Max Wagner takes photos.

But if you read this here blog you already knew that. Sir Max dropped me a line today to let me know that he has indeed passed the Yellow camera in the Hey You! Say Cheese Disposable Lomo project! Number 3 on the list keep your eye on the mail box...

Meanwhile this little email from max has prompted moi to pay his blog a little visit and see what he has been up to.... Turns out he has just shot some engagement photos for random strangers by the name of Mina and Alex! Check out what pure joy looks like above.

Ive said it here, here and here... the dude sure can wrangle light... he's like some kind of cowboy to the suns rays! Mad props to you Max... Oh and I don't know who's Idea the miss matching socks was but whom ever was the mastermind behind such a rad color combination you can come sought out my sock drawer any day!

Before I die i want to...

Hearing hundreds of different answers to this question from hundreds of different people made the good people at "before i die i want to..." wonder "What make some people more aware of their own mortality than others? What motivates people to take action in their lives? What values do we hold as a society? And what values do other societies around the world find important?"

The creators, Nicole Kenney (Brooklyn, NY) and ks rives (Chicago, IL) keep their Polaroid cameras handy, taking portraits wherever they go to add to the collection. They snap the photo while the subject is saying what they want to do before they die, getting them in the act of stating their desire.

Nicole and ks then request that the subject writes his or her statement on the Polaroid starting with the words “Before I die I want to....” As the subjects are signing the release form, the artists ask them to include their emai so they can contact them in 10 or 20 years to make sure they made good on their commitment.

Pretty heavy stuff but what a fantastic project. You can check out more here, trust me the words above have not done this project justice... they have hit people up with the hard hitting questions in both India and the USA not to mention people in Hospice, which i find truly amazing... A human being on deaths door reflecting on what if... Its a brave question to ask and a even braver one to answer.

Translations for the shots above are as follows. Indian Child "Before I die I want to study". Chelsi (the old man) "I feel like I have done everything I wanted to do"

The TG4 Invitational Surf Classic

Well its that time of year again... The TGI (Tommy Gray Invitational Surf Classic) started out as somewhat of a birthday bash for my boyfriends little brother and has turned into a full blown annual surf contest where its all about the fun you have on the waves you ride not the skill with which you carve up the face of a wave.

Year one was the Californian games theme that saw roller skates and rainbow colored knee pads come back with a vengeance. The TG2 was a black tie affair with crew surfing in 3 piece suits and top hats galore. By the time year 3 rolled around caution was thrown to the wind and supermen and batmen took to the waves.

This year the theme was Pirates, and by god pirates they were! I'll let the shots above speak for themselves (plus I'm too tired from such a super rad weekend to keep typing) Enjoy

Wow.

OK OK so this is a digital shot, but photography is photography and every so often you come across a shot that makes you stop and just go "Wow"

So who really gives a shit what medium it comes from. its a great shot. it delivers a emotional response. It looks like it could be straight out of the 50's but was taken by this man in 2009.

Take in the photo above, take a moment to say wow!

Interesting souls

I love travel for so many reasons, but meeting new interesting and wonderful human beings is by far the most rewarding part of any journey. This here is Dan Shadwell. Dan is a englishman I met in Hanoi, Vietnam in a crowded rooftop bar at the local backpackers. Dan likes bandana's and can solve the Rubik's cube in under 30 seconds.

Perfect strangers my boyfriend and I only wound up sitting next to Mr Shadwell because drinks were cheap and people were a plenty and room was scarce....my bag spilling over with various cameras its was not long before the conversation turned to photography, both taking lomo's with us on our travels we had lots to talk about....

Color slide film is as rare as hens teeth in Asia and Dan was lucky enough to stumble across some expired rolls and kind enough to share some with me.... You see the thing with expired film is you never know what your going to get, so we've kept in touch to share the results, Above is a shot of Dan's and mines varying results plus a polaroid I took of dan the night we all meet.

I have SOOOO much more to post, Some results from Hey You! SayCheese! Plus more shots form my travels but am finding no time to sit down and scan so this small portion of lomo love will have to do for now. Enjoy!

Life through a plastic lens

Well isn't this a bloody good site! Square Frog is a pommy website dedicated to the fine art of photography, specifically for those who use a Holga, or as they say, choose to view life through a plastic lens!

This sites got everything and then some. Basic shooting tips, more information than you can shake a stick at when it comes to creative masking, multi exposures, developing film and pushing and pulling your images. There is a whole section dedicated to trouble shooting, and while us Holga users acknowledge running into troubles is half the fun, its nice to have a little bit of help.

Square frog is a wealth of information for those just getting started however I'm certain even the most experienced Holgographer (try saying that three times fast) would find some useful info here, If not a wealth of inspiration... as their flickr pool squarfrography has over 11,000 individual shots - that's a whole lot of Holga love!

The shot above was taken by a flickr devote who goes by the name faster you can view more of his work here

Polaroid Temple

With a catch phrase like "Polaroid is not dead it just smells funny" how can you not love this site. I'm not quite sure what the aforementioned site is all about really but there are loads of pretty Polaroids (like the one above) for you to extract some form of inspiration from! Enjoy!

Educate yourself

Been playing around with your Polaroid for a while now? Used your fish eye to death? Love your lomo to bits but just have a hankering for something new and exciting? Well do yourself a favor and get yourself a Holga, My boyfriend got me one for xmas last year and by god it's awesome... colored flashes, filters and 35mm film conversions with nothing but electrical tape and a bit of foam - whats not to love?

There are however about a million different Holga types out there, so choosing which model to love is a different story all together... Im a 120GCFN girl myself (glass lens colored flash) but perhaps you are more into a standard 120GN or a more complex 120 3D? Not sure which Holga you prefer check out this handy guide to Holga models and your well on your way to making a informed decision!

lo fi photographer lovers pay attention

I constantly find myself returning to this site called Holga blog, its always full of great information, talking about new photographers and is, of course, brimming with beautiful photos.

The good folk at Holga blog have a great post up at the moment called 5 tips to improve your photography with out a camera... which basically tells you to go for a silly walk, have a nap, seek enlightenment, get all touchy feely and have a yarn, how does this improves your ability to take good photo I hear you ask?

Well you'll just have to click here to find out more!

How to load 35mm film into your holga

Ive done this numerous times with varying results and this is by far the best "how to" I've come across yet...

Theres something nice about the fact that just to shoot a 35mm frame you have to go to all the trouble of cutting up foam and jamming rubber bands in places the photography gods would, well, not want you jamming rubber bands - just to take a bloody photo, not quite as easy as slipping a 4GB SD card into your 12 mega pixel camera... but so much more satisfying.

The only thing is in my experience, styrofoam works much better than soft foam, you get less of that blood curdling screeching which tends to make you think wolverine has gone 10 rounds with your negative strip.

The Sea Life expands it's horizons

Ive blogged about the Sea Life here before, Its a photography journal /daily surf report / documentation of life in a coastal town run by a capitol fellow by the name of Matty J.

I signed up to receive his daily report and I tell you what people, not only is it fantastic to get a glimpse of some salt water on a daily basis its just rad being able to watch a fellow photographers style evolve over the days and months. First there was waves, then came landscapes and now portraiture, and the kid just continues to nail every shot...., sure the portrait above happens to be my other half's little bro (happy birthday TG) but personal sentiment aside its a great portrait, raw and real.

You hear surf photographer and you think action sports, a perfect moment in perfect focus, but like the swell around Cronulla these days Matty's style is a little more sporadic and unpredictable, he's developed this perfect blend of action sports meets documentary photography... whether he's shooting toes on the nose or the surrounding landscape and people it just works every time!

For more on the Sea Life click here. Yeah yeah i know his shots are digital and this here blog is about all things lo fi and awesome (like polaroids) But Matt is a participant in Hey You! Say Cheese... having signed up to recieve not one but two disposable lomo cameras to take photos with before passing them on, so that makes him ok in our books! For more Info on the disposable camera project click here, here or here

Welcome to the family Sir Cool Cam

Well the name just says it all dont it... This cameras oozes 80's cool and im happy to say i have finally added a cool cam to my collection... I'm telling you people if you are in Australia buying Polaroids from the US is a heck of a lot cheaper... You know the age old mass quanity + minor demand = cheaper polaroid products for all type deal! Although after this post I am no doubt creating a little healthy bidding cmpetition for myself!

So here in Oz the demand for Polaroid is quite huge and the selection somewhat limited, you could prob pick up a working cool cam for around AU$90+ (trust me after many failed attempts at trying to score myself one I know) and with film peaking at a whopping AU$36.95 for a single pack your looking at over $100 and well, that just starts to hurt a little doesnt it... your wallet gets all sad and your bank account feels empty and shit just starts to get depressing....

SO when I figured out that for a a mere AU$60 I could not only purchase a cool cam (that came with a complimentary pack of film) but also get the camera shipped here from god knows where in the US I was pretty gosh darn pleased with myself.

Sir Cool Cam is now sitting on my shelf next to my Taz the Looney Tune Special edition 600 Polaroid just waiting for next weekend to be taken out to play :)

5 minutes with...Photographer Jeff Robson

How old where u when you took your first photo and what was it of? I can’t remember exactly, sometime when I was a small child. I think it was on a family vacation and my parents let me shoot a whole roll by myself only to find in the end the prints were all taken of clouds.

What is your Polaroid camera and film of choice and are you all about flash or natural light? Polaroid SLR 680. 600 film. I don’t remember the last time I used a flash.

If your photos where a soundtrack what songs would they be? Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antenna to Heaven

Tells us a little bit about you? Why you are who you are and what you want to be taking photos of in 5 years. I can’t seem to stay in one place for too long. So taking photos gives me something to do when I can’t paint and when I’m traveling. And maybe the only reason it’s the only thing I’m obsessed about is because it gives me some way to relate to the world from a distance and not have to be involved, and not feel too awkward about that situation. I have no idea what I will be doing in five years.

Do you shoot other film mediums? If yes what's your fave film and camera of choice ? I don’t shoot too much Polaroid anymore, just on those special occasions. Mainly now it’s 35mm with my Olympus XA, maybe the Natura Classica sometimes.

What's your favorite photo you have ever taken and why? Don't be shy. Tell us a story.... tend to like everything at one point or another, for various reasons and then I get tired of that and move on, so no specific image stays my favorite for too long.

Thanks for your time Jeff, we look fwd to seeing more of your light filled snap shots of awesomeness soon.

City of God. True Story

They don't make movies like this every day of the week. Its a heady mix of poverty, desperation and a little bit of bad luck. Its boys gone wild... confused teenagers dealing with life way beyond there maturity level with such amazing cinematography my jaw rested firmly on the ground for the duration of this sub titled piece of brilliance.

Set in 1970's in Rio De Janiero amongst the ram shackle housing projects Cidade De Deus (City of God) its a intense film, told through the eyes of Buscape`, a boy who is too scared to become a outlaw and too smart to settle into what's expected of him in life. nothing.

He is by no means the central character to the film... more like a observer to the madness that is the life of drugs and crime that has consumed the community around him..... so its kind of handy his passion is taking photographs... After all the ultimate tool of any keen observer is a camera... and it just so happens this camera is his ticket out.

If you have not seen this movie drop what your doing right now, get up, walk swiftly to the nearest video store and contribute to the declining economy by purchasing this here dvd.

If you have watched it, well, watch it again, its awesome as shit!

Another random look down...

I'm always writing about looking down and I'm always taking Polaroids of what ever it is I see when I glance in a general downward direction... Its just such a refreshing perspective from the monotony of looking fwd

This particular random look down was taken on my Polaroid 600 Job Pro at the temple of literature in Hanoi, Vietnam... very cool place to spend a afternoon let me tell you! If your thinking of doing a rather large chunk o travelling and made peace with the fact your Polaroid film is going to take about about 60% of available space in your backpack then i highly recommend you try and get your hands on a Job Pro to take with you. Ive travelled with many Polaroids and this is the most durable yet!

You can check out more of my camera collection here, here and here!

Botany Botany

So i know a guy (Matt) who knows a guy (Christian) who writes a blog (Sea & its Horses)

The guy that writes this blog seems to be somewhat of a different soul, he has taken some oddly beautiful yet beautifully odd Polaroids, combined some hi brow words with some lo fi lighting and POW! He's made himself somewhat of a floral essay... which Christian goes on to describe as " a 80 page multi-faceted essay which can simply be read at a artisan level or more deeply as a reflection of the reader"

If your thinking it all sounds a bit much your not alone but Christian goes on to say "The reader may find that any artistic, long-winded talk is a mere solecism for pot-pourri, and this is fine also" Mumbo jumbo aside the dude takes some pretty rad Polaroids and i highly recommend you check this ambitious little book out :)

You can check out a sample of his work above or read more at Sea & its Horse blog here. Enjoy!

Just a pretty picture

No need for words. Except for these words, Why i felt the need to tell you this picture doesnt need any words is beyond me... I'm just going to stop typing now :)

Tom Robinson likes to look down.

Those who frequent this here blog will know i don't mind going on the odd jaunt around the world and taking Polaroids of my feet as I go. Ive blogged about random looks down here, here and here and my website is loaded with Polaroids of my feet...

Some people think this is a little strange of moi, so it was a pleasant surprise to stumble across a bloke named Tom.Tom likes to take photos of feet too, that's one of his shots above and you can check out many more here on his website. Having only inhabited this earth for approximately 28 years toms racked up almost as many countries and taken photos of his feet in Peru, Belize, Viet Nam and even Australia ( that's the blue mountains just outside of Sydney NSW, above)

I hope you enjoy his shots as much as i did.

Roid week

Its seems November 2-6 is offically Polaroid Week, or roid week to those in the know! You can join in this photo sharing fiesta here on Flickr by sharing your favorite shots with the world. A favorite of mine from the group is posted above or you can check out my contribution here, here and here... arnt light leaks just the greatest mistake the wolrd has ever made!

On the road to Viet Nam

You'll be in some kind of heavily air-conditioned automobile weaving in and out of traffic only to come upon a motorcycle carrying a load to market as wide as the motorbike is long, Now i don't want anything to get lost in translation here, think just how long a motorbike is - that's a bloody wide load... Your mind starts to wander how the young thing at the wheel can keep such a wide load from tipping over.

You'll find yourself impressed how the constant sound of horns and heavy traffic seem to leave this mystery driver, a girl of not yet 25, unfazed. A series of well meaning honks of the horn and a flash of the lights later and you pass on the right only to see she is also carrying two small children on the front of the bike - your jaw drops to the floor. welcome to Viet Nam.

In Australia the general consensus amongst a aging population is once you reach 65 its time to retire to a nice but manageable villa in Port Macquarie that is walking distance to the local bowling club so you can imagine my surprise newly arrived in the capitol of Hanoi when the first thing i come across is a old lady, maybe 7 or 80 (They are so healthy its hard to tell) peddling a bike across 5 lanes of peak hour traffic - something i cant imagine my grandma ever doing, even in her youth.

Its a whole other way of life in viet nam and the transport rules and regulations - or sever lack there of is just the tip of the iceberg.

There is a unspoken language in vietnam, not that of 1000 year old scriptures or ancient sun gods but of car horns and indicators. In Australia we honk our horns in rage and flash our lights in frustration - the roads of vietnam however are a whole other ball game, where one honk of your horn simply means a polite "just letting you know I'm here" and two honks roughly translates to " I'd like to pass now please"

We might use a indicator to turn left, the Vietnamese theirs to (for lack of a better word) indicate that you may pass on the left and a slight shake of your right hand in a clockwise direction , like you are turning some kind of imaginary door knob, means police ahead. Confused? I sure was but our driven Tan was seemingly unfazed as he whizzed through traffic on route to Saigon.

Vietnam is a country so fiercely contrasted to life here in Australia it is a must go to destination for those wishing to alleviate them selves from their current comfort zone (of favorite spot in front of the telly) Where we have dry heat Vietnam has humidity, We drink our beers in bars, they drink their beers on the street, and let me tell you, You haven't had the full Vietnamese experience until you have knocked back a 20c beer whilst perched on a plastic stool 10cm off the ground and all but 1m from the constant flow of traffic.

Jeff Robson digs cross processing too

We all know Jeff takes a damn fine Polaroid! I dedicated this post to his beautiful landscape work and now it seems a mate of Jeff's alerted him to the fact that we here at Hey You! Say Cheese! are a fan and the dude was kind enough to drop me a random hello from Norway.

Jeff tells me he is currently sans Polaroid but has been shooting with his Olympus XA and cross processing the results. He attached the shot above taken at the Oprah House in Oslo and by god... what a beautiful image! thanks Jeff - you made my day!\

Stay tuned for 5 minutes with Jeff Robson soon

Hey You! Say Cheese cops another blow.

As you all know back in march I started leaving cameras tied to telegraph poles and park benches with little note, above, asking random passers by to have a little fun and take some photos. I wrote clear as day at the bottom of this note "as the owner of this camera will be back later to pick me up i guess this project is a little test in human decency too" I thought SURELY no one would steal one of my cameras after that, I mean who wants to be the human that destroys someones faith in human decency?

Well apparently someone was up for the job because last week I had my first camera stolen from a telegraph pole on The Esplanade in South Cronulla, NSW. I blogged about this disappointing turn of events here and came to the conclusion i was not going to let the man get me down, I was going to tie another came to the same telegraph pole thus restoring my faith in human decency...

But alas this was not to be as yesterday evening, after leaving the camera tied to that same pole on the beach for all but 4 hours i came back to find it gone... AGAIN! at least they didn't steal my sign this time but COME ON! PEOPLE! what is up with all the stealing?

I'm heading out now to tie a 3rd camera up, but am thinking i might move one telegraph pole to the south as lets just face it this telegraph pole is bad luck!

Oh and to the human/s that stole my first two cameras.. Enjoy eternity in hell :)