A Daily(ish) Photography Blog Devoted to Long, Tall, Square, and 35mm film Pics.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Double Exposure...Double Entendre


(Snapped in January, 2011 - using a Holga 135)

Admittedly, I can be just a teensy bit particular, when deciding which of my photos make the cut or conversely - wind up on the "cutting room floor". It's not that I'm a perfectionist, per se - but I am sort of anal about certain criteria being met, if I'm to consider a photo to be a "keeper". That being said, I am also a spaz...and so when I read about double exposure in my handy Holga manual - I didn't really dig the idea of it frankly (I prefer that my pictures be tidy) but I did fully expect it to happen, since I regularly whiff on things like - removing the lens cap before I click the shutter. And because of that - I also knew that remembering to advance the film, after snapping each pic. with my Holga 120 - might not be second nature, for awhile. I did not, however - expect double exposure to be an issue when shooting with my 35mm Holga, since each subsequent shot cannot be snapped until the film is advanced to the next frame. And this explains why I had no idea what was going on when I first looked at the picture above. I was flipping through the prints from the first roll of film that I'd taken with my Holga 135...when I came to this one...and I......was......stumped. Like seriously. What in the world was up with that phantom hornets' nest floating at the top of the pic....


(snapped in January, 2011 - using a Holga 120)

I'm still not exactly sure how I managed to do it, while using my 135 - but after comparing the top photo to the one seen above (my first 120 film d.e.) - I deduced that double exposure must indeed be the reason for the hornets' nest pic.'s queer appearance. (See? My daddy was right...I am about as sharp as a bowling ball)


(Snapped in January, 2011 - using a Holga 120)

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm a huge fan of double exposure (at least not just yet, anyway) but every once in awhile, it does keep an otherwise blah photograph, from finding its place in the trash bin. Ahhh...but the picture above is definitely not an example of that. In fact, to me the double exposure ruined what (I had hoped when I took 'em) would turn out to be two simpler, less clutterd images. I probably wouldn't actually have minded so much, if the hasp and the lock could've at least made it completely into the darkened section of the shot...but they didn't...so it bugged me...a lot.


(Snapped in January, 2011 - using a Holga 120)

But now here's an example of how double exposure helped a bland photo tell a more interesting story...


(Snapped in February, 2011 - using a Diana F+)

The control freak in me is still a bit hesitant to tinker with double exposure on purpose. But the spaz in me makes sure that surprises like this - bring me that much closer to wanting to...

2 comments:

  1. The last two are just too cool. If I saw these on the cover of a book/magazine, I'd pick it up. Eye-catching.

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  2. Wow...THANK you, Don! I wish I could take credit for how they turned out, but at the moment - double exposure in my pics. is entirely accidental...Thank you so much for checkin' out my Little Pretties blog!

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