Day 19: Plastic Photography

Hey Guys! So something I've been really wanting to get into for a while now is plastic or toy camera photography. I hadn't even heard about it until a friend of mine got a Diana Mini camera, and I just loved it! I love the 'dreamy' look of the photos they take, and I think that the cameras themselves are so cute and fun to use!

The thing that really sold me on this particular design was the back. I have used digital cameras for a very long time, so I'm pretty used to immediately looking at the back of the camera after I have taken a photo. This design says "Just Surprise Me" on the back, almost as a cute reminder that you won't get to see the photo until you develop it.

So why choose to talk about this now while I'm doing my 31 Days of Living Life to the fullest? Well, I was just thinking the other day about how long I've been interested in plastic cameras.

I heard about them and considered getting one for a good year before I finally ponied up the $35 bucks, and then spent another $5 or $10 (can't remember) on a back of 2 rolls of "Holga Film" also from Roxy.

Once I got the film I spent weeks taking pictures only when something memorable or really fun was happening as to not waste the film, and then spent another couple months trying to decided whether to send then film in somewhere good, or just take it to Walmart.

Eventually tried Walmart. No go, as this "Holga" film was from Europe, so I had to send it away.

A Month later they told me the film had not loaded into the camera properly and there was nothing on the film.

A little anti climactic? Yeah, for me too. Mostly because I had been waiting for SO LONG to get those pictures! When I started thinking about how long everything took, I realized that I was needlessly prolonging the process with this little camera simply because I believed that it should take a long time. But it really didn't have to! At this point I had really only spent $40 - $45. Not in any way a serious investment!

Realizing that I have been spreading everything out to make this whole "Plastic Camera Experience" Take as long as possible, I went right to Walmart, bought a pack of 3 Rolls of Kodak film, and went to town. I took pictures of everything. Most of the roll was spent on me and my family hanging out and baking cookies at my Mom's house.

As soon as the roll was used up I dropped it off back at Walmart, and picked it up when it was ready.

Unfortunately a lot of the pictures didn't make it. I should have realized that the 400 iso film wouldn't do so well in the house, but I'll just have to get some "Inside Film" later on. The point was that I finally had pictures!

Out of what I did get out of the roll these are my favourites.

It's really exciting to finally have pictures from this camera, and I am still a little frustrated at myself for making everything take so long! I am happy however, that I'll be taking a lot more pictures with this little camera from now on.