Originally I registered the domain name ‘theplasticlens.com’ as a testament to my fondness for photography with plastic and toy cameras. The first experience I had with medium format film photography was with simple little boxes that took unique images quite unlike the way I had become used to with the ‘conventional’ 35mm film SLR (a Richoh KR-10S for the curious) I had been using previously.
I had been given a taste of plastic cameras with the 35mm ‘supersampler’ & ‘fisheye’ from the lomography crew before moving to the larger, medium format film cameras. In many ways these first cameras showed me that traditional composition and ways of photographing the world could be approached in such different and fun ways and brought me back to shooting with film a LOT, ironically just when digital cameras were beginning to take off in a big way.
So I started collecting and shooting with plastic cameras like the Diana & Holga and delighting in their unique results and thought I would share my personal musings and photographs from my experiences using low-fi cameras. As my camera collection expanded and varied however, I began taking photographs with other types of cameras such as professional medium format single lens reflex cameras like the Bronica SQ-A and Mamiya RB67 as well as twin Lens Reflex cameras and other flavours of image capturing devices such as pinhole cameras and Polaroid cameras. These are not so ‘plastic’ but I wanted to share my photos and what I was learning of photography with these as well. So the theme of ‘theplasticlens’ has morphed over it’s existence and the term ‘the plastic lens’ should not be taken in a simple literal sense.
In many ways photography and what it shows us about the world and ourselves really is plastic; what is captured by the camera is very often not exactly what we thought we saw or what we think reality looks like. In the way that Magritte’s Pipe is not a Pipe, photography is not reality but a certain perspective on reality and a slice of time from our individual realities as photographers as viewed in the light of the beholder of the photographs reality, if that makes any sense.
This site is not intended to be a discussion on the relative merits of digital or film photography, glass or plastic lenses or the superiority (or not) of Leicas and Hasselblads over Bronicas or Yashicas. It’s just my personal celebration of Photography and I hope I can enthuse others about it.
About me:
I’m a forty-something Registered Nurse with a passion for art, music and more pertinently, photography. I am fortunate enough to be married to a beautiful woman and am also blessed to be father to two lovely children. I have mixed feelings about also sharing responsibility for a little Australian terrier cross-breed, fluffy, woofing-thang, several chickens (& one rooster), two budgies and a continually fluctuating number of goldfish. I’m always learning and am always happy to be surprised and amazed by the world around me. I believe most people are intrinsically good (with the possible exception of some politicians and despots)
My predominant musical education came from listening almost exclusively to the likes of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart from the age of 11 years onwards thanks to my older brother’s eclectic tastes. I read lots (mainly science fiction) and I like Sushi & Thai food. I can never get my hair right.
My Cameras:
More cameras than most people have comprise my collection, but many of them are over 30 years old. The cameras I use in the photographs for The Plastic Lens were initially for the most part, plastic lensed and pretty low-tech as far as options re: aperture and shutter speed are concerned. They have what I have determined to be a very plastic feel, both literally and in the photographic results they give. Lately I have included many ‘high end’ cameras in my tool-kit and have begun showing the images produced by these cameras made with metal and multi-element glass lenses. Different cameras can give you different photographic ambience of the final image but all cameras are tools to be used to tell a story, capture a feeling, snatch a certain moment and take us on a journey. I feel it’s about the journey, not the method of transportation (although the method of transportation undeniably adds flavour to the journey and can influence the time & effort you need to expend to take it).
You can read a bit more about some of my cameras in The Cameras Bit & More Cameras.
About the site:
Both The Words & The Photos part of this site are managed in WordPress, currently using the veryplaintxt theme, © 2006–2008 Scott Allan Wallick that I have modified slighty for the purposes of this site.
Elsewhere
Like many people on the web, I have some of my work elsewhere, some sites I have probably forgotten about.
Contact:
Feel free to contact me by clicking this: e-mail link if you would like to give feedback, bug reports or enquire about purchasing prints of the work on this site. Any contact (apart from spam) is most welcome.
Buying Prints:
All photographs on this site are copyright Cameron Stephen, but if you want to use the images for non-profit, charity or personal use, please feel free to contact me.
About purchasing any of the photographs you like on this site: I can offer most images on this site for sale if you think you would like one (or more!) hanging on your wall. I can provide enlargements in most sizes up to 30″ x 30″ printed on whatever archival quality paper you prefer (note that the results on metallic paper are beautiful). Feel free to use this e-mail address to contact me for more information. You can also purchase some of my photos and artwork in different formats (including T-shirts!) at redbubble.
