If you’ve been following my photography for a while now you’ll know about my interest in pinhole photography - perhaps the oldest and simplest form of the genre. From time to time I dabble in another lo-fi form of photography too, using a plastic Holga camera. This simple machine has a plastic lens and a single shutter speed (around 1/100 of a second) but somehow the lack of bells and whistles means you have to work harder to find images.
Back in February I had a work trip to Somerset and decided to go old school with my camera equipment, taking just a Holga and a pinhole camera with me. One morning I stopped off at St Andrew’s Church in the village of Old Cleeve and decided to use the Holga to capture a collection of images here.
The Holga has an interesting look. The centre of the lens is surprisingly crisp, but the sharpness towards edges of each frame falls off quite quickly, creating a beautiful, dreamy effect. I’ve never used the camera in a church setting before (at least not indoors), so I wasn’t sure quite how well it would work. I mounted the Holga on my tripod but then realised I’d forgotten to bring my shutter release cable. Ah well, so be it - I just needed to do it the old fashioned way, using my finger on the shutter button, but taking care to keep really still and not jog the camera mid-exposure!
A selection of smaller vignettes from around the church - click on the images to see them enlarged.
I love the soft light inside an old church like St Andrew’s - so atmospheric. Towards the end of my visit the sun finally came out and illuminated the end of the choir stalls.
Close focussing isn’t a particular strength of the Holga, but I was lucky enough to judge my distance just right for these ornately carved characters on the ends of the pews.
Overall, I was delighted with the results from my lo-fi photoshoot at St Andrew’s - definitely a worthwhile experiment and one I’ll try again sometime. I guess it just goes to show that expensive gear isn’t always necessary - a £21 eBay bargain can sometimes do the job just as well!
Photos taken February 2026