Tag Archives: photography
Toy camera effects with digital SLRs
I love lo-fi photography.
Shooting lo-fi removes any obsession with capturing the “perfect” image. With lo-fi photography, I focus more on composition, creativity and experimentation than when I shoot with a “real” camera. Vignetting, soft edge focus, light aberrations, limited exposure latitude, color casts, even light leaks – the imperfections add a level of personality to the photo.
I have a collection of my lo-fi photography up at http://lowresolution.kataan.org.
One of my favorite lo-fi cameras is the SiPix Stylecam Blink. It only shoots 640×480, but has a wonderful dream-like plastic camera effect. And, it was only $10 on eBay!
I would like to get a little more resolution than is possible with most lo-fi digicams. Enter Randy Smith at Holgamods. He’s made tweaks to Holga cameras for years, adding black flocking to the insides, adding a bulb setting and remote shutter release threads. Dude from peculiarplanet.com has done some wonderful night-time photography with his.
Randy has taken a Holga
Some photo examples with the digital Holga lens are online here.
Lensbaby.com has another alternative – a tilt-shift lens made for several modern camera mounts. Version 1
If you want do get that same toy camera effect digitally, see my previous post about the Holganizer. In addition, there are Holga actions for Photoshop that let you automate the effects process. But, it’s a lot of fun to shoot with a plastic camera!
Lomography+JPG Mag+Photojojo meetup (Updated)
Crumpler 7 Million Dollar Home
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I’ve never been a fan of camera bags that looked too much like a “CAMERA BAG!!! “. Much of my photography is done at dusk, early mornings, and urban street street photography in dodgy neighborhoods. I need to be able to pull my camera out, take a shot quickly and stuff it back quickly, all the while looking innocuous.
My current bag is a cheap $12 messenger bag, and is stealthy as hell. As a day to day bag, it’s WONDERFUL. It holds my laptop, all my computer peripherals, a LOMO LC-A, papers, pens, my lunch, and whatever else i could throw at it. |
| Unfortunately, there’s no padding and no compartments inside, so lenses, flashes, cameras, film, and whatever else is free to jostle about. One good drop would total a camera.
Enter the 7 Million Dollar Home. From a distance, it looks like a plain old messenger bag, but it’s got stiffeners, padded, reconfigurable dividers, a zipper compartment inside the flap, an expansion pocket on the front of the bag, a pocket that might work for a tripod, an adjustable strap with removable pad, and it looks like it’s built to last. I’m taking it out tonight for a test-drive, wish me luck! Product page (Crumpler), Buy a 7 Million Dollar Home (Amazon) |
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“American Photobooth”, a book review
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American Photobooth is a new illustrated history of photobooths, which first made their splash in the 1920s. Photographer Nakki Goranin became obsessed with the technology after creating a series of her own photobooth self-portraits now in the collection of the International Center for Photography in New York. She then spent nearly a decade tracing the history and culture of photobooths and collected thousands of vintage photobooth prints, like those above. The new issue of Smithsonian profiles Goranin and includes an online slideshow of images from the book. |
Photobooth article (Smithsonian), Buy American Photobooth [via boingboing.net ] |
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BBF, a TLR 35mm camera?
(updated, more picture-y goodness at the bottom!)
A little birdie told me about the BBF (Blackbird, Fly), a camera that the LOMO Society was planning to sell. I hadn’t heard of it before and decided to do a little research.
A little googling uncovered this post with some information. It sounds fun – a 35mm TLR with basic manual controls that shoots a square image? I wonder who would be able to develop them as square? I suppose anyone who processed 6×6 prints should be able to figure it out.
My first experience with a TLRs was with old 120, 620 and 127 cameras I had originally collected as interesting wall art. When I dusted them off and loaded them with film, I found the combination of a coupled viewing and taking lens, the distinctive upright shape of a TLR, and the old-school feel of a waist finder to be a unique experience in photography. With a TLR, I was more in touch with the shot, spent more time composing, more time taking my shots and ultimately took better photos.
The manufacturer’s official page is at http://www.superheadz.com/bbf.
Check it out!
Mimicking film with digital tricks
Pssst! I’ve got a secret!
Most decent imaging programs have the capability of automating actions. With the right actions applied to a photo, you can easily mimic some of the quirky qualities of your favorite film camera on multiple photos and bundle the actions to share with others.
To Wit, the Holganizer. With it, you can take a rectangular, well exposed digital image and make it look like it was taken with the Holga, a $30 plastic camera. This was taken with a Canon SD110; for the original, see the previous post.
The film banner on the top and bottom are a nice touch, but unfortunately they don’t change when you make another Holganized pic, making the viewer think you’re permanently stuck on exposure # 9.
For a good Holga action, see the previous link. There are tons of LOMO actions for Photoshop and The Gimp, just a google search away.
old/new
One of my favorite photos from a walk along the water in San Francisco. Things change so quickly out there that these pictures are all that’s left.
“Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration”, a book review
Troy Paiva is one of my favorite photographers of late. I love his choice of subjects – googie architecture, abandoned buildings, junk yards and the southwest desert. He shoots almost exclusively at night and uses a combination of colored flashes and LED lights to “paint” his subjects.
Troy published his first book of night-time photography, Lost America: The Abandoned Roadside West
Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration
I found a full review on Epic Edits, a new (to me) photo blog.
More of Troy’s work is available on his Flickr page.
[via Epic Edits ]
Lomography + JPG + Photojojo San Francisco & NYC Meetups
- Where: Dolores Park & Union Square Park
SF: meeting spot TBA – NYC: under the George Washington Statue
San Francisco & New York City - When: September 3rd, 2008 19:00
- Contact: liad@lomography.com
Calling all San Francisco and New York City Lomographers!
Our friends at JPG Magazine and Photojojo are teaming up with us for a very cool event on September 3rd.
Simultaneously, in both cities (well, 3-hours apart actually), we will be holding a meet-up at sunset in Dolores Park in SF and at Union Square Park in NYC. (Round-up begins at 7pm, but shooting will start when the sun goes down.)
Red Phone
Red Phone, SOMA. Canon SD1000
Miroslav Tichy
Am so enthralled with the photographic work of Czech artist Miroslav Tichy, who made cameras out of cardboard tubes, thread spools, rubber bands, and other similar things, and then photographed public scenes in his small hometown. He developed the negatives in a bucket at night, because he didn’t have a darkroom. Later, he said that the defects and ugliness were where the true art happened.
Photography is painting with light! The blurs, the spots, those are errors! But the errors are part of it, they give it poetry and turn it into painting. And for that you need as bad a camera as possible! If you want to be famous, you have to do whatever you’re doing worse than anyone else in the whole world.
[via This Is That ]
Week 8
Taken on a walkabout in San Francisco's South of Market area, Canon SD1000, Photoshop cross-processing,
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