As someone who loves capturing as memories as I can, who loves journaling and scrapbooking every adventure, every person I meet and every experience I have, having a Polaroid camera is one of the best ideas I could have had. I have always adored the vintage style, a vintage look and creating a nostalgic and vintage memory path and my Instax Mini 12 has been a great joy along the process of recreating vintage memories.

I have had a Polaroid camera since I was a young teenager, begging my mom to please buy me one so that I could have a camera that instantly prints out photos. Being an only child and the princess and apple of my mother’s eye, she gave in and got one for me. I was completely over the moon, to the point where I didn’t understand that the film was limited and expensive and a very necessary aspect of having the camera. I would take pictures of anything around me I thought was worthy of my polaroid film; which would mainly be nature. I took pictures of the flowers in the garden, the green trees in summer and a few of the Lipizzaners when they were still here in Johannesburg. Living close to them allowed me the opportunity to visit them as often as I liked and I loved photographing them.

At that point in time, my Polaroid camera had multiple settings for different lighting. Effort still had to be put in to create the perfect vintage Polaroid. There was a setting for a sunny day, cloudy day, indoor and partly sunny. The pictures would not always come out perfect, but in the end that was also the point of the Polaroid camera, to have that glazed, faded affect that made you feel like you were looking at a photo from 1932. I have been obsessed with my camera ever since. I mean, I have always loved photography and home photoshoots and capturing memories, which is why I use so many photo-related devices, such as my normal phone camera, my canon camera, my Polaroid camera and my mini printer which I went into detail about in my YouTube video on scrapbooking and in my guide to scrapbooking for beginners. Even now, looking back at all my photos that I took from when I was a teen tugs at my heart strings. I took so many photos of all my animals and there were only few photos of me in the Polaroids. As I got older, I wanted to be in more photos, until eventually, I was the main subject in almost every Polaroid.

But that also helps me document how I have aged. I hate to think about this, but I have managed to lose so many phones in the past, where I did not even back up any of my photos, which meant I had lost over 10k photos in my life maybe? But keeping a Polaroid, means it is there forever. Tangible photographs means there is absolutely no chance of you losing them even if your phone is not backed up and lost.

This year is the only year I have rarely taken any Polaroid pictures, which makes me sad because of how much I used to use it and carry it with me where ever I went and took so many photos with random strangers who were only passing me by in a brief moment of time. They will never remember me, but I will always remember them from their Polaroids with me. And that makes me happy, it truly does.

I may be “old school,” or extremely sentimental, but I like to imagine myself 50 or 60 years from now, wanting to take a walk down memory lane and I have 100 journals, 20 scrapbooks and thousands of Polaroid images, smiling and thinking to myself that I lived a fulfilling life with no regrets and thanking my younger self for capturing all these good memories and good times. I have essentially been documenting my life since I was seven years old, when someone gifted me with my first diary and I would write in it every day. I have always been someone who bows down to the concept of nostalgia.

Some people just live their lives, not interested in taking photos or videos, who don’t have an interest in journaling or having photo albums and that is completely okay, especially if they already have a great memory and don’t need to go the extra mile to remember everyone they have met and everything they have done. I just cannot imagine myself at 60-years-old, with no journals, photo albums, no scrapbooks or anything of the sort to look back on.

And that is why I love my Polaroid. I have had about three in my life, I am currently on my third one, as the first one got a bit too old and the second one I was playing around on the beach and sand got in it and this one, well, I am starting to feel it is just time for a new one. I have the newer version where you don’t need to adjust the settings anymore and it just automatically adjusts the lighting of itself when taking pictures. But I have noticed that the pictures don’t do too great if the sun is directly behind the front camera (so the subject) as it is too bright for the camera to handle.

For those that are looking for a different way to capture your life’s memories other than digitally, buying a Polaroid camera is something you will not regret and an amazing way to keep track of all the fun events and adventures in your life. The best thing about Polaroids is you can buy different sizes, you get larger ones and smaller ones, I have always used the mini but I am considering trying a different size, maybe a slightly bigger one. You also get lots of different fun film, they also come in packs of 10 or 20 these days, and there are many different colourful borders you can choose from to elevate the vibrancy of your pictures. You can also buy cute camera bags with it, cute Polaroid albums (specific to your size you get) and just have so much fun with the modern-vintage style of Polaroids. You can find all of this on Amazon, and I am sure you can find cute and different accessories for it. Have a browse, discuss splitting costs with friends or family and have fun with your new tangible photos!