definitely quite picturesque on the lawns/trees etc.
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#snow #winterspring #springwinter #april #blackandwhite #photography #photooftheday #goawaywinter #love #instagood #picoftheday #bestoftheday #nature #backroad #road
This was pretty relaxing and fun. #lego #legos #ea This was pretty relaxing and fun. #lego #legos #easter #legoeasterbunny #legoeaster #relax #hobby #fun
It shouldn’t be so hard to find a trash can... # It shouldn’t be so hard to find a trash can... #litter #mask #masks #blackandwhite #streetphotography
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softball29P.J.@softball29·
23h

When I covered MiLB years ago for a small daily, managers sometimes wanted my opinion or asked me to talk to the scorekeeper about changing a ruling. There should be a happy medium somewhere now being most or all teams have video/TV. That wasn’t the case with the team I covered.

Baseball America@BaseballAmerica

Another change to the minors is in store this year.

MLB informed minor league teams they will not be allowed to appeal rulings made by official scorers this year.

@jjcoop36 explains why:

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/mlb-memo-to-minor-league-teams-no-appeals-for-official-scorers-decisions/

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softball29P.J.@softball29·
11 Apr

I mean, if you hold a #Wrestlemania in an open stadium... eventually rain delays had to come, right? 🤣

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RealKentMurphyKent@RealKentMurphy·
7 Apr

28 years ago The Sandlot was released and this iconic scene was brought into our lives.

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