Double the nostalgia: photo contest top shots

It wasn't the very top shot in the winning lineup, but the photo entitled "Rusty Bug" really caught my attention this morning.

The other thing that caught my attention was that these photos were all taken with a Holga camera. It was this cheap plastic camera, similar to the one my college photography instructor used - reinforced with duct tape - to shoot images she later exhibited, that participants used in the Wired contest. That always stuck with me. She reminded us not to be quite so concerned by every new camera on the market. A good photographer, she insisted, always "looks for light." The camera - whether fine or shabby - was merely the vehicle for capturing that light. Clearly Wired gets that, too.

The Volkswagons, too, trigger nostalgia. My Papa drove one when I was a really little girl. A red one, like his friend down the road whose little girl, Terry, was my summertime pal. Those were the bugs I thought of when I first saw this shot. No fire engine red in sight...I guess it was the age of these VWs.

Take a look at all this and the other top shots. The winner is striking too...