Hey You! Sunshine!

I have just got the shots developed from my latest disposable camera, tied to a telegraph pole on Shark Island for one glorious sunny sunday afternoon... The roll will be posted here in a few days but in the mean time here is a little sneak peak above! Hows that View - amazing!

You can check out other cameras left up and down the east coast of Australia here or if you would like a camera tied up in your area contact me here

National Photographic Portrait Prize

The 2011 National Photographic portrait prize is now open for business people. This annual event aims to promote the very best in contemporary portraiture by both professional and aspiring Australian photographers such as yourself. Entries close November 11 so be sure to get snapping my friends... For more details on how to enter this fabulous comp click here

A very cool blog

Stumbled across this here blog the other day called A dream of white horses... some pretty bloody awesome Polaroids on there with some beautiful light leeks and bleeds. All photos are by a bloke called Dan Ryan and what weird and wonderful collection of photos they are!

Be sure to check it out if you are looking for a bit of inspiration!

Spring Fair

Thank golly gosh its spring. Hello Blue skies and sunshine... As it so happens I took these photos at the Spring Fair 2 weeks ago... the grain in the sky, the brightly colored flags blowing in the breeze just make me happy. Its the stuff screen savers are made of...

Shots were taken on my Voitlander VITO using 100 speed Fujichrome slide film and cross processed.

VITO

So I finally got some rolls of film developed! 8 in total (plus 162 digital photos) I'm all kinds of happy to finally check out some of the results but its not all good news.... Alas I will be crying poor for the rest of the month as I just spent my grocery money on developing - the things we do for love hey!

The first roll is from a Cockatoo Island adventure we went on for the 17th Biennale of Sydney. What a day! Blue skies, a dozen good mates each with a camera in hand, a packed lunch (thanks Bowen) and a bottle of red wine it was a great day for exploring and I'm telling you it was tough picking my fave 2 shots from the roll to post above.... but here they are... How amazing is that rainbow! Man I love sunshine! Check back for more soon

Golden Halfs...

I have not busted out my Golden Half in a while... thought Id post a few of my faves to get the creative juices flowing again! I Know its been a long while since i posted some of my own work... I currently have 12 rolls of 36 exp Fujichrome slide film to get developed... Problem is finding a camera store or even chemist for that matter that still develops film (or has even heard of it) is like finding a needle in a hay stack....

Next week I'll come through with the goods. I promise... In the mean while click here to check out some of my other photos.. you know the ones i actually got around to developing and scanning... boy - ain't it tough shoot'n film!

Would love to hear about what you are all shooting with these days and check out the results...come now... don't be shy

Cardboard Cameras

Talk about eco friendly people! American painter and sculptor Kiel Johnson crafts meticulously stunning cardboard recreations of almost every kind of camera from vintage Polaroids to your standard point and shoots! Chec out more of here amazing creations here!

Take Picture dont steal!

A one Mr G Woods is a curious and creative Canadian local who ties disposable cameras to park benches with a short and sweet letter that goes a little something like 'take picture don't steal'

He has left cameras all over his home town along with a few random ones through the US and Europe... You can check out the weirdly strange and strangely wonderful results above or here on his website! Oh and stay tuned for some new cameras from my own disposable camera project... I have 3 more to develop and post here soon!

The first disposable camera

I always thought disposable cameras were a product of the 80s! So I was surprised today to learn that the first disposable camera was actually made in 1947! Pretty freakn cool hey, It was called the photo pack and it was huge, once you had taken all of your photos you had to post the whole thing back and in one glorious week you got the results back - how exciting!

You can find out more here

Getty jumps on the disposable bandwagon

Even Getty is getting in on the disposable camera game... Some marketing guru in Singapore came up with the idea to send 300 out to various creative types across Asia... sadly it doesn't seem to be in the name of creativity or nostalgia but direct mail and cheeky sales ploys....

You can check out the photos here you can view the photos by camera I/D number... pretty interesting photos. To find out more about my own disposable camera project click here

Lomo loves harlem

Some lomo love of New York courtesy of Sending Postcards. What a amazing city to shoot in cant wait to get there next yr!

See but not heard. disposable camera Project

The girl project is a nifty little concept thought up by New York based photographer Kate Engelbrecht. The way it works is Engelbrecht sends out disposable cameras to teenage girls across America. The girls are encouraged to take photos of a variety of things, their interests, people they love and what's important to them at this stage of their life!

The goal is to collect photos from 5,000 girls of diverse social and ethnic backgrounds and then organize the work into a book and a traveling exhibition. It is a fresh look at what teenage girls are actually up to these day, what influences them, what they do for fun! Technology, social media and mass marketing are often to blame for forcing kids to grow up too fast! I was a child in every sense of the word until i hit my teens, id climb trees with my brother, go fishing with my dad and thought dresses were a hindrance on my play time in the backyard. These days it seems kids as young as 8 and 9 are dressing and acting like the cast of gossip girl.

Its this movement of 8 going on 18 that Engelbrecht finds so interesting "As adults we create an image of who teenage girls are, and we sell that back to them—telling them who they are,” Engelbrecht says, “None of it is coming from the girls themselves—as a result the truth gets lost.” she goes on to say “To not understand adolescence is a huge mistake,” she says. “It affects our perception on them as well as their own opinions on themselves. The girls feel that they either have to live up to these images or combat them.”

I know from my own disposable camera project it cant be easy getting a project like this going. From the 400 cameras she has sent out thus far only 100 have been returned, but i am sure she'll get there! Tweens and teens are largely a demographic that’s been catered to, but rarely heard from and i for one am looking forward to hearing what they have to say.

To find out more about The Girl Project click here... as you can see from the cross section of photos above its well worth a look!

A hung parliment no more!

My country (sunny Australia) Finally got a new govt today! A Labor/Greens coalition after over two weeks of hung Parliament because nobody could decide who to vote for (it was pretty much 50:50 labor/liberal...

I could go on all day about the ins and outs of it but to be honest I'm a little exhausted by it all... after 2 weeks of not knowing Australia feels a little like the photo above (found here on flickr)

I'm sure with a little help from Bob Brown's Green party Labor will be able to shake the metaphorical sand from the towel and get this country back on track - Although i still maintain that Kevin didn't do as bad a job as everyone said he did... I wish labor the best of luck....

I hardly know her

So these glorious little slices of awesomeness were taken by a one Mr. Roland Partis with an old 50mm Praktica PL Nova IB slr! For those of you left scratching your heads because I didn't just utter the words Pentax or Canon click here to educate yourself on all things Praktica.

Oh and once you've done that head to Roland's site ' I hardly know her' found here in cyber space and out more of his wonderfully grainy and beautifully reflective photos because the small sample I have posted above ain't even the half of it let alone the best of it!

Mad about Mad men

Its fair to say these behind the scenes shots are probably digital, although the beautiful grain is duly noted, I just had to share them with you anyway! They were taken on the Mad Men set by the wonderful (and rolling stone favorite) photographer James Minchin.

The 50s and the 60s was just a aesthetically wonderful time! I could go on about it all day.... but i wont... check out more of the photos here