Street Photography With My Childhood Film Camera

One question that seems almost obligatory in every photography interview is some variation of ‘How did you start in photography?’

Hearing and reading about many great photographers' humble beginnings led me to think about my own first camera - a bright red Halina 150 point and shoot film camera I had as a teenager in the 90’s.

Beyond snapping family events and immortalising fleeting holiday friendships, I used this camera to capture scenes that I could later recreate at home with pencils or a paintbrush. Taking images of small Spanish towns, their interesting balconies with wrought iron rails, colourful shutters, and then wondering how I would paint them when I got back home gave my photography a real sense of purpose as a teenager. A joy of creative accomplishment identical to how I feel now after a successful day of shooting street photography. 

With that in mind, maybe I was always destined to enjoy street photography when I picked up a camera again, and maybe it goes some way to explaining why I have gravitated towards impressionistic and painterly photography styles now. 

The Camera

The 33mm focal length Halina 150 is as cheap and plasticky as any mid 90’s automatic film camera you’re likely to remember or find. I’m not sure where mine came from, or indeed what eventually became of it… but I’m surprised to find one that still works now in such good condition. The only settings you can change is a three option weather slider, which I can only guess marginally changes how long the shutter curtain is open to allow a slither more light in, and in all honesty probably makes little to no difference. Absolutely everything else is automatic, save for the flimsy single press shutter button. 

I do wonder if having a more advanced manual camera as a teenager would have halted my use of a camera or encouraged it. Perhaps experimenting with some settings would have satisfied some creative need and developed a deeper appreciation of photographic art forms - maybe even to the point of taking photography up as a serious hobby into early adulthood. I guess I will never know.

The Process

I’m pretty sure every roll of film I used as a child was colour, but I decided to experiment with a roll of black and white HP5 for the camera’s first outing. With no option to change shutter speeds or aperture, along with the expected low picture quality, I figured focusing on contrasts and shadows with the sun low in the winter sky would be a good way to get the most out of the camera. 

I loaded the film on location in a bitingly cold midweek afternoon in Manchester, and for a second I thought the camera might be broken. The shutter wouldn’t fire. I soon figured out the lens cover needs to be slid back before it will take a picture - a nice touch really. That first shot triggered some long forgotten memory, the sound of the shutter button with a film loaded momentarily whisked me back twenty five years, as every teenage shutter actuation and that exact same sound came collectively into focus in my mind. 

I smiled.

The Results

There’s good news and bad news.

The bad news is I made a mess of removing the film, which caused some significant light leak and even ripped some of the film. Around a third of the pictures were ruined and not returned to me after processing. The good news is that some pictures came out fine, and some even suffered ‘happy accidents’ as the partial light leak created some pleasing effects.

The pictures came out softer and with less contrast than I am used to for HP5 film stock, but that again could be a symptom of light leaking onto the film. So when it came to digital processing in Lightroom, I decided to push the contrast a little as well as some standard cropping on the images that needed it. This editing resulted in the grain that was already present being a bit more pronounced, but I like it.

My intention with this shot was to capture the ladies shadow and my shadow on a passing tram. My reflection on the left was intended but I was surprised to see I have another shadow on the right of the image too, which I feel fits the composition well. I like the sense of movement and urgency in this image.

I’m happy with these next three shots too, all of which focus on human shadows. For some reason, every time I shoot with a film camera I start looking for shadows.

The peoples shadows here blend in well with the graffiti and almost look painted onto the wall.

With more patience this could have been a better image. I should have waited until the ladies in the background had left, and had a subject and their shadow more centred.

The accidental light leak over-exposing the lower half of this image actually helps draw the viewers focus to the shadow on the wall.

The next five shots are nothing amazing, but are worth posting here all the same. A mixture of everyday city scenes.

Overall an enjoyable experience. The lack of manual controls actually made shooting more difficult, as I had to consider the limitations of the camera and couldn’t rely on creative shutter speeds to tell a story or add interest. Maybe I will make a mental note to shoot one roll of film a year on this childhood camera of mine, and turn it into a long term project.