A Playful Discovery; my new 35mm viewfinders and flash photography

Finally I've gotten round to writing a blog post.

A couple of months ago I purchased two 35mm cameras; a Cosmic Symbol and a Holga 135BC.

The Cosmic Symbol, apart from having the coolest name for a camera ever is also awesome looking thanks to its retro looks. The camera itself was manufactured in Soviet Russia between the 70's and 90's and allows the user to control exposure by altering aperture and shutter speed settings on the lens itself.

f/13 1/200 ISO 100

Holga's are the original Instagram before Instagram was invented. I brought the 135 version due to process and development of film these days; 35mm film is the cheapest to get hold of and print in this digital age. The BC stands for Black Corners. Holgas are known for light leaks, soft focus and unpredictable effects amongst others; everything people love about mobile photography at the moment. Compared to even the Cosmic Symbol the Holga is very basic.

A quick shot from my iphone

The link between my new (old) cameras and this post is the Holga flash that I also bought to go with my film cameras.

The Holga 15B is a good bit of fun due to the colour filters attached to the flash unit via a screw. The idea is to put a filter in front of the flash, take a photo using the coloured flash and to wait and see what the photo looks like when you get them developed.

I was bored the other day and wondered whether I could get my 15B flash to fire using my Canon. To be safe, I didn't want the flash to short circuit my DSLR, I attached the 15B flash to a wireless flash trigger (used to fire a flash off of / away from the camera) and shot away at my unsuspecting model who at the time was reading a magazine.

My favourite shot was using a red filter.

f/5.6 1/125 ISO 100

Due to the angle of the flash, I like the shadows on the right hand side of the photo and the catch light in Laura's eyes. Other than that........come on she's red....what's not to like about this!?

During processing of the raw file I also tried out a black and white conversion that will definitely be a keeper.

 

The red filtered flash has created a brilliant look when converted to black and white.

 

Until next time. Which will hopefully sooner rather than later.