Char Siu Bao

[terriwu]

I've been working on a personal project on taking photos of Chinatown here in San Francisco using a plastic Holga 120S camera (made in China..) using mostly Tri-X film. It has a plastic lens and can be had for about 20 dollars.

The project in progess can be seen at http://www.pbase.com/terriwu/holga_photos
Here is an example photo:

 

[LaFoto]

So I take it the idea of the photographic expedition you are one, terriwu, is that of taking good photos with some quite cheap photographic material?

We have the same thing going on in my country with cameras produced in (formerly East-)Germany and there are huge exhibitions going on with - mostly amateurish-looking - photos (that can't be enlarged too much, though).

The photo you are presenting on this board, however, doesn't look amateurish to me at all. I quite like it for various reasons:

- theme
- light
- motif

The framing doesn't appeal to me that much, though, but this could be resolved by a little cropping: I'd crop some of the right-hand dark kitchen background (would get the person out of the centre part of the photo and over to the right third) and some of the bottom part. With this crop, I believe that the effect of the natural light from outside the window would be even more dramatic.

 

[thebigbillybob]

I LOVE HOLGAS! i just finished a holga night shot series with a modified holga abnd they turned out well to bad i do not have a scanner to scan some prints...

 

[craig]

Holga's are a blast. Great job. Kind of like peeking through a key hole.

 

[photobug]

This's probably the best quality pic I've ever seen from a "plastic fantastic."

What's your secret for getting such a great image with one?

 

[bogleric]

I must agree with Jim, that is quite the shot for a plastic camera and this is one of those pictures I always talk about telling a story.

The shadows are great I just wonder if the there is too much under the subject in the picture. I really like the shadow of the outside awning on the window and accent of light on whatever is in the bowl.

This really is an excellent shot, if you didn't tell them it was with a "plastic fantastic" nobody would ever know.

Great shot!