Low Tech Weekend

I’ll admit it — I’m a little burned out.

Last month was something of a photographic workout: preparing the next Focus Quarterly, chasing advertisers, untangling various websites, juggling lectures… and somewhere in all that, trying to keep the creative flame from flickering out.

Craig Semetko once said, “I try not to think at all… thinking just constipates things.” A vivid image — but not entirely inaccurate. So how does one keep the creative current flowing without overworking the grey matter?

This weekend, I had intended to mark World Wet Plate Day with the full theatrical rig: chemistry, timing, and total concentration. But the weather had other ideas. And, truth be told, wet plate demands a certain seriousness — a kind of quiet contract with the process. So instead, I went in the opposite direction.

The Holga 120N

Film of Choice for the day

I dusted off the Holga 120N and embraced the joy of going low tech. The Holga, for the uninitiated, is gloriously simple: plastic body, plastic lens, plastic everything. Aperture is a choice between “bright” and “not so bright,” focus is approximate at best, and the shutter offers all the decisiveness of a shrug. It’s less a camera, more a suggestion of one. Which is precisely the point.

With nothing to calculate, nothing to finesse, I was free to stop thinking and start seeing. A rough turn of the focus ring, a quiet press of the shutter — and that was that. No deliberation, no second-guessing, no technical wrestling. Just a moment, taken or left behind.

And the results? Well… exactly as expected. Of twelve exposures, perhaps three are even vaguely printable. But that was never really the measure of success.

The Dark Tree

The Avenue

The real reward was simpler: a bit of fresh air, a walk to clear the head, and a gentle unclogging of the creative machinery. No pressure to produce, no expectation of brilliance — just the act of making, stripped back to its barest essentials. Sometimes, that’s enough.

And who knows — perhaps next month I’ll dust off the Bronica SQ-A and return to something a little more… cooperative.