The Plastic Lens ~ Words

World Pinhole Day

Cameron — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 02:05:09 +0000

Today is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day! On the WPPD site for this year only they state:
NOTE: Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is always the last Sunday in April. In 2011, Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is April 24. Since this is also Easter Sunday, for 2011 only, we will accept pinhole photographs taken between April 23 and May 1.
This is just as well for me, as I have been rostered to work across the whole extended holiday weekend.

A Photograph made with the Holga Wide Pinhole Camera

Dinosaurs of the Film Age

Cameron — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 12:22:49 +0000

I saw an article today which I found interesting, hope you do too: Photo Enlargers Loom Like Dinosaurs of the Film Age

If you want to cut to the chase and see the project that prompted the piece of journalism in Wired however, go here!

edit: Since posting this I have found a video featuring Richard Nicholson (the chap who started this project) and one of his darkroom subject’s operators Roy Snell…

BBF under the ‘Big Sticks’

Cameron — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 02:08:14 +0000

It is completely inexcusable of course, but I haven’t had a chance to do anything much except fulfil work & family responsibilities lately, so my apologies for any lack of content here. I hope everyone has had a very safe & happy festive season and wish you all a incredible New Year!
Here is a small edited snippet of some 8mm film I shot for Powershovel/Superheadz featuring my favourite plastic Twin Lens Reflex Camera, the blackbird,fly – http://www.superheadz.com/bbf
Thanks to my nephew who filmed most of this clip (on a Fujica ‘Single-8′ P2) whilst I wandered around with my bbf. Many, many thanks to Nick and all at Powershovel/Superheadz.
I have edited the footage in iMovie ’09 the backing music is ‘comfortable mystery’ by Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com

T-Tab Unboxing

Cameron — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:41:45 +0000

Last week Telstra provided me with a T-Touch Tablet to review. I shot a quick video unboxing the pack before I got down to using it (as ‘unboxing’ videos seem to be popular) I’ve only just had time to upload it as I’ve been a bit busy (in between playing with the T-Touch Tab) A fuller review if this 7″ Tablet will be along shortly, but I can let you know so far I’ve listened to music, drawn pictures, browsed the web, downloaded apps from the android ‘market’, watched videos, listened to podcasts, played games and taken photos and videos with it!

The backing music is ‘April Elsewhere’ by THE ORCHESTRAL MOVEMENT OF 1932 found on opsound.

The Kitchen Darkroom

Cameron — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 23:20:55 +0000

One Saturday a group of friends with a common passion for analogue photography got together to convert Paul’s kitchen into a darkroom for the afternoon for the purposes of making some traditional photographic ‘wet’ prints. Those of us not experienced in this art (Lea, Sophie & I) watched & learnt from our friends Paul & Jock. I captured this time-lapse of some of the process, not really expecting it to come out as well as it did.
I hope this can inspire others to delve more into the fantastic world of traditional photographic techniques.

Shoot yes, but THINK too!

Cameron — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 09:26:08 +0000

I have just been reading a thread in the flickr forums where someone was feeling uninspired about what they saw as ‘nothing good to photograph’ – someone suggested they didn’t have to think about anything, and that ‘the whole point of lomography’ as they put it, was to ‘just shoot’.

Think Different, SEE different, shoot different!

Oh boy. The first misunderstanding that occurred here was that because the post was in a Diana+ group, the respondent assumed using a plastic camera equated to the photographer having the whole lomography-type philosophy of photography going for them. Contrary to the respondents viewpoint I think that whole point of ‘lomo’, or rather a large part of the point of the lomographic society international of it is to sell LSI products. There is nothing wrong with that of course, they are a business, and importantly, promote analogue photography – all good – but to take any of their ’10 rules’ too literally may not give you the greatest photos.
No offense to anyone in love with the whole ‘lomography’ ethic, but ‘don’t think just shoot’ may give you the occasional interesting shot, but probably a whole lot of rather ordinary or just plain bad compositions as well.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with composing a good shot through thoughtful choice of subject & placement, lighting and choice of moment to relase the shutter.

Now, regarding: there’s nothing good to take pictures of!

If you feel this way, you may need to develop a way of ‘seeing’ your world differently. Our brains interpret and filter the information our senses send to it in ways that make it easier for us to interact with and navigate through our ‘reality’ but sometimes the way we interpret the world is constrained by preconditioned responses and experiential neurological ‘shortcuts’ that have very little to do with what it is we are actually SEEING (in the case of our visual senses)
This is a common problem in the world of visual art where someone first learning to draw is, for example placed in front of a cup and asked to draw it. Often the beginner will sketch a likeness of a cup that correlates with the IDEA of a cup they have in their head, missing the finer nuances, patterns, shape or whatever of the cup that is actually in front of them.

If you critically examine your way of seeing the world and discard preconceived ideas you might have like ‘how could a piece of garbage on the ground possibly make an interesting photo’ or ‘ho-hum the overpass I walk under every day – boring’ and so on, you may open your eyes and mind (not to mention heart) to the infinite photographic possibilities that are around you EVERYWHERE!

The mood you are in helps too, think positively and the possibilities you perceive around you will open up. If you are not having fun doing what you do, (in this case photography) then what is the point of doing it?

Walk around with your eyes & mind open. If something catches your eye, even for a moment, don’t just walk on; STOP and look closer, walk around and see whatever it was from different angles, crouch down or look at the scene from a higher perspective. Wait for the sun to come out from behind the cloud and..oh, wait! There it is! That flash of brilliant red that jumped out at you before, or that shape that is so interesting against the background, or that combination of elements that make for a great shot.

Or you could park yourself somewhere comfortable, choose a good vantage point overlooking some interesting background, be it a graffitied wall, a hillside covered with flowers or a busy intersection and WAIT…something might happen! The group colourfly dressed up in fancy dress going to a party against a dull city wall, or the goths so sombre and monochrome against the colourful floral clock in the botanical gardens or the truck with the huge lips advertising something lipsticky or whatever painted on the side passing a group of nuns. ANYTHING can happen!
Sometimes a good photograph happens from a serendipitous ‘just shoot’ occasion, sometimes through patience, planning and knowing how to use the tools given you and the right moment and lighting. More often than not, a great photo will come from patience, planning, experience AND that serendipitous moment.

BIFB’11 DATES ANNOUNCED

Cameron — Sun, 30 May 2010 00:55:42 +0000

Dates for the 2011 Ballarat International Foto Biennale have been announced. BIFB’11 will run from Saturday August 20th 2011 to Sunday September 18th 2011.

The festival will once again present a diverse and eclectic mix of the very best of photography and photographic art from all corners of Australia and around the world.

The tradition of high quality Core Program shows and a smorgasbord of open-entry Fringe Program exhibitions will once again be backed up with a stimulating program of workshops, seminars, audio visual projections and events for special interest and affiliated photographic groups.

Also on offer will be a range of community and public access events which will invite our audience to engage and participate regardless of levels of photographic expertise.

So mark your diaries and bookmark this site, and check back regularly over the coming months so you can keep abreast of all of the exciting events we have planned for BIFB’11

Mark Skorj on the Minjonju Show

Cameron — Thu, 06 May 2010 03:48:24 +0000

Mark Skorj is an ex-pat Australian living and working in Tokyo. I have been fortunate to know him for many years through our mutual love of toy cameras, but he is also a great Polaroid photographer. We mainly interact online from time to time but I remember one memorable day we wandered around Melbourne (with another friend Mike) taking photographs of anything that grabbed our interest (see thumbnail attached to this post of Skorj ‘rückenfigur style’ taking a shot in a Melbourne alley). Skorj’s Polaroid 600SE camera can be seen in this video interview Mijonju has made, talking about photographing people amongst other things. His gentle sense of humour is evident in the video. You can see a sample of his excellent photographs on flickr and check out the website he manages with a few other analogue photographic luminaries: Filmwasters

More D.I.Y. Pinhole Fun!

Cameron — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:36:47 +0000

For the 2010 World Pinhole Photography Day, I decided to make a new pinhole camera, similar to the pinhole blender cameras that merge several pinhole images onto one long exposure.
In 2007 at the Daylesford Foto Biennale, I first saw some amazing pinhole images taken by an Australian photographer Steph Tout – Steph Tout Photography
Again in 2009, this time at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, I saw more of her work and was inspired again. Her beautiful images are all captured on a home made pinhole camera, similar to the one I have constructed here. Since 2007 I had plans to make a similar camera to the one Steph Tout had, but it has taken until this year to finally get around to it. Mine is my first try and I am still ironing out some issues. note: the name ‘pinhole blender’ belongs to the excellent commercial products you can buy here: pinholeblender.com

*time-lapse captured on my iPhone
*music by Orb Gettarr – Orb Gettar at OPSOUND

Cameron — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:24:45 +0000