I would just like to note that Light Leaks (magazine) showcased South Australian plastic photographer Don Brice (mentioned previously here) in their last issue.
Now to this post. I have put together a little video podcast, it’s a bit dry & not that exciting but I’m just feeling my way with this whole podcast thang. I wanted to illustrate how I’ve modified my Diana with an inside-the-camera light seal. I implemented this idea from a suggestion from the aforementioned Mr. Brice, so all credit to him. Perhaps it won’t totally replace the need to tape up the outside of your favourite plastic camera, but it might certainly act as a useful adjunct.

How many times do we drive down the road, busy, busy going places and we see something, say for example, an abandoned rusted out car, lit just right by the setting sun, or as another example, a large group of goths emerging from the train station after a big night out…so, we see something and think “That would make a good photo” – but do…nothing about it, we keep driving, or whatever, because we are too busy, busy, busy to slow down, pull over and take the camera out of our bag and snap a shot or two.

Hang on, lets stop for a moment ~ Q: Everyone reading this always carries at least one camera with them wherever they go, right? Right? If not, why not? Sure, you can capture a moment in your memory, but as far as my current knowledge of neurological sciences goes, no-one can extract that vision from your memory to share with others…yet.

Anyway back to the potential photograph you almost took – I know I’ve let many moments such as this slip past, and later on regretted it. I wonder how often others do. Do we really need to get to wherever we are going so quickly that we can’t pause to smell the metaphorical flowers? This question brings to mind the occassion where I did stop to take a shot I thought would work. It was of a golden Buddha sitting outside a local shop/cafe and looked so shiny and just plain photographable that I decided to make a u-turn pull over and take a photo. It was only when I got closer to the statue that I could read what was on a sign hanging round its neck (I hadn’t even registered the sign as I was driving past, just the lovely goldeness of the thing itself) and what the sign said was this:

“More Buddhas and Gods Inside“

I don’t know about you, but these words changed what would have been a quite nice golden Buddha statue photo into a very interesting (and kind of funny) one in my eyes. I wouldn’t have even seen the sign if I didn’t take the time to pull over and look. There is an added photographic karma angle to this anecdote, because a moment after I took the golden Buddha photo, a local character named Des came out of the shop. Des is a spiritual healer & fondly known locally as “Papa Desi” “Baba Des” and “The Wizard” to name a few of his a.k.a’s. He is frequently seen on the street dressed in usually colourful garb of eastern influence walking with a distinctive cane with a polished metal skull on top. As my wife put it, he looks like he could have stepped off the set of Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. As far as being a wonderful subject for a portrait, well, say no more! Des is a great bloke and has kindly posed for my cameras before, so there I had another nice shot. But wait, there’s more (that’s right, not only do you get the steak knives, but you also get a free chopping board!) – right after I photographed Des, the owner of the shop, Chris, came out. Chris for all intentents and purposes, could be Frank Zappa’s double. So I then captured both Chris and Des on film together. Sheer serendipity!
I think there’s something in this little story for all of us…don’t you?
Happy Snapping!

Saturday, April 09, 2005
Whooot! I’m a WINNER!

Well, to cap off a lovely sunny day spent with friends and family I arrived home to find an email from a generous photoblogger named Susan B – who recently had a camera raffle on her site outafocus (has some great photos btw) for some toy cameras. If you wish to find out more on Toy Cameras there is a website devoted to them: toycamera.com ~ anyway to cut a long story short, I actually won one of the cameras she was raffling! I have never won a raffle in my life, so I was pleasantly surprised. Susan is also sending a roll of film with it to get started (I think it takes 120 film) so I have no excuse not to do a bit of Toy Camera Photography (stay tuned for results from this camera) I’m looking forward to it. Some think that the lomo’s are toy cameras but i think there would be debate about that, as traditionally toy cameras usually have plastic lens, but perhaps it’s more about the look of the final developed image…my Supersampler is probably somewhere between a novelty camera and a toy camera, but it has glass lenses (all 4 of them) ~ anyhow digression and discussion aside, I would like to say a big THANKS to Susan!
Now I’m going out to look through my Telescope as it is a wonderfully clear and balmy night.

(later that month)

Saturday, April 16, 2005
Thanks Susan

I would like to thank Susan Burnstine from outafocus for being such a nice person and fellow camera afficianado – today the Empire Junior she raffled (and I won) on her site arrived by post! Cool! I even managed to load the 120 film (which Susan also generously supplied) without busting it. Now to get some black masking tape for the light leaks she warned me about!
Stay tuned for some 120 photos from this cute little camera (refer to image of me very happy with aforementioned camera)

So there you have it, although I was aware of toy camera photography and had admired other people’s toy camera work elsewhere, I really was inexperienced until I got my hands on this little beauty from Susan, so if you apprecaite my stuff, thank Susan B. Of course if my toy camera photography sucks, that’s entirely my fault, not Susans!