asksha

 Since I'm a fan of toy cameras, I found this gallery in Texas that's having Juried show for photographs created by low tech devices.  I entered so I hope I get in!  Info and links listed below.

Call for Entries - Fantastic Plastic Co-sponsored by Watson Studio Gallery and TPS - Entries due June 27 "To hold, point and shoot a [plastic] Diana camera implies a conscious decision to relinquish control. To concentrate your creative powers on capturing the moment and telling a story – rather than fiddling with a bunch of knobs and levers ." This quote from the Society of Lomography sums up the goal of this exhibition. Fantastic Plastic will feature the work of selected avant-garde artists who challenge themselves to create compelling images with plastic cameras and other lo-fi cameras such as Holga, Lomo, pin-hole, Lensbabies lenses, cell-phone cameras, home-made cameras, TV with vintage cameras, etc. The jurors will be Susan Burnstine [Los Angeles, CA] and Carol Watson [Johnson City].

My new favorite toy right now is my Lensbaby. What's a Lensbaby? Basically an inferior lens with minor controls that gives you cool pictures. They make three models, I have the cheapest ($100) for the Muse.


What I like about it is that it gives you images somewhat like a Holga or Diane, but it fits on your $3000+ digital camera.  It's acts like a tilt-shift focus found on large format view cameras, but your fingers do the work.  Out of the three models you have various choices, like a plastic lens, glass, or double glass lens.  I got the plastic because it creates more blur on the edges.  It's a little pricey but very fun to have.

Yeah! First Entry! I think I'll take this first step and talk about toy cameras, two of my favorities are the Holga and Diane. Both cameras are made out of cheap plastic with a plastic lens, but thats the bueaty of them. Crappy cameras can give you great images. The Holga (first pic), which I've use for sometime now, is made in China (no suprise there) and is a fun camera to use, but does need some modifactions before using. They tend to leak light so you have to get some flat black tape and tape up some of the seams inside. When I first started to use the Holga they only had two models (2003), regular and one with a flash. But now they come in different colors, one that used polaroid film, they have ones that take a panoramic and stereo-image. They run about $30 now, I have two which cost me $15 back in the day. Why do I have two, because no two Holgas shot the same or you can also leave one in a hot car on a summer day and warp the lens to make it shoot even worse. The images that the Holgas gives you are unique. Since the lens are plastic they are only sharp in the center and slow go out of focus towards the edges. The film (yes film) that they use are medium format (120 film) so you only have 12 shots if you shot 6x6 (square negatives) or 16 if you the mask insert to get retangle negs. Square is better. The images also have vignetting in the corners, which adds to the out focus edges. The type of images you get from the Holga are dream like and have dark quality to them. They can change the meaning and purpose of the subject, because of the low quality of the image. Yet they don't make them look cheap like a throw away camera does. The Diane (sec pic) camera is much like a Hogla but has a little more control to them. The Holga only has two f/stops and one shutter speed. The Diane has four f/stops and two shutter speeds, normal and Bulb. It uses the same type of film as the Holga (120) but you can get a 35mm adapter. One feature I love on the Diane is the pinhole option. You can remove the plasitc lens and turn the Diane into a pinhole camera to get some wide angle shots. Image quality is the same but I found with my Diane it has even less sharpness on the edges, which is nice. I love them both, but right now I like the Diane a little more. Maybe because its new. If you what to know more about toy cameras check out http://www.toycamera.com/