Polaroid 452 Miniportrait

These puppies appear to be as rare as hens teeth! I've never seen one come up on EBay Australia, and if your lucky enough to stumble across one of EBay America its always missing a back or a lens cap or something that deters me from parting with my hard earned cash....

If any ones got one of these lying around at home I;d be happy to take it off your hands!

Hey You! Say Cheese! Disposable camera 3

As you all know Ive been leaving disposable cameras in public places with this note. So far I've left cameras in Cronulla and Byron Bay - I've also had one tied to my front door for the past two months, placed there for anyone who happens by to visit me to take a photo before they knock!

Ive had people from all walks of life visit these past two months, my little niece ruby, good friends, old friends, new friends (Hi there Mr Vos) not to mention a rather disgruntled Energy Australia worker during a 2am black out... needless to say I was really looking fwd to getting these shots back....

You can imagine my disappointment when I picked up the negatives only to find that, during a freak "camera tied to door by bit of string and crushed when accidently slammed" incident I lost all but 3 of the photos from exposure to light, and the three that survived, survived barely...

Not one to be deterred I'm climbing back on the metaphorical horse and will be tying another camera to my front door first thing tomorrow morning... this one will be wrapped in bubble wrap!

Polaroid SX70... Welcome to the Family

I've been collecting vintage cameras for almost 10 years now... I found my first one, a Eastman Kodak, on the side of the road in a council clean up pile and just couldn't believe someone could so carelessly throw out such a beautiful piece of equipment...

Ive blogged about my collection before and gotten all excited about my new Special Edition Polaroids, but somehow, for no obvious reason a SX-70 has long been lacking from my collection, I know the film is obsolete or ridiculously expensive if its not... but I just had to have one... well two actually!

Some lovely soul from Melbourne was parting with all three of these bad boys on eBay and I scored them for a pretty sweet deal, approx 15 bucks a camera... Now if only I could find film that cheap!

If you don't know how to fix it stop breaking it.

Wow... Its not every day a 12 year old makes you cry.... The video above, and the speech it broadcasts was made almost 20 years ago at the UN Earth Summit in Rio by a 12 year old girl who's name is Severn Suzuki. Severn Suzuki! Sounds like some kind of made up super hero doesn't she. Well she's not made up but she is indeed a super hero.

At the tender age of 9 this young soul founded the Environmental Children's Organisation (ECO), by 12 had raised enough cash to travel 5000 miles from her home town in Vancouver, Canada to Rio to give a bunch of United Nations Delegates a "passionate and heartfelt tongue lashing"

I know your thinking what the hell does this have to do with photography but I've written before about our precious environment in Costa Rica on my mind and painfully pointed out that while this "Environmental problem" the world seems to be having might appear to have precious little to do with photography Id just like to remind you if the world plummets into another ice age or the sun gets so gosh darn hot your trapped in doors for all eternity we wont have much to take photos of now will we!

What got me was when she said "My father always says 'You are what you do, not what you say' - Well what you do makes me cry at night" Fighting words from such a youngen agreed? That UN summit in 1992 was supposed to be the turning point for the world... So it makes me sad that almost 20 years have passed and we are still facing the same problems, in fact things have gotten worse, however its because of people like this, this and this trying to do there bit for the world I don't cry at night.

To read more on what Severn Suzuki has been up to click here to get to Guernica Magazine for a fantastic read on not only Severn but all things art and politics.

Expired Film - Don't believe the rumors

There is much debate about expiry dates... I for one perceive them only as a cautionary hint unless of course its on a carton of milk and the date has in fact passed.

Many people stray away from expired film, thinking there is no possible way you can get off a good shot, well I'm hear to tell you I've shot a roll of Kodak Slide film dated Aug 1964 I found in the back of my Nonna's wardrobe one day and the shots came out fine... better one might say as they had a vintage effect some people spend hours trying to achieve in Photoshop. Does the same rule apply for Polaroid film I hear you wonder? Just ask travel Photographer Dan Eckstein who took these photos at his Grandma's condo complex in Nth Miami Beach, Florida.

If you take one thing away from this story, then make it two. Expired film rules and Grandma's are a great source for old film and new inspiration.

Over the Rainbow

OK so I never wanted to be one of those blogger's that posts random images with random comments like "here's a pretty flower have a great day schnookems" This is a photography blog and its about all things photography... or stories inspired by random little looks at life, which, in my opinion are the best kind of photos... But I saw a rainbow on the way to work this morning and i just had to share it with whoever feels like listening.

Apologies for the shit house quality of the photo, my iPhone was all I had on me at the time.... For such amazing phones they take terrible photos, but that's far from the point... the point is I saw a freak'n cool rainbow.... and wow... I mean rainbows are cool we all know that, but Ive never really stopped to appreciate them, there is a perfect arc of magnificent colours appearing out of god forsaken nowhere and that's just a pretty damn rad way to start the day if you ask me!

want to know more about the science of it all click here to learn more...

For the love of the Music...

Being decidedly  hung over yesterday the boyfriend and I caught a lazy Sunday arvo movie. I'll be the first to admit I'm not a huge fan of English comedies but with a line up including two of my all time faves, Bill Nighy and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, I knew The Boat That Rocked would be good for a few laughs at the very least....

I walked out, almost embarrassed I had such low expectations. Not only was this movie funny, it was funny with all kinds of heart, I don't mean to gush but its been a long time since a movie good and proper flawed me like that. 

There's several plot lines running through this movie, not to mention some awesome super 8 footage and I could probably write for hours about the hilarity of it all... But essentially its all about the music people -fucking large massive huge amounts of love, hope and dedication - this is one movie not to be missed. 

Oh and the first time someone says Fuck on the radio scene is particulary golden - for a sneak peak click here and go to videos

Monster Children Photo Issue: Calls for entry

Man I love creative involvement, The dudes over at Monster Children Magazine are looking for anyone, and that anyone could mean you, to be apart of their Photo Issue.

All you have to do is take a photo at exactly 3pm this coming Saturday the 25th April. It can be of anything, anywhere around the world. Wherever you are at that time... There is no lame arse restrictions like digital only so pick up your Polaroid cameras, put a reminder in your phone, because, lets face it, us creative types tend to be a little forgetful, not to mention lax with our time and prepare to hit the streets this coming Saturday.

Email the photo (as a jpeg, under 4mb) to chris[at]monsterchildren[dot]com with the following info: Name, Location, 50 words or less explaining the photo and your own website. 

While common sense tells you not every image is guaranteed to be published, who bloody cares right? The main thing is your out there taking photos - Pretty tidy way to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon if you ask me.

Polanoid Website

The good people at Polanoid (no thats not a typo) are building the biggest Polaroid picture collection on the planet to celebrate the magic of instant photography. So dudes, pretty please, seach your archives and attics and reactivate your Instant Cameras....

Find a scanner, any scanner and upload your photographic contribution by clicking here, there are currently over 200,000 photos in the collection. Pretty impressive shit huh!

Hey You! Say Cheese! Disposable camera. 2

One blue sky sunshiney day this past  Easter long weekend I tied a disposable camera to a tree, on the beach in beautiful, but ridiculously over crowded, Byron Bay. I've pulled stunts like this before and Ive got to say people, I'm continually impressed with the level of participation, your compositions and general willingness to have a go, get involved, have some fun - that type of thing.... 

I have a invite to the opening of the Glory Holes Exhibition coming up at the Monster Children Gallery sitting on my desk so I'm thinking this might be a fun spot to leave my next camera.... Creative types, random art and large amounts of booze - what could possibly go wrong! 

In the mean time, enjoy the Byron Bay results by clicking here... actually just to mix things up Click here instead. 

Byron Bay blues festival

This Easter was spent knee deep in mud at the Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival. Typical of the mid north coast this time of year it rained cats and dogs the whole time granting me only one day of sunshine to tie a disposable camera to a tree along with this note at main beach in Byron Bay. I'll have the photos up by Monday so watch this space.

The festival itself was a hoot, John Butler Trio bought the house down with a 2 hour set, some quality time was spent with old friends while new ones were made and Peter Pan syndrome was alive and well as we danced around in the mud for 5 days. 

Life doesn't get much better than that.

Diana Instant Back

Allow me to introduce you to the Diana Instant Back... this nifty little invention was developed by the good people at the Japanese Lomography HQ and enables you to turn your Diana+ into a instant camera that churns out Fuji Instax Mini Film faster than you can say hasta lugeo Polaroid... which roughly translates to see ya later if your Spanish is a little dusty....Yes Yes I know its not the same as Polaroid 600, believe me I know, but something is better than nothing and nothing is not much at all... agreed? 

Click here if you'd like to know the tiny insignificant little details like where to purchase the Diana Back or how to load the film... 

Glass Half Full.... Half Empty

I had a really great day today... followed by a really crappy afternoon. While only the first half of the day relates to photography I'm going to write about it anyway because it rattled me a little bit and i think i just need to put pen to paper (or pixel to screen in this case) to get it off my chest.

We had a glorious spring day here, blue skies, warm sunshine topped off with just the right amount of chill in the breeze. Hung over like there is no tomorrow from a wedding the night before i cruised into the city early for a pre production meeting for a film I'm currently working on, after that I took my boyfriend and my golden half camera to the Deus Surf Swap Meet to take some photos and oooh and ahh over the amazing retro surf and skate boards on offer - sounds like a great day huh! well I'm telling you it was, I ran into some old friends, some new friends and some good friends and left exhausted but happy.

It wasn't till I got home my day got kind of crappy... Crappy in that i lost all faith in human decency for a while there. Absolutely buggered from running around in the sunshine all day I took myself to the corner store around 5pm to get a nice cold beverage.... now the corner store is all but a 30 second walk from my house... little did i know i would spend the next 2 hours holding the hand of a 80 year old man named Maurice as i whipped blood from his face.

You see the store was packed, people buying ice-creams and newspapers, bred and milk. There was a old man about 8 people in front of me in the cue and somewhere between picking up his Saturday paper and paying at the register he began to have a stroke....

the 8 people between me and him looked on and smirked, ignored it or acted all kinds of inconvenienced by this old man taking so long to pay for his paper as he struggled to stand up right and remember what he was doing... less than 30 seconds have passed before he leaves his paper at the counter, picks up another one at the door and stumbles out the door.

Admittedly i couldn't quite figure out if he was drunk or not (he wasn't) but something was definitely not right. I ran after him, leaving my own bloody wallet at the corner store only to find he had dropped both his wallet and his paper on the ground, and was attempting to cross a busy road with cars rushing by... this whole time nobody, not a soul was doing a thing! I mean shit, that really pisses me off. This was someones grandpa and Id like to think if my grandpa was ever in trouble like that someone would help the guy out.... It just really irks me that people these days assume the worst, oh he must be a silly drunk old man, leave him be type thing.

Any who I finally caught up to him and he had fallen, cracked his head open and was showing all the signs of having a stroke, thanks to two more kind strangers a ambulance was called and Maurice (I found his name inside his wallet) was taken to the hospital... I hope he is doing OK and i hope he has family close by to look after him but i also hope that karma bites those horrible people that just looked on and laughed in the arse sometime soon.

The photo above is by Jen Gotch it seemed fitting for this post, both happy and sad - exactly like my day today...

My Vintage Camera Collection

It's recently occurred to me I have some serious issues.... no I'm not talking about commitment, my ability, or lack there of, to get anywhere on time, It's much more serious than that... I have"priority packing" issues. 

I was hanging at home last night in my spaceship PJ pants... as you do... finishing some washing and packing my backpack all excited about heading home to the beautiful mid north coast for the week, and even more excited about going to the Byron Bay Blues Festival for 5 days of fantastic music, new people, old friends and random photo opportunities as far as the eye could see.... 

I packed all the festival staples. Gumboots - check. Clean Undies - of course! Dry socks - several pairs. A few different outfits, 2 disposables cameras, 1 canon G9 digital, my Holga with various filters, a Pentax SLR AND my Taz Loony Tunes Polaroid.... It was around the G9 I came to the sudden realisation that it would be a cold day in hell before I would fit all of this in my bag.... and i was yet to pack  my Amigo 610!

I'm embarrassed to say with out giving it a second thought out went the weather appropriate outfits and my back up socks and there stayed the 6 camera's... a little less than practical I know... but I have every intention of using all 6, especially the two disposable cameras, which I shall be tying to telegraph poles along with this note for you the random public to take photos with and posting the results upon my return.

Happy almost Easter people.

Holga'riffic

Well I got my shots back from my Holga.... I wont post them all up here as I've never once posted a photo of myself on this here blog, because, well, its just not that kind of space is it.... sure you might find the odd Polaroid of my feet, and a shot here and there of me behind the camera but thats about as much as you'll ever see of me.... 

So in light of that I hope you enjoy these photos of a random little girl at a ocean side wedding, a angry mickey mouse tee and what is, quite possibly the weirdest front yard I have ever seen.

Ill try and scan a negative so you can see the weirdo way it prints onto the film, until then - Enjoy

Indian Fabric

I'm  a big fan of council clean ups, that whole some one's trash is someone else's treasure deal really works for me.... There's nothing like strolling home from a friends past piles of discarded lounge suits only to stumble across a solid teak, danish style L shaped lounge suit just begging for a hoarder like me to take it home!

The cushions however were a little shabby, so I've just purchased this lovely Indian quilt from the girls at Fenton & Fenton to reupholster the aforementioned lounge. Vintage lounge meets fabric from a far off land... I'm pretty excited about it.

Oh and note to self don't be fooled by indoor lighting. It still means you need a flash!

Holga Love

I got a Holga for Christmas which I of course love... how could you not with the vast array of filters and colour gels that come with it these days! It takes 120 film but last weekend I decided to jam two pieces of foam and a roll of 35mm film into the back to see how it went... very high tech of me I know... 

Apparently, due to the structure of the Holga the image is printed on the entire negative, or in this case positive as I used slide film and got it cross processed in C-41 the chemical used to develop negative film... which for those not in the know, really saturates and bleeds your colours! I get them film back this afternoon so stay tuned for the results!

The shot above was taken with my Canon G9. a 12 mega pixel digital camera.

Ruby Tuesday. Never Never Land

I'm forever yapping on about Peter Pan syndrome... tackling life with childish enthusiasm... living for nothing but pure unadulterated fun... Its a nice way to live, who am I kidding? "Nice" is a weak adjective... it's a fantastic way to live...

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the morning with one of my best friends, who, a few short years ago was promoted to sister in law when my brother threw a grape at her and fell in love (but that's another story) She of course bought with her my adorable niece and nephew who are childish enthusiasm personified.

Harrison is just a little bundle of speed and energy and has a smile for everyone from his mum to the random stranger at our local coffee house, a trait I dearly hope he carries through out life. Ruby loves rings on her toes, pigtails in here hair and will happily spend 15 minutes in a corner having a very animated conversation with a bunch of balloons. She also loves spiders.... which brings me back to the whole childhood enthusiasm thing... at what age does fascination get replaced with fear - and why?

As Kris and I sat and chatted over a cup of tea Ruby came charging out of my room draped head to toe in every accessory I own, including two very strategically placed clip on earrings attached to the kangaroo pocket on her hoodie... You've gotta hand it to the kid, at 2 and a half, she has a style all of her own.

The photo above left was taken with my Amigo 610 with a Sylvania 600 flash bulb and the one on the right was shot with my Looney Tune Special Editon Polaroid which has a automatic flash which I find doesn't come out as sharp - bring back the flash bulb I say... hell - bring back the polaroid while you are at it!