I Took A Holga To A Carolina Hurricanes Game.

Back in September, I took my trusty ole Holga 120N to a Carolina Hurricanes game not expecting too much. With the Holga's slow shutter speed, and hockey players able to travel at almost 30 mph, it is not the most ideal. I still gave it a a partial roll during warm-ups. There were about six or eight really solid pictures, which was about six or eight more than I expected. 

Arena rules state that no professional cameras are allowed without registering as a professional, a song and dance I am not anywhere close to completing. Going through security took just a second longer so the security officer to double check that my Holga was in fact not a professional grade camera. Assuring him that I paid more for the roll of film than the camera did not seem to matter, though it wasn't going to be a big deal after they took one look at my ole reliable. 

Given this was preseason game, the Canes were wearing their new road whites. Few and far between are Caniacs who like this kit as it looks like something of a rejected option for a previous set up. It too wasn't well received, but I digress. The white jersey with red and black made for a solid pop in both color and black and white. Couple that with the brightness of the arena and the red pants and there was some nice contrast. I don't think the Hurricane typical home all black kit, with the double hurricane flags on the front of the jersey and all black pants, would have worked out nearly as well. But because I am a sucker, I will have to try this out too at some point in the future. 

Here is what they look like in color. 

Taken with my phone camera for context

Warm-ups were my only shot at making it close enough to the action for the limited range of the medium format. I sit in the nose bleeds and nothing but a high powered professional grade lens would work. 

At the end of the day, anything that turned out was going to be exciting. Going into this little experiment, I wasn't expecting anything that good. Since taking these, I have be informed David Burnett has used Holgas at the Olympics. However, I am not even close to being anywhere near as good as him at this, thus I am happy anything works out no matter how poorly. 

Here is maybe the best shot of the roll. 

Holga 120N
Ilford 400 xp2 120 mm film 

With the Holga's known limitations, getting something in motion is tricky. With the brightness of the arena lights hitting the players, I am surprised everything isn't one blurry big shadow. Too, you can see why I think the all black kit would be indistinguishable. 

All in all, I was shocked when I got these back from developing at Southeastern Camera. A majority of the shots were as good or better than what I have here, except for the one light leak. But it would be shooting with a Holga without a light leak. 

Shoot Details
Date: 9/24/25
Camera: Holga 120N
Film: Ilford 400 xp2 120 mm Black and White Film
Location: The Lenovo Center- Raleigh, NC
Developed: Southeastern Camera- Raleigh, NC 



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