8/2/08

On the Manila photowalk I recently joined, I only brought two cameras. My simple, black Canon EOS 33 SLR and a strikingly red-orange Holga 120CFN. The Holga is a recent acquisition sparked by one of my friends buying a Fisheye II.

I find the shooting process with the Holga refreshing if not marginally liberating. It has a viewfinder that’s not accurate, two aperture settings for daylight and cloudy, two shutter speed settings B (bulb) and N (1/100) and a ridiculous focusing ring that has symbols instead of a distance scale. I call them portrait, family (of 3), barkada and mountain. Haha. While I do not support the “Don’t think just shoot.” philosophy, it’s a little bit amusing to click the shutter with such ease, void of the complex adjustments required by an SLR.

What a wonderful way to take snapshots!