Toss your camera

October 14, 2005 11:49 AM

Toss your camera.
posted by spock (44 comments total)

Neat! I like how geometric the results are!
posted by fenriq at 11:54 AM on October 14, 2005

Beautiful.

I'd probably drop my camera every few throws. I need some sort of camera-bungie.
posted by Western Infidels at 11:57 AM on October 14, 2005

Holy Mandelbrot, Batman! There’s fractals everywhere!
posted by Smart Dalek at 12:04 PM on October 14, 2005

Medium format? I am not tossing the Rolleiflex. However, I do have an old digital camera with a burned out LCD that still takes pictures, but wouldn't break my heart if dropped. I am definitely going to give this a try. Thanks spock.
posted by caddis at 12:05 PM on October 14, 2005

I tossed my digital rebel and got a few cool curves. It's tricky.
posted by mathowie at 12:09 PM on October 14, 2005

Am I the only one not crazy (or rich) enough to consider tossing my camera for the sake of art?
posted by gyc at 12:28 PM on October 14, 2005

I haven't tried throwing my Digital Rebel (and I don't intend to), but I've gotten some neat-looking shots from setting a long exposure time and spinning around in my chair.
posted by Godbert at 12:29 PM on October 14, 2005

Holy Mandelbrot, Batman! There’s fractals everywhere!

Where?

It's friday and I'm tired, so sorry for the snark - but I don't see fractals in these really, really neat pictures. But it's an honest question - I might be looking the wrong place or overly simplistic in my view of what a fractal is.
posted by freebird at 12:35 PM on October 14, 2005

Woah, those turned out pretty cool. I was expecting a bunch of pictures of the ground or something.
posted by delmoi at 12:37 PM on October 14, 2005

It's friday and I'm tired, so sorry for the snark - but I don't see fractals in these really, really neat pictures. But it's an honest question - I might be looking the wrong place or overly simplistic in my view of what a fractal is.

No, you are correct. However, these pictures are close to artwork based on fractal geometry.
posted by delmoi at 12:38 PM on October 14, 2005

Er, I meant a close visual analog.
posted by delmoi at 12:39 PM on October 14, 2005

Super spirograph!
posted by telstar at 12:51 PM on October 14, 2005

Okay, I've now tried to take a couple of these and I'd like to add a caution about tossing the camera too high as well as not catching it. Luckily out ceiling is made of that asbestos looking tile stuff and it merely dented the ceiling.

But be forewarned! Ten tries and maybe one or two worth a second look.
posted by fenriq at 1:02 PM on October 14, 2005

i think you need a bed with a lot of cushy pillows around to do this. even then, i don't know how comfortable i would be throwing around an SLR.
and as pretty as they are, i think this may get old pretty quick.
posted by Menomena at 1:13 PM on October 14, 2005

I can't imagine that this would not end in tears for me. They are very pretty, though.
posted by OmieWise at 1:15 PM on October 14, 2005

This is really cool, but I am not about to toss my D70s with one of my lenses attached. Alas, I am not Donald Trump. And I have a wedding to shoot next week, and I've not got a digital backup.

But the pictures are really cool. I wonder if I could come up with a less risky analog?
posted by teece at 1:18 PM on October 14, 2005

I'll give this a shot with my Pentax Optio 230, but there is no way I'm going to toss my Panasonic DMC-FZ5.
posted by Kickstart70 at 1:20 PM on October 14, 2005

dig!
posted by punkbitch at 1:28 PM on October 14, 2005

I'd give this a shot, but there's no way I'm going to toss my [insert brag here].
posted by keswick at 1:35 PM on October 14, 2005

I think the best way to get these shots is to find someone with a digital camera and ask if you can borrow it.......

Maybe not.

I've already refined my technique so I low toss the camera and spin it rather quickly. Neat effects! Now to find a subject to be spun around.
posted by fenriq at 1:43 PM on October 14, 2005

It seems to me if you tie it to a stretchy nylon rope to create a camera-bungie, you could safely toss your camera to your hearts content.

Perfect background images!
posted by parallax7d at 1:52 PM on October 14, 2005

Pah, what a bunch of tossers!

Er, I mean, cool.
Anyone knows how to do it with a non-digital toy camera that obviously has no timer?
posted by funambulist at 1:58 PM on October 14, 2005

I had an old camera sitting aroung not being used, it turned out to be the same Agfa model described in the 2nd link. I tried spinning and twirling it around on it's lanyard near different light sources. Results were ok for a first attempt, I think I need a lot more spin though.
posted by Edame at 2:16 PM on October 14, 2005

Optional equipment.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:22 PM on October 14, 2005

Wow, these look amazingly similar to FraxFlames! See for yourself: flam3.com

There is nothing special about a digital camera that makes this possible. Any camera that allows you to use a very slow shutter speed should give very similar results. Has anyone found any references to others doing with with film?
posted by J-Garr at 2:23 PM on October 14, 2005

Thinks to do at Best Buy when the salespersons are ignoring you.
posted by substrate at 2:25 PM on October 14, 2005

Sissies. In the old days we bolted our camera to the earth and let it spin.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:38 PM on October 14, 2005

Bah! When I was a kid we hung our camera at the L5 point and spun the fucking earth and moon around it.
posted by freebird at 2:58 PM on October 14, 2005

Super spirograph!

totally!
posted by amberglow at 3:00 PM on October 14, 2005

Wow, freebird, how did you get there? If you can do it again, can I come with you?
posted by caddis at 3:08 PM on October 14, 2005

Well Caddis, that was in my younger days. I'm considerably less spry these days, and do much less vaulting across the star-flung night. Though my blue ox does get around a bit.
posted by freebird at 3:28 PM on October 14, 2005

This is what I like about MetaFilter. I start reading about tossing cameras, which is cool enough, and end up learning about Lagrange points. Thanks, freebird.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 4:07 PM on October 14, 2005

You can get a similar effect by putting your camera near the windshield of your car and driving really fast in heavy traffic at night. (man, do I miss those days)
posted by blue_beetle at 4:08 PM on October 14, 2005

Also carnival rides, where hopefully you can hang on to your camera.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 4:55 PM on October 14, 2005

I wonder how killer it'd be to reconstruct the camera motion given that the lights were fixed.
posted by apathy0o0 at 6:25 PM on October 14, 2005

Menomena writes "i think you need a bed with a lot of cushy pillows around to do this. even then, i don't know how comfortable i would be throwing around an SLR.
"and as pretty as they are, i think this may get old pretty quick.
"posted by Menomena at 1:13 PM PST on October 14 [!]"

That's pretty much what I did - I haven't plucked up the courage to bung around my dSLR outside yet :-)

I was the first to chuck around my dSLR on the cameratoss Flickr group it's pretty easy, as you can just set the shutter open for a long time - but most of the results are really boring; I think that I ended up uploading about 3 out of 15+ shots...
clickykbd gets some great pics of nightime lights, neons, etc. which would be great to try and replicate (or outdo!) but outdoors? Nah... ;-)
posted by Chunder at 4:10 AM on October 15, 2005

Bad. Really bad pictures and not only that this guy is a one trick pony. All the bad pictures are the more or less the same. Yuk.
posted by philmas at 7:22 AM on October 15, 2005

Jeez philmas, you could have just said you didn't like the photos. Why do certain people feel compelled to be so insulting here?
posted by caddis at 7:31 AM on October 15, 2005

All the bad pictures are the more or less the same.

Hardly. Well, I suppose in the way that all passport photos are the same.

This is more about process than result — and about relinquishing control — although inevitably if enough people toss enough cameras there will be some outstanding results.
posted by KS at 8:43 AM on October 15, 2005

Great idea, well executed, can't wait to try it.
posted by gwint at 10:19 AM on October 15, 2005

Night time. Long exporsure. Roller coaster.

I do not have access to one or I would try it. Maybe some of you folk are close to a night time park with a roller coaster.
posted by bjgeiger at 1:02 PM on October 15, 2005

damnit bjgeiger, you beat me to my suggestion.
posted by Citizen Premier at 6:18 PM on October 15, 2005

Opps Well maybe someone will do it.
posted by bjgeiger at 5:24 AM on October 16, 2005

See also: http://cameratoss.blogspot.com/
and http://www.flickr.com/groups/cameratoss/.
posted by spock at 3:01 PM on October 16, 2005