Riga greeted me with the darkest clouds I’d seen in a while. It was the prelude to what turned out to be a very dark winter. I couldn’t, of course, know that beforehand, and the day I landed in Latvia, I instantly felt the urge to shoot Polaroids. I was here more than fifteen years ago, but I could still remember the impact Old Riga had on me.
The so-called Vecrīga, the city’s historical center, impressed me with its style and atmosphere. It’s actually the most iconic area in the city, and as you can read on my Riga travel guide, most attractions are in just a couple of square kilometers. A day or two before traveling to Latvia’s capital, I checked the weather forecast: clouds, minus degrees, and an occasional snowfall. Hmm. It didn’t sound that good.
The obvious question was: which Polaroid camera should I pack for the journey? Given that the days would be dark, I needed a camera with a flash. Unfortunately, this didn’t really narrow down my options since the only non-flash camera is my beloved SX-70. Wondering about which camera to pack is an instant photographer’s nightmare: insecurity always strikes on cloudy days. Will I have presentable photos? Or will I just throw expensive film out of the window?
I didn’t make a rational choice; I just listened to my gut feeling and packed my Polaroid Impulse AF. And I hoped for the best.
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What’s on the Polaroid Diaries: All about Old Riga
In this edition of the Polaroid Diaries, you will see the 8 photos I shot with the Impulse AF in Old Riga. As you might remember from previous editions, I always regret not having more films with me. However, this time I really wanted to buy more films but unfortunately couldn’t find them in my local store. It was too late to order directly from Polaroid, and cycling around Berlin from store to store resulted in only one film.
I tried to make the most out of the film, and as you can see below, the Polaroids have a nice atmosphere. However, I wished I could have a bit more light to get brighter colors. But it is what it is.
As always, at the bottom of this post, you will find the settings of this Polaroid diary. The Impulse AF performed well given the circumstances, but as I said to myself, the next time I visit Riga, I hope to have better weather conditions, as I had in Malta.
So, let’s move now to the polaroids from Old Riga, the marvelous capital of Latvia.
Polaroid Diaries: All about Old Riga
The sudden sun spells meant I had to be ready to pick up the Impulse AF from my backpack. It happened rarely, but I did my best to take advantage of the weak sunlight. It took more than two days to find some sun in Riga finally, and luckily enough, I was close to the Latvian Academy of Sciences. The locals refer to it as “Stalin’s birthday cake” due to the imperial architectural style of the building constructed during Stalin’s era. And here’s how it looks:
The day remained cloudy, and the sun never appeared again. Moreover, it was getting colder, and this had an impact on the Polaroids. As you can see, they all have a bluish tint: the photos couldn’t develop under optimal circumstances. Therefore, I decided to spend the day inside notable buildings, like the House of the Black Heads. Located in the old town of Riga, that’s the most famous spot in the city. The building hosted a guild for unmarried merchants in Riga called the Brotherhood of Blackheads.
The name is most likely from Saint Maurice, who is usually depicted as a black soldier. And here’s a photo of a statue in the building.
While strolling around Old Riga town, I came across several murals and graffiti. Without an adequate amount of light, it meant that I had to walk closer to them if I wanted to get a decent photo. While searching for a cafe to spend an hour in a warm place, I came across this mural of a horse:
The next day I decided to walk in the Art Nouveau district of Riga. The capital of Latvia has the biggest concentration of Art Nouveau buildings in the world. That’s due to the rapid economic growth of the late 19th century that resulted in some magnificent architecture visible in big parts of the city. As I wrote in my guide to Art Nouveau Riga, lots of facades have motifs of faces, plants, and animals, a style representative of this architectural style. Here’s a Polaroid from an Art Nouveau facade.
Late in the afternoon, the sky cleared. Unfortunately, it was too late for a decent image, but I thought of trying anyway. I wanted to capture the river Daugava and the skyline. Specifically, I wanted to have a photo of the bridge and the buildings next to it. Unfortunately, it was too ambitious, and since the Impulse AF has the flash always on, the result was mediocre. But here’s the image anyway.
The following day it became even colder, something like -11 C (~12 F). It wasn’t easy to move around, and I decided to book a tour at the KGB Museum of Riga. The so-called Corner House of Riga is a place where Latvians suffered for decades. The notorious KGB Headquarters was hosted in a building where interrogations and torture took place. The Polaroid didn’t turn out as expected, but I somehow liked the eerie feeling of the image.
On my final day in Riga, the sun appeared for an hour shortly before sunset. I was once again close to the Blackheads House and had two images left on my Impulse AF. It was the first time I saw some warm light on surfaces, and I decided to shoot a polaroid. The image below shows the Latvian Riflemen Monument. That’s a statue dedicated to Latvia’s red riflemen, and some of them served as Lenin’s guards. Made of red granite, the statue depicts three men, and its size is impressive. To some, that’s an old communist relic, while others see it as a tribute to people that fought in World War II.
For the last image on the roll, I had the idea to walk fast toward a stone statue. I thought I could make it on time and have some sunlight, but unfortunately, this didn’t happen. The plan was to take a photo of the Salaspils Stone Head. Located in front of Riga’s Dome, that’s a bizarre stone depicting a human head. Its origins remain unclear, but there’s probably a paganistic connection. Unfortunately, it was too dark when I arrived, and the cold contributed to that cold tint. Here’s the image.
And that’s it with the polaroids from Old Riga.
The camera settings of this Polaroid Diary
It was one of the rare occasions that the camera settings didn’t bother me that much. I was more worried about the weather, and the truth is that the cloudy days didn’t help. Moreover, the cold temperatures didn’t help either, and I couldn’t avoid the blue-green tint in the images.
That said, since the Impulse AF always has the flash on, I decided to keep the exposure wheel in the middle. As I wrote in my Polaroid Impulse AF review, this is a point-and-shoot instant camera. You just pop the flash, and on most occasions, it’s safe to shoot without touching the settings.
I didn’t change the exposure in any of the images you saw in this Polaroid diary. On the other hand, these photos prove that the Impulse AF can perform under every weather condition. Yes, you have the tint, but that’s due to the film, not the camera. Given the circumstances, I’m happy -but not delighted- with the results. Therefore, the best advice I can give you when shooting with the Impulse AF is to keep the exposure wheel in the middle when unsure.
Last but not least, here’s the usual final note of every diary: there’s no post-processing in the images, apart from a +20 in sharpness for web optimization purposes. So the colors, the exposure, the white balance, everything is straight out of camera results.
And that’s it with the 24th edition of the Polaroid Diaries featuring Old Riga landmarks taken with the Polaroid Impulse AF.
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More Polaroids: The complete Polaroid diaries
Polaroid Camera reviews: My Now+ review, Polaroid Sun 660 review & Polaroid OneStep+ review
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Last Updated on May 20, 2023 by George Pavlopoulos
George, these are great pictures. I like all of them. This Polaroid camera seems like it can’t take a bad shot no matter what the light conditions are like.
John, thank you! I think the Polaroid Impulse AF is a great camera and the flash makes everything easier. The weather was bad in Riga, but I’m glad I had some keepers. Compared to the SX-70, the Impulse AF is a much more reliable camera. The only downside is that you can’t experiment that much. But if you want to have some great travel memories, I think the Impulse AF is among the best polaroid cameras ever made.