My wife Kathy and I were in Elephant Butte, near T or C, New Mexico, in November of 2007 to celebrate her mother's 80th birthday. While there, I ran a visit to one of my usual antique store haunts there, and picked over the pile of plastic cameras for one that would work.

Oh, I passed up two that said they had Optical Glass lenses because frankly, the quality of the lens matters not if the shutter or winder doesn't work. But this one was Focus Free; on most other cameras, I guarantee you'll have to pay for Focus! Plus, it passed the click test.

I bought it for about a dollar, dropped in an old roll of color film from my parent's house, and I was in business!

Red tinges in these photos, by the way, are light leak artifacts. The film pressure plate has rows of ribs that press against the film, for example, and these clearly left impressions in the yucca photo, for example. Light leaks are part of the allure of a camera like this--Holga quality for much, much less than the going eBay cost!


Truth or Consequences used to be known as Hot Springs because of the geothermal activity there. Long years of mineral-laden water percolating through the sandy fill in the region leads to interesting concretions, which Kathy's mother loves to collect and add to her cactus garden in the nearby town of Elephant Butte. This camera does well for things up close.



My wife's cousin was visiting for the party, so one morning we walked around the block.



A brisk walk can be an uplifting, enlightening experience, any way you look at it.



Fall tends to come late in New Mexico. The cottonwoods are just turning yellow in the first week of November. The air is crisp, and the smell of it makes you feel good.



Returning home, I finished off the roll helping my grandson test his new Christmas bike, and I tried out a flash in that fancy flash holder on top. It worked well enough for fill flash here.



Physics and light leaks are against users of plastic craptastic cameras, but somehow, the less demanding user interface makes life on the other side of the finder seem a lot more simple as well.

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Old Wal Mart color negative 35mm film, C-41 process.