Last Updated on January 28, 2022 by George Pavlopoulos
When I first reviewed the Polaroid Go, I claimed that this is one of the best cameras for your journeys. Sure, it can’t compare to digital cameras, but having instant memories in your hands is quite something. I decided to hike towards a beach and have only this camera with me to support that statement. For the Polaroid Diaries: Agios Georgios beach, Folegandros, I skipped every other (analog or digital) camera and shot exclusively with the Polaroid Go.
Yes, the film format of the Polaroid Go is small, much smaller than a normal polaroid. However, the fact that this is the smallest analog instant camera is a big plus. The Polaroid Go fits in the palm of your hand, and it weighs like a smartphone. All that said, that day, I skipped every other camera I had with me and took the Polaroid Go in hand. I was curious: could I shoot proper landscape photos, or was the film too small for that? Would it be possible for the Polaroid Go to handle the harsh light?
I want to be honest with you: I wasn’t that optimistic despite my faith in polaroid cameras. I thought I’d get one decent image and nine bad ones. And yet, the Polaroid Go surprised me.
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What you’ll see in the Polaroid Diaries: Agios Georgios, Folegandros
So, in the Polaroid Diaries: Agios Georgios beach, Folegandros, you will see the 10 photos I shoot with one Polaroid Go film. You will see the photos I took while hiking towards the beach and the ones at Agios Georgios beach itself. However, before we start with the images, I’d like to point out two things.
The first one is more technical. The Polaroid Go has no exposure wheel. This means that you cannot decide if you overexpose or underexpose the photo. You’ll have put all your hopes in the camera’s metering system. Moreover, the Polaroid Go film has 10 photos, not 8 like the usual polaroid film.
The second thing I want to point out is that this is a simple camera. It’s an easy-going point-and-shoot camera, and you can’t compare its lense to more advanced models. For example, I shot a Polaroid Diary from Folegandros with the SX-70, and the results are significantly better. So, while this is not a toy camera, you can never get the quality results of a more advanced model.
All that said, don’t be hard on your judgments about the Polaroid Go if you decide to buy one. Before buying a polaroid camera, you should think about why you want the specific model. If you want a fun camera that will deliver nice polaroids, the Go sounds like a great idea. However, if you search for a camera with perfect lenses and advanced settings, the Go is not for you.
So, after making things clear, let’s proceed with the Polaroid Diaries: Agios Georgios beach in Folegandros.
Polaroid Diaries: Agios Georgios Beach, Folegandros (Polaroid GO)
Starting from the Chora of Folegandros, you’ll have to take one of the numerous paths. The trail towards Agios Georgios beach is one of the last on the island, but that’s how a typical street sign will look like.
Later on, shortly before entering the trail and outside of a small Cycladic house, I saw some flowers. I was curious to see how the camera would handle the colors. I found the result very decent.
And then it was the time to immerse in the landscape. The trail is steep at some points, and it takes approximately an hour to reach the Agios Georgios beach. However, the return time is longer, so make sure not to start too early from the beach.
And here’s a second shot from the view while hiking towards the beach. Again, I think that there’s an adequate amount of detail to give you a good impression.
And then, I reached the Agios Georgios beach in Folegandros (see the location on Google Maps). It is one of the eeriest places on the island. There are a couple of abandoned houses, and the beach was deserted that day. The name of Agios Georgios derives from the small church on the beach dedicated to Saint George. Here’s the photo from the beach and the abandoned houses.
And here, you can see the upper part of Agios Georgios church and its bell. There’s a little green tint on the top of this image that becomes more visible in the next ones. I don’t know if that’s a problem with the film or had something to do with the extremely intense light. Anyway, here’s the church.
Here the green tint reached its top level. The abandoned houses have a curtain in front of their doors. That’s probably to prevent the wooden doors from decaying due to the sea salt. These houses are straight at sea.
There’s also something called “sirmata” in Agios Georgios beach. Sirmata (Greek: σύρματα) is the name of warehouses carved on stone. They are actually used to store the fishermen’s boats during wintertime (or if they are not going to be used for a long time). They have colorful front doors, and I thought of taking some polaroids. Here’s a blue one.
And here’s one more of the “sirmata,” this time in red.
Last but not least, on the way back, I also spotted the same donkey I photographed in one of my previous hikes to the beach. Both times, the photo didn’t work, but I thought of including it. If you want to see how it looks with the SX-70, you can check it out here. So here’s the donkey with the Polaroid Go:
My Polaroid GO settings for this series
I always add a couple of lines about the settings I use in polaroid photography. As I wrote earlier, in the Polaroid Go, you don’t have to worry about the settings. There is no exposure wheel, so you should trust the camera’s metering system. As it’s always the case with polaroids, make sure to have the sun behind you.
Since the Polaroid Go film is faster (it has an ISO 640), it can handle better low-light photos. However, in bright sunlight, you can easily get overexposed images. Try shooting either early in the morning or late in the afternoon to avoid that. In my case, though, I hiked at 2 pm towards Agios Georgios beach, so it was pretty hard to handle the light.
Moreover, the Polaroid Go has always the flash on. That said, you should remember to deactivate the flash if you’re shooting in the afternoon. Otherwise, you might get super-overexposed images. That’s what I actually did in the entire series: the moment I turned on the camera, the first thing I did was to turn off the flash.
So, that’s it with my Polaroid Diaries: Agios Georgios beach, Folegandros shot with the Polaroid Go. I must admit that I’m satisfied with the results given the circumstances and the camera’s limitations. Sure, they can’t compare with the SX-7o, but I find them usable, and I’m glad to have some printed memories from a nice day. Stay tuned for more polaroid photography, and feel free to join my mailing list below for polaroid tips, reviews, and more diaries.
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