Toycamera.com

toycamera

Ahh… The simple bliss of a simple toy camera. Photography becomes more of an art form when all you have is fixed focus, one exposure value, and a cheap hunk of plastic to view the world through. It is amazing what sort of photos can be created buy using what is basically a hunk of junk.

We hope to inspire you, dear viewer, to become a Plastic Camera devotee as well, so put down that Nikon, shelve those Canons, liquidate that Blad and join us on our quest for the “Image Sublime”. The Search for the Photograph that is more than the sum of its parts. Where photography regains a bit of its Magic and is no longer a mere technical exercise. This is a place where any and all can take photographs that have personal meaning. Whatever that might be. Please enjoy and be sure to jump into our very cool and fun message board where lots of fun and interesting things happen. We live for discussion and feedback. No lie, it’s true.
Toycamera.com started as just two people with an interest in Plastic Cameras. We found these funny little cameras to take odd and compelling images. Over a fairly short time and a few conversations with others who found themselves interested in the Cameras, we found ourselves with a Group. Not a club. Not much of a Gang even. But our numbers grew. And continue to grow.

Toycamera.com Home Page

photgraphy, toy, camera, Holga, basic

Wall-Mart is Lawyer Whipped

Camera

I saw this on BoingBoing today and was shocked. This happened to me a few years ago when I was taking photos of pet cremation urns (don’t ask). The Wall-Mart refused to print them on the grounds that they were obviously shot by a professional. Well after blushing and thanking them on the complement I realized that they were still not going to print them. I had to produce my business card (it says photographer on it) and told them that I shot the photos (I was using film then) and insisted that they print them. With some reluctance they did. Not they they looked very good but it was a rush job and I needed proofs on the weekend.
To t his date I have not used any photo services at Wall-Mart. Now Costco on the other hand kicks ass. Low cost high qulaity photos and not once have they questioned the copyright on my work.

Photofinishing labs increasingly are refusing to print professional-looking photographs taken by amateurs.
The reason: Photofinishers are afraid of infringing on professional photographers’ copyrights…

Snap judgments

copyright, photography, dumb, whipped, lawyers

More Cheap Camera Hacks

CVS Camera

I saw this on MAKE today and thought “time to build a digital stereo camera!”. I tried to make one with two cheap cameras without LCD displays but had a major time getting them to be correctly oreiented
Looks like I’ll be checking out the local CVS stores this weekend.

Hack the “disposable” digital camera that CVS sells for $20. Includes all wiring diagrams, steps, and software needed to be able to take the images off the camera to your computer.

CVS Red PV2 mods

Photos of my modding adventure can be found here:
Camera hack
They make good cameras for kids or to keep in the car in case you see somthing weird on the road.

NOTE:
The main site has gone off line for (I hope) a while, there is a Google cache here.
At the bottom of the page there are some links to the info the web page had on it. I’ve copied them here:

http://www.maushammer.com/systems/dakotadigital/lcd.html

http://www.demanufacturing.com/pv2

http://forkboy.doesntexist.com/

http://www.digitalfluff.net/pv2/

http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowBoard&Board=cameras

MAKE, mod, digital camera, hack