Photographing Baby

Give a Ricoh for ChristmasThe sudden desire to record the baby’s every move is a documented phenomenon of new parenthood. Most first-time parents rush out and buy a brand new camera or video camera. However, Heidi and I have suffered from the insatiable desire to photograph anything and everything for several years now. So what do we do? Go out and buy new cameras?


We just bought three new cameras, but they aren’t exactly “new” cameras. In fact two of them are almost fifty years old! We have bought a 1956 Super Richoflex, a 1958 35mm Argus C3, and a 120 Holga.

The Ricohflex uses medium format film, meaning that the negatives are 6x6cm as opposed to 35mm (3.5cm). So the result is much cleaner, fine grained images that can be enlarged to all sorts of ridiculous sizes. This is a TLR camera, or Twin Lens Reflex. The top lens is used to view & focus on your image which you view from the top of the camera. Get more information on the Ricohflex line.Argus’s C3 line of “brick” cameras was one of the most popular 35mm cameras from the 40s through the 60s and they were sold in the millions. All the manual controls are mechanical gears you adjust by turning knobs which makes you really focus on each shot you decide to take. Find out more about this camera.

And last but not least, the Holga. This is basically a toy camera that shoots medium format film (like the Ricohflex). It is a cheap, cheap, cheap camera made entirely of plastic (even the lens!). This leads to some interesting results on your film. Many people say that each Holga camera is like a snowflake – each one is completely different.

Knowing we can’t resist the baby photo craze, we hope these new cameras help us document Trey’s life in a not-so-ordinary way. Wish us luck and stay tuned to this blog for the first peaks!

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