Newport, RI 2007. Holga with x-pro'd Fuji Velvia 100f.

Smashing Magazine has an article on ‘Toy Cameras’ featuring a piece of my Holga work.

The article is a general survey of toy cameras for the uninitiated (generally sticking to the Lomography retail line-up) and includes several digital means to reproduce the toy camera and Polaroid aesthetics.

While the semanticist in me disagrees with the inclusion of the Lomo LC-A, which to me would be better classified as a low fidelity (lo-fi) camera, as it has more bells & whistles than a typical “toy” camera and what’s left of the analog purist in me partially disagrees with digital imitation on a core level, I do have to say I am flattered that the author saw fit to include my image as representative of what can be achieved with a Holga.

This specific image, in particular, I have always felt unsure about. According to Flickr, it’s one of my most popular images, except I could never ascertain if that was because it was a good photograph or if it had something to do with a prurient phenomena of bikinis on the internet.

Maybe it’s a little of both and maybe “prurient” is too strong of a word. The image has more going on than just the foreground subjects and an easy rule in photography:

Pretty girls often make for a pretty picture.

Pali lookout panorama, multiple exposure, vintage Diana F, Kodak Ektar 100

I’m starting to process some of the multitudes of images I captured on O’ahu this past December. The above photograph was taken at a tourist pull-off on the Pali Highway, a scenic route that takes you over (and through) the mountains from Honolulu to Kailua on the windward coast.

By its nature, it’s a shot that probably untold millions of tourists had taken before me and a shot that millions of untold tourists will continue to take in the future; in my imagination however, I’d like to think I was the first to use a vintage Diana F with Kodak Ektar 100 to make a multiple-exposure panoramic.

I’ll continue to process these images for now, as my wife is itching to scrapbook/album our entire vacation and wants to see what I have to contribute. So, I’ll post anything of interest here and then bulk load the rest up to flickr.

In blog news:

• - I’m learning enough CSS to finally tweak most of the little things that I disliked about the blog layout. I’m still not 100% satisfied, as I still don’t truly understand why certain aspects refuse to change, despite my better efforts; but I’ll continue to work on it.
• - If anyone out there is knowledgeable in WordPress, how do I get to fool around with the ‘dynamic_sidebar’? I want to have widget-specific CSS, but the sidebar doesn’t separate label widgets independently. Am I even making any sense?

I’ve been feeling inspirationally frustrated. I’m overwhelmed the sheer backlog of work just waiting to be processed, but at the same time I feel emotionally stymied that I haven’t shot anything new since the beginning of December.

I lack coherence. I’m no longer sure if I’m progressing or regressing.

I need anti-newton glass, an air filter, and a computer more capable than a netbook. I need more Diafine & film. I need to stop finding excuses & start finding answers. I need to break out of this rut.

I need to figure out just what it is I’m actually try to say.

Early design concept for the cover to the forthcoming TOYCAM book

For the past year or so, I’ve had the privilege to be part of a project within the Toycamera.com community to create a new book that explores toy camera photographers & the lo-fi images they create.

The brainchild of Andrew, of Green St Photography fame, he gathered a crack-team of toy camera enthusiasts as interviewers, editors, and designers to help put this project together. We’ve held several calls for entries in different themes, received hundreds of mind-blowing images from photographers across the globe and despite our best efforts, the book is actually beginning to take form and is slated for a release later in 2010.

So why am I writing about it now?

Because, my dear friends, there is still time to contribute to a tome that will come to define an entire generation of low fidelity photographers.

Hyperbole aside, if you have a crappy camera with a plastic lens that you’re passionate about making images with, send us your pics. We’d love to consider them. Really.

The current calls are for the themes of “Travel” & “Flora/Fauna,” but we may be adding more shortly.

Show us what you got and you just might get published.

As you may or may not have noticed the redesign of www.expiredfilm.com has finally gone live.

I’ll still be tweaking it here and there, but for the most part I think I finally have a design I’m relatively happy with.

Now, this blog, on the other hand, still needs some work. I’m still trying to sort out how best incorporate some of the design elements of the main site into WordPress.

But I’ll do my best to be diligent about updating more than twice a year.