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

In other news I was browsing a local “Opportunity Shop” the other day and spied an Olympus XA camera with flash in it’s original box for a modest amount.

Olympus XA

A good old fashioned movie camera.

We Love the BBF from artpunk on Vimeo.

fter a few enquiries and the fact that I have been meaning to put together and upload this for a while but just never got around to it, here is an otherwise boring (insomniacs if you need a cure look here) visual tutorial on how to load film into your BBF (blackbird,fly) camera, I hope it is of use to someone out there.
As I said, I have been planning on uploading a guide to loading film into the blackbird,fly camera for a while, but life (and having fun taking photos!) sort of distracted me. The reason I initially planned to do this has not changed; when I first got the prototype version of the camera I was initially very unsure if I was actually loading film into it correctly – and this is someone who is used to loading film into cameras, so I could only imagine how approaching the job would be for people not as familiar with film photography!

The trick with loading film into the bbf is patience and practice. When I first got the camera I found it quite fiddly as my fingers are fat sausages in relation to the fine workings of the camera, so I felt quite clumsy (which I am anyway) but even I got there in the end.
(loading film into a Horizon panoramic camera is far more of a challenge IMHO)

Please note – if you find that you are winding the film on after loading and the film advance knob does not ‘lock’ in place then this means the film leader has not properly engaged in the take up spool and you will need to open the back and try again.
(After each exposure the film will advance a certain amount and then the film advance knob will stop winding on, indicating that the camera is ready for photography and the shutter needs to be released before the wind on knob will advance again)

Loading Film Into the BBF from artpunk on Vimeo.

W

ell, today is the first day of the last month of the calendar year. It’s been a busy year here at theplasticlens, with one exhibition, developing B&W film for the first time in donkey’s years and let’s not forget the arrival of the new blackbird,fly camera from Superheadz/Powershovel in Japan.
In other exciting happenings I took the family to the Northern Territory and we drove from Central Australia to Darwin at the top end, taking many photos as we went. Also, one of my Polaroids will be used as cover art for a published book (more details when it is actually published).
But we still have 30 more days for the year I hear you say – what else can we expect? Well, the mad holiday season of course BUT! also – new blackbird,fly colours are to be released for all you bbf fans out there. That’s right! Apparently there will be a release of white and red versions of the bbf. You may remember that on the initial release of the blackbird,fly in Tokyo there were a limited number of alternative colours to the black, orange and blue versions released. These were yellow, brown and white. It looks like Superheadz are looking to expand the regular colour range, including the previously rare white, but adding red as well. This is all good news because it must mean that the interest in (and purchases of) the bbf is high enough to warrant a new production batch with new choices. I’m very happy about this because the Powershovel/Superheadz people deserve success with this refreshingly new approach to the toy camera field (and they’re really nice people too, which makes the success and ongoing developments with the camera even sweeter)
I will keep you posted with news as soon as more information comes to hand.

T

his post is for my readers in New York, New York (or near New York or planning on visiting New York) who might be interested in the blackbird,fly camera. I received an email from a nice person named Amy, who asked me to pop in a plug for the International Center of Photography Museum Store where the blackbird,fly camera is available for those looking to buy one. Blue, Orange and Black versions are available at what seems to be a very reasonable price considering the global market ~ oh, if only I had American dollars and not the (rather depreciated at the moment) Aussie dollar!
Here is the direct link to buy the bbf camera at the ICP store and here is the address if you are lucky enough to be in New York:
1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036 | Phone 212.857.0000

I

n Tokyo there lives a very generous man named Susuma Kohda, who also happens to be a very talented photographer. This morning an Australia Post vehicle delivered a package to my door. Inside were two magazines kindly sent to me by Susumu, one was the latest edition of Snap! where more of my images (along with those from other talented photographers) were again used to illustrate what the blackbird,fly camera is capable of. Both of my children were represented which thankfully prevented any sibling rivalry, naturally they were excited to see themselves in print again! The other magazine was called 34 ThirtyFour Magazine and had some truly fantastic examples of Susumu’s portraiture work using a Diana + camera.
Thanks very much Susumu!
I would also like to thank Skorj, another great guy who lives in Tokyo, who sent me a copy of the first Snap! magazine my photos appeared in at about the same time Susumu did, so I ended up with two copies of that one!