Well, I blew it. There was this online contest for photos taken with film cameras purchased for less than $50. Given my sad devotion to analog photography and my fetish for rescuing once-proud cameras from thrift shop bargain bins, this contest was a natural.

Well, I got bogged down with other stuff and never got my entry together. I'd decided to use a Kodak Advantix 4100ix, a nifty little Advanced Photo System camera I bought for $4.89 at a thrift store in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. This little camera retailed for $229.95 in the late 1990s.

I had started shooting neighborhood storefronts (like the shot above) as part of coming up with an entry for the contest, but it just kind of went ffffft! I'm too often the sort who starts a project and then is, as The Beatles once warned, so easily called away. I should have stuck with it; the contest was a great idea and something like 80 photographers took part.

Among those whose work is showcased on the contest site is friend and colleague Matt Maldre, who came up with a really neat entry in which he shot nighttime views of Chicago with his Holga 135.

Well done, Matt!

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