I'm not sure about everyone else, but I feel like this has been a long week. How about something fun?

After reading an article about photographer Shawn Rocco's cell phone photography, I was inspired to break out my Focal Micro 110 for the first time in months. My recent relationship with the 110 – perhaps the first camera I owned – began when I found it at my parents' house last year with a partial roll of film left in it.

I put the Micro 110 away several months ago because I got a very disappointing roll back from the color lab. I know, I know. At some point, though, I decided the whole plastic camera thing just wasn't for me.

When I got that same roll out on Tuesday evening, I saw it with new eyes. Several shots had tons of potential, given a little post-processing. So I finished off the film cartridge that was in the camera, loaded another one, and studied my images to figure out what actually works with this device.

I can be a very meticulous photographer, and I love carefully composed photos. The Micro 110 throws this out the window. If I take too many careful shots on a roll, I am scolded with a batch of prints that don't exactly include what I photographed. An inaccurate viewfinder pushes me to spend a little less time framing the shot and a little more time thinking about the big picture, which I often miss when I've got a nice camera that can perform in any conditions.

What is my plastic camera not meant to do? Well, it's very hard to get good results with close subjects, distant subjects, oblique angles, depth of field, or low contrast. As I figure out what produces good shots – contrast, plenty of light, straightforward compositions, subjects not too far away but not less than four feet or so – I'm thinking about the time of day, quality of light, and subject. Sorting through my prints to decide on three to include in this post, I eliminated one of my favorites because it didn't mesh with the others well enough in terms of content and viewing angle.

A few years ago I didn't understand the value of the “toy camera” fad, but I'm looking forward to posting more from my 110 adventures as I rethink and evolve my process.

As busy as my life is right now, working out of two offices about a mile apart is a blessing. Rather than worry about parking (or lack thereof) or burning more precious fuel, I more often than not choose to travel that distance on foot. For 15-20 minutes, I am outdoors, measuring my footfalls on the sidewalk, removed from the stresses of my day. And my Focal Micro 110 is in my hand.

When I received my first set of prints, I was somewhat disappointed. 110 doesn't perform well in extreme light. My cheap plastic toy camera doesn't produce a clear image when photographing close up or a wide view of a scene. Really, the camera and the film require a delicate balance of light and distance from the subject. The viewfinder is inaccurate. Most of the pictures on the roll didn't come out how I had envisioned them.

Still, I've kept taking photos with the 110. After my initial disappointment over not having a whole roll of strikingly beautiful pictures, I've decided I should embrace this little silver and black piece of plastic. All silliness aside, I am developing a new eye and finding new pictures. It's no longer about meticulously engineering depth of field and precise compositions. It's about feel. It's about relinquishing some control to the camera and realizing that, plastic and all, it's going to have the final say.

(House hunting and wedding planning are beginning to take over my life for the months of March, April and May, but I'm still trying to keep adding images to Flickr. See a few of my 110 shots here.)

My prints finally came in. No less than ten days after dropping off my found 110 cartridge at the CVS, I was able to hand over $5.99 and pick up what remains of my childhood photos. As predicted, many of the prints contain only a lot of grain and the frame numbers. Some are exceptionally dark, obviously taken inside without the flash strips that were so hard to find at the store.

There were some beautiful and interesting qualities to the pictures, though. Ironically, the photos taken 15 years ago retained more color and quality than those taken on the day I found the camera. My favorite pictures were those featuring the backyard and swingset area, because I photographed it both times. The later pictures show my play areas in a state of disrepair, a stark contrast to the neat, relatively new yard I played in as a child.