I recently took my Holga 135BC on a kayak paddle to Burgess State Falls in TN.

The Holga is a low-cost ‘toy’ camera with a plastic lens. It was introduced in 1982 in Hong Kong, intended to provide a cheap mass-market camera for the working class.

The Holga camera is known for a lack of precision, impressionist renderings, and blurred edges.

The softness of the images from a Holga are part of their appeal. In a world of digital sharpness and filters, the Holga gives you a soft and dreamy image with those real film colors.

“Toy” cameras like the Holga or Diana are a fun way to play with film photography, especially if you don’t mind (or even want to purposefully obtain) unpredictable lo-fi results.

The Holga can take double exposures with ease, sometimes a little too much ease. You might end up with a double exposures whether you particularly mean to or not!

In the era of digital precision, it’s fun to lean into the messiness of Holga’s analog softness.

I found my hunter-green Holga 135 BC in 2011 at an Urban Outfitters in Savannah, GA, but you can easily pick on up online or second-hand.

You can see more of my Holga images here.