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By Nancy Breslin (via Katie Cooke)

Relentlessly awesome photographer Katie Cooke‘s Balancing Act series of pinhole photographs opens 3 July, 2010 at Axolotl, Edinburgh, Scotland, and runs for the month.

Cooke writes, “This is a show of my long exposure self portrait pinhole photographs, mostly from the Balancing Act series that I made between 2006 and 2007, exploring the gain, loss, and regain of my ability to stand.”

Two prints from this series are hanging in my home, and they’re beautiful. Go see them in person if you can.

You can see more of her work at her web site, katiecooke.com, and here on Flickr.

It’s almost that time again! Polaroid Week Spring 2010 will be May 3–7. Participating is easy: make some pictures on any instant film and post them to the ‘Roid Week 2010 group on Flickr (free accounts work).

Don’t be scared off now that Polaroid means horrendously expensive, you can play on the cheap: Fuji still makes really nice peel-apart instant film in both color and black and white that are cheaper than Polaroid was when it was in production. If you need a camera, you can grab a Holga-like, zone focus Polaroid Super Shooter or Super Shooter Plus on eBay for under 10 bucks, or a rangefinder-focused Automatic 100 [pic] or Automatic 250 [pic] for $25–30. Want integral film (the kind the spits out the front of the camera)? Check out Fuji Instax!

Works on all Spectra cameras, no self-timer required!

Swiss camera manufacturer Alpa says to not change the shutter speed after cocking the shutter on Copal 0 and 1 size shutters.

From their newsletter:

Back in analog times everything was a little bit easier. Photographers were photographers and the number of actuations of the shutters low. Now in the digital times the number of actuations has increased dramatically. This might be the reason why some restrictions become more obvious. Copal avoided to mention that it is a bad idea to change the time ring after cocking the shutter [emphasis added]! To be clear: If a photographer constantly changes the times after cocking the shutter (especially times around 1/30 sec) he or she will destroy the shutter sooner or later. One can observe a golden shiny covering of the aperture blades from the abrasion of copper.

In order to avoid expensive repairs, please check for proper handling!

Here’s something to think about when you have limited time for art:

People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.

—Steve Jobs

Holga-Cam of the Apocalypse by RoFi Mike.

Made without any cutting, the “Holga-Cam of the Apocalypse” is the product of my love for low-tech experimentation and obsession with cutting edge technology. There are more descriptions and photos of the camera itself in this set, and photos from the camera in the Holgapocalyptiphotos set.

The camera is built from:
1 – Holga 120N camera body (retail: $25)
1 – Phase One P25 Digital Back (retail: $24,000)
1 – Horseman lens board (thus the current name)
1 – Foot of Black Gaff Tape

…

You may ask yourself “why?” That is the wrong thing to ask.

Pictures taken with the camera are here.

Chris Keeney talks to Bosse Blomqvist as part of his excellent ongoing series of interviews with fine art photographers.

Blomqvist’s work is pretty amazing—do yourself a favor and check it out on Flickr.

Read the interview at ChrisKeeney.com

Photo © copyright 2006 Bosse Blomqvist. Used with permission.

Now is the time on sprockets when we dance:

Sweet tutorial by photographer Cameron Stephen. You can see his work at his blog, The Plastic Lens, and here on Flickr.

Related: 35mm Sprocket Holes group on Flickr

An episode of the Marc Silber Photo Show

Via Guy Kawasaki