Golden Half Welcome to the family

Last year my super rad boyfriend got me a Holga for Christmas, we spent the summer cruising the great ocean road and i took many a photo! Now one year on my lovely boyfriend has gone above and beyond once again and gotten me a golden half camera! Oh dear god I'm in love... with my boyfriend AND my new camera.

Ive been seriously thinking about importing these to Australia and selling them on my website, so it will be nice to take the Golden Half for a little test run. We are road tripping this year to the middle of gosh darn nowhere, My mums horse farm outside of a town called Numurkah where we will be hanging around the back paddocks soaking up the summer sun and playing with their new foal, PLENTY of opportunity to take some great photos...

With a quick jaunt to falls festival for Xmas eve and a few days at my favorite place on earth (my Nonna (grandma) pats) Ill be home on the 4th and keen as beans to get some developing and scanning done to post on this here blog!

Apologies if my posts are sporadic over the next 10 days, I will try and post here and there but will be back on the 4th of Jan! I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas, Please if your driving somewhere, take it easy on the roads, give your self lots of brakes and drive safe, sorry to get all parental on you but this time of year makes me nervous.

Toy Camera's R Us

Well Well Well... don't you just love stumbling across new photographers! I was cruising the mean streets of flickr this Christmas eve, yes I am finally too old to hack going out and getting on the piss on such occasions, and was lucky enough to come across a fellow called Matt Larson who runs a blog that goes by the name of Toy camera Play, this site is dedicated to anything with a plastic lens and Matt has a number of fun little projects on the go. You can check out more of his work here and have a peek at his blog and the aforementioned projects here.

I love the shot above, its like some kind of eery tombstone for mother earth and our natural environment.... look out world we wont have much left to take beautiful photos of if we don't start taking care of the world in which we live sometime in the not so distant future

Merry Christmas everyone.

Lola's room

Is a etsy shop that is just all kinds of wonderful! Its run by photographer Cassia Beck and is just a great place to pick up original prints that effortlessly ooze class and style. All photographs are printed on premium Matt paper and are packaged carefully to ensure they get to you in perfect condition. Click here to shop up a storm or here to find out more about Ms Beck herself.

The seaslife. Good life.

Polaradic goodness from ocean minded photographer MJ. Sign up for a daily dose of ocean here.

Kill All Artists

Check out the latest random acts of camera here and stay tuned for a all new travel photography section coming soon! Woo!

Babys first polaroid....

I came across this post here on photographer Jenny Vorwallers blog.... now this kid is going to grow up with a fine appreciation of all things photographic.... tres impressed!

Cool Christmas card

I received this environmentally friendly e-card from my food photographer today. Its pretty nifty so i just thought id share it with you all...

A delivery

There was a bit of excitement going down on Arthur ave this evening, I got home from a long day at work to find this on my door step. Its the second of 10 cameras to arrive home after 3 months of being passed around the world but complete strangers...

If this is the first you have heard of such madness allow me to quickly elaborate. Girl buys cameras. Girl posts a call out on her blog for random strangers from all over the world to sign up to receive a camera. Girl assigns a color and 12 people to each camera... cameras are put into circulation and stop for a little while with each person on the list. Once you have the camera you take two photos of something that's your designated color and pass it fwd. Its that sample.

4 months later and while I'm sad to report 1 camera has already gone missing at the hands of Australia post, 2 have made it back to me safe and sounds and the rest are, I'm assured, are on their way.... to read more about various Hey You! projects click here, here or here!

This one's for you ben

So I asked my oh so hopeful boyfriend what I should write about for tonights post, to which he simply replied "me" - Not a entriely helpful answer, unless he starts expelling Polaroids out his ears there is not much to write home about... So i thought id post this photo of his hairy face instead.

Its taken on my holga using 35mm film slide film and cross processed in the negative chemical C-41. You can learn more about loading 35mm film into your holga here and cross processing here.

"___" is coming to cronulla....

What exactly is "____" I hear you ask? Well i don't exactly know but its my fellow human being and all round creative type Johnny's Surf flick and its showing in cronulla this Sunday the 13th of December sometime after 5pm so if your in the area (and you must be in the area because how far does this world wide web contraption really travel) then come on down to El'Sol for a cinematic treat of soughts.... You wont regret it I promise.... Nothing this bloke does is mainstream and thats why i dig the dude!

Read more here

Green Island Studios Calendar is here!!

Jo Bradford is a super rad photographer and a industrious human being too. Not one to let her Polaroids fade away in the top drawer she's had them published into quite the snazzy looking calender!Like what you see? You can check out Jo's blog here, or purchase a calender here via her etsy store!

A Polaroid Fantastic

Well shit people...we've all seen Polaroids of feet, misty landscapes and sun drenched skies... but how often do you come across shots depicting decapitated dolls heads and Mary Poppins floating through a psychedelic sky....

And the fun doesn't stop there, there's weirdos dressed as tree's and all kinds of crazy shit going on at A Mission Fantastic. Jury is still out as to whether the Polaroids are real or not (that's a lot of film grant if they are) but shots are refreshing all the same....

TLR cameras

Looking for a guide to TLR cameras, perhaps some reviews? or just want to look at some pretty pictures? Well look no further than Holga Blog... They currently have quite the extensive post up at the moment covering everything from general ergonomics, view finders and focusing right through to optical quality and using a flash when it comes to your basic TLR model... get reading. get shooting. enjoy.

A beautiful photo by Nath Oldfield...

If you have a spare minute or ten you should take some time ot check out his blog. The darn thing is riddled with photographic goodness!

Diana leaks light and I love it...

A fellow human I happen to know took this photo of me at the TG4 last weekend... Ive never posted a photo of myself on this here blog, but i figured you cant see my face so its OK, and the light leaks in this shot are so god damn cool I couldn't help but share it with you all.

Its like the Diana has captured the energy floating through the air that day and whats not to love about that!

Hey You! Say Cheese has has a freshn up...

What happens when you tie a disposable camera up in a public place and leave it there for the day? Click here to find out.... New photos, new look. Enjoy the random acts of photos people!

The best Polaroid contest

WARNING! Shameless copy and paste pitch below from the good people at Blur...

***Blur is proud to be the exclusive media sponsor of The Impossible Project, which is re-inventing analogue integral film for vintage Polaroid cameras in the former Polaroid factory in Enschede (the Netherlands).

The company of Polaroid stopped producing the instant film in June 2008, and the expiry date of the last films produced is 9 Oct 2009. After this, it will no longer be possible to purchase instant film – and Polaroid photography would thus be dead and gone forever.

But there is hope – The Impossible Project will launch new instant film materials in 2010. In the beginning of 2010, they will present a b&w analogue integral film for all SX70 and 600 camera models, and colour film will follow in summer, and by the end of 2010 they will bring Image film for Spectra cameras back.

To support this special photographic and artistic moment, Blur magazine, in collaboration with the Impossible Project, is organizing a big international contest of analogue instant photography under the name THE BEST POLAROID PHOTO.

The panel, consisting of leading team members of the Impossible Project and Blur magazine, will select 30 best photographs. These will be presented on the website of Blur, where readers can vote for the BEST POLAROID PHOTO. The five selected photographers will be awarded with attractive prizes, courtesy of the Impossible Project, and the best 30 photographs will be displayed in an exhibition in Zagreb.

There is a certain secret relation between photographer and his/her instant analogue camera, a strong emotional and sentimental devotion. Therefore, we don’t want to limit you with any theme. Instead, we want you to send us your favourite Polaroid photograph, the one you feel mostly attached to, the photograph you believe could win the title of THE BEST POLAROID PHOTO.

Given that Polaroid photographs are so unique, and the authors so attached to their work, you don’t have to send your original photographs, but scanned versions in web resolution. In case your photograph enters the 30 best according to the panel, we will contact you directly so that you send us your photo in high print resolution in order to be exhibited and published in all related promotional materials***

The competition is free of charge and open to all photographers, professional ones and amateur ones.... The down side each photographer can participate by submitting ONE PHOTO ONLY... I know I know! how ever will you choose?

Photographs must be scanned and sent in web resolution 72 dpi, 1000 pixels, Jpeg format, and not that it matters but the prizes are a proverbial wet dream for Polaroid enthusiasts, click here to check out the goods and enter your very best Polaroid.

Attempt the Impossible

Don't forget to pay regular visits to The Impossible Project, the good folk working tirelessly to bring Polaroid film back to the masses.

Ummmm...

They are disposable snaps OKAY

Shitness! I just love a good disposable camera shot and the image above is no exception. It was taken by my blog type cyber friend Laura Mckeller who not only is a amazing artist is pretty handy with a disposable camera.

You can check out more of her work here, here and here.

Hey You! Day at the Park

Hey You! Say Cheese is a little photographic/social experiment I run where I tie cameras to trees, park benches and other random places and leave little notes for people. I tell them to take a photo, to have a little fun. You can read more about this project here on my website....

Recently I tied a camera up at a local music festival called Day at the park, It was bound to be a great day, the sun was shining the sky was blue, King tide were rocking the microphone along with the musical stylings of Mat McHugh and the Beautiful Girls... What better time and place to tie a camera up and let the people have some fun.

Out of every camera there is only ever 1 money shot, maybe 2 if your lucky, and i quickly learnt that those odds decrease somewhat when you tie the aforementioned camera up in a park full of drunk people.

The shots above were clear winners for me. Not only do i love the lens flare on that blue sky... the typography on the Hot Dog stand in the back ground just makes the photo... Its crazy how such a small part of a photos composition can have such a huge impact on its over all presence and effect.

See more hey you say cheese results here

The art of a average day

I stumbled across this blog "Art of a average day" when its creator, whom we shall refer to as J started to follow this here blog. J made a commitment some 365 days ago to document the every day of her life, taking a photo a day and posting them here on her blog!

Yesterday J took her final photo! Congratulations j! Ive blogged about 365 day projects here and here and its always lovely to come across someone triumphant and frothing on life and the completion of their project! I particularly love this shot above, taken on the 364th day!

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!