The Plastic Lens ~ Words » Nic Nichols

Four Corners Store

Cameron — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:54:41 +0000

When I was younger there used to be a chain of grocery stores that went by the name of the Four-Square cooperative chain. These days I don’t see many of those stores around due to the big monopolies of the large supermarket chains. I’m happy to announce that a different kind of ‘four’ store, the Four Corners Dark Store is now open for business. You may recall me mentioning that nice fellow Nic Nichols in previous posts, well he now has a resource on his Four Corners dark site for analogue and toycamera lovers alike. I quote “the new Four Corner Store, our online shop for some of your quirky Toy Camera needs. We aren’t a big giant store, we are a little corner shop who has built up a nice inventory of Cams, Film and Accessories. Have a look around, and feel free to comment on things you’d like to see- we’ll be adding new products every week. Hope you enjoy!” Check it out!

More Harinezumi News

Cameron — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:43:07 +0000

Just a quick post, as I’m working a late-early turnover and am quite frankly, stuffed and must hit the sack… thanks to my new tumblr feed, I have read some rather cool and groovy details about the Digital Harinezumi camera on Nic Nichols site. He has been working hard to keep us informed with all the latest developments from those other hard working and quite brilliant people at Powershovel/Superheadz – read the latest here: update the harinezumi is coming

Instant Film News, 110 Camera Reviews etc

Cameron — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:01:12 +0000

Paddling - taken with an Polaroid SX-70 camera

My thanks to Nic Nichols and his excellent blog Four Corners Dark from where I gleaned much of this information. I’ve been a bit crook with the flu so having an informative resource like Four Corners Dark to read whilst locked away (to prevent me inflicting my bugs on anyone else) feeling muzzy headed is a boon. Of course there are a lot of great toy camera related sites out there (just check the links on the sidebar or the sites of interest page) but I have been getting a lot of enjoyment reading Nic’s latest reviews and news, not the least of which the latest reviews with accompanying results of a couple of cool little (and I mean little) Cameras from Superheadz Ina Babylon, the demekin 110 format fisheye camera (that’s right!) and the ikimono, another 110 format camera that takes more conventional shots. You can read Nic’s reviews here:
The Demekin
The Ikimono

Again through reading Nic’s blog, I found out more good news about the future of instant film, in particular Polaroid, you may remember my post on The Impossible Project a while back, well it seems things have progressed read more about it at Dave Bias (one of the co-founders of Save Polaroid)

Plastic, Plastic, a little bit of digital…

Cameron — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:24:38 +0000

Superheadz Plamodel DIY 35mm Camera

Well, my entries here have been sparse lately, as I have been caught up doing lots of other fun stuff which I will talk about over the course of the next few posts. I have been taking lots of photos with the blackbird,fly as well as capturing my photographic excursions on good old fashioned 8mm film, as part of a project in collaboration with the excellent people from Powershovel/Superheadz. I hope my movie making skills are up to par, I suppose we won’t really know until the film is developed (in Japan) and transferred to digital media for editing, fingers crossed the material will be useful to my Tokyo friends. I’ve certainly had fun taking my family around different locations to photograph and film them, we have traveled to all the usual places I would go to capture the world around me through a plastic lens; the seaside, into the city and just generally mucking around at home as well…

In other upcoming projects I have planned, I will endeavour to construct the SuperHeadz Plamodel DIY 35mm Camera (pictured) before your very eyes in a video how-to. Phil and I discussed this camera in the Photogeek.tv podcast #84 and it looks quite interesting, as well as educational. I am fortunate enough to have one of these kits, so this should be a bit of fun and will test my D.I.Y. skills, as the instructions are in Japanese, but the diagrams seem very straightforward and understandable. I think it should go OK, but the proof of the camera is in the building. Whatever happens – any problems will be due to me, not the kit, I’m sure! Stay tuned for that one anyway, could be interesting!

The Digital Harinezumi from Superheadz

The little bit of digital I refer to in the post title is the Digital Harizenumi, a forthcoming piece of kit from Superheadz that looks to be the coolest blend of analogue ambience encompassed in a digital camera that I have ever seen. Looking a bit like a 110 film cartridge (only way cooler) this piano black camera produces some wonderful analogue like movies as well as shooting still images. Harinezumi translated to English from the Japanese is “hedgehog” and anyone familiar with the cute graphics of Superheadz will know the particular character this refers to! Sure it’s digital, but the results are so full of old-school character (and just sheer magic) from the videos I have seen produced by it, that I would be more than happy to use one! Here is one example movie in colour made by my friend in Tokyo, Nick Dangerfield and another using the cameras black and white mode by him as well. I just love them. I am sure you will be hearing more about the Harinezumi here as well as elsewhere…
You can get more of a taste at this link here: digital harinezumi! You can also read more about it at Nic Nichols site.

February, Fires and Other Things

Cameron — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:13:30 +0000

he last few weeks have been extremely hot and dry with high winds, culminating in the worst bushfires Australia has seen in recorded history on Saturday the 7th (now being called “Black Saturday”) where the temperature reached over 46º C and many fires broke out, involving vast swathes of the State and in some cases totally obliterating some townships. Nearly 2000 homes have been destroyed and over 180 people so far have lost their lives (the final numbers are not confirmed yet, but I suspect it will go higher) My family have been fortunate, despite living in area surrounded by many forests, national parks and wooded catchment areas and the like, danger has so far passed us by, but we remain on alert and have important paperwork, photos (and for me, cameras) packed and ready to go should we need to abandon our home in the face of a dangerous threat. Of course our children and our lives are the main priority, so we must be prepared to lose those material things, if need be. So far the weather has settled and we are just waiting for some rain, but early last night as we were preparing to get the kids to bed and relax when we received a few phonecalls in quick succession from concerned friends and relatives, as a fire had broken out just ‘down the hill’ from us. Thankfully it was contained with alacrity by our brave Country Fire Authority volunteers and other emergency service workers who have been tireless in their dedication to protect the community.
I suppose this leads me to ponder on the transience of ‘things’ and the importance of photography in our personal lives and the construction of our reality through our memories. Often the first material things people try to preserve in the face of disasters like fire are their photo albums. I know that looking through my photographs of my wife and children brings me great joy and sparks recollection of happy times that often get buried below the surface of consciousness by the ongoing events and concern of everyday life.

n a lighter note, the French publisher Editions Allia has kindly sent me 5 complimentary copies of the booklet of Andalusian Poetry featuring my Polaroid abstract on the cover. This is my first Book Cover!!

ic Nichols of Four Corners Dark has an interesting interview with hideki ohmori of powershovel you know Powershovel, the cool people behind the blackbird,fly camera – this is part one, so I am looking forward to reading the next installment – update: pert two is here: interview with hideki ohmori of powershovel part two. Thanks Nic! Speaking of the BBF, the latest issue of Lightleaks magazine (Issue 22) has a review of this fine camera by C. Gary Moyer (as well as many other tasty lo-fidelity photographic content)