Collaboration #1 Results

Now that Collaboration #2 is upon us, finally taking the time to post some of the results people created using the source from Collaboration #1.



Here is a sampling of the result, the theme however is still open for participation and you can view all results on flickr. Some interesting variety, as expected, was produced depending on the properties of the monitor/display that people used to project the source image...











Attributions: Top: David Hull, Jens Ludwig. 2nd Row: David Hull, Ryan Gallagher. 3rd Row: Jens Ludwig, Nathan Barrow. 4th Row: John, Crista. Bottom: Stephan Lehmann, Mick Logan

These photos was created as part of a multi-photographer Camera Toss Group collaboration.

The pattern primitive image used with permission and under the terms of the Creative Commons; Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike 2.0 license.

See Shared Source Collaboration #1 and results.
See also all results of such themes.

If you are eager to get participating, Collaboration #2 theme has already been posted. Please pay special attention to the tag, licensing, and attribution requirements of the project. Here is a taste...


originally uploaded by John (InF!)

Shared Source Collaborations are Here!

DSC00919, originally uploaded by QuakkauQ.

This photo was created as part of a multi-photographer Camera Toss Group collaboration.

The pattern primitive image used with permission and under the terms of the Creative Commons; Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike 2.0 license.



See Shared Source Collaboration #1 and results.
See also all results of such themes.

Our first collaboration theme (#1) was posted to the group today by Jens. The image above is a result from working with a graphical source displayed on their computer monitor, we are encouraging everyone to try out this same primitive source image and share their results, hence the "shared source" of this little project.

More to come as more results are shared and new themes are posted.

Coming this Friday...

... to a flickr community near you. Something new, a project, a theme, a chance to collaborate, a chance to create something that is "bigger" than just one photographer!


Teaser by QuakkauQ


Teaser by mtnrockdhh


Teaser by tossthecam


Teaser by clickykbd


Teaser by eastofnorth


Teaser by lehmio


Teaser by Right Brain


Teaser by Beer30

Stay tuned to the forum thread to get the details on how to participate.

Self Referential

DSC08276, originally uploaded by QuakkauQ.

Hi internets. Just writing to introduce you to the newest "moderator" for the Camera Toss Group on flickr.

Jens Ludwig aka QuakkauQ, hailing from Germany, has been a long time member and you've seen his excellent images all over this blog. Now he's joined David Hull aka mtnrockdhh to help keep the photo pool on topic and help ease new members into the idea of Camera Tossing.

The photo in this post was created by Jens and shared with the group yesterday. Very fitting for an introduction post I thought.

Jens also maintains his own site/domain about camera tossing, www.cameratossing.de, where he posts some of his photos and experiments, news, yet ANOTHER Camera Tossing, HOWTO, and hosts an invited 'friend's gallery' for other camera tossers he knows well.

Jens is also the instigator of a collaborative project we are introducing to the community. I'll post more on that topic very soon. ;-)

chaos makes the world go round...

Fone frow 1, originally uploaded by birdlouise.

As demonstrated by Bird Louise with this camera toss photograph posted to our community gallery on flickr. Interestingly the distortion achieved with this simple interaction of the sensor and motion resembles the very popular digital transform manipulation referred to as micro planets, typically achieved with panoramic techniques and coordinate re-mappings. But seen here produced entirely in camera!

But boy is the sentiment accurate. Just under 3 days before my departure to Europe on the Nokia Urbanista Diaries project and today I was informed by FedEx that my necessary hardware gear (N82 model phones, SIMs, etc etc) being shipped from London is now stuck in US Customs due to paperwork errors. What else could go wrong? Well we have yet to reconcile the nature of a photo license agreement with Nokia for the project! Hmmm what else. Ohh the fact I don't own a credit card thusly no Hotel accommodations beyond the first city have been made. I suppose all the disorder is appropriate for someone who actively encourages people to embrace a little more chaos in their image and art-making. Irony can be a headache sometimes.

Wish me luck. Shortly I will be posting some tools beyond the interface Nokia provides for keeping up with me on the journey, now obviously destined to be brimming with chaotic forces.

Layers upon Layers

Kinetic 866, originally uploaded by mtnrockdhh.

Recently it feels this blog often lacks photos of the form it intends to showcase... so to make good on that, here's an excellent example by David Hull recently posted.

I'm busy travelling in Italy but I promise more updates soon, for now... enjoy this photograph.

Camera Toss of a Camera Toss

Camera Toss of a Camera Toss, originally uploaded by jon62690.

Flickr photographer Jonathan Vo has begun exploring recursion in camera toss. A few others have posted examples previously, and I myself had been planning on playing with this concept in other ways. So a good time to blog it! Here, an example of a camera toss using a computer screen as the subject, recently posted to the group discussion on that particular sub-genre, where the image on the screen was... yup, a previous camera toss!

Being a bit of a lover of math and geometry, I find recursion delicious.

Jonathan, although fairly new to the online community, has gotten into camera tossing enough to set up his own blog/gallery for them. Check them out. He's also been one of the more active online contributors to the Camera Toss Live Community Gallery currently being projected in Command-Z at the Torrance Art Museum in Los Angeles since it opened last month. FYI, the show closes May 26th, which is also the last chance to contribute your own.

In the forums, a new member asks the following about TV style camera tosses:

how do you do these??? No flash, dark, only TV on? Computers could work well too right?

I replied with a somewhat technical explaination:

Yes, pretty much. I assume you are already aware that the cameras are being thrown with (sometimes rapid) rotation while it is taking the pictures too? But yes, any cathode ray tube type device, which relies on scanning lines to the screen very rapidly, such as a TV or computer monitor, produces this multiple image pattern when the camera moves alot during the photograph. There is a delay between each pass of the scanning, be it progressive scanning or interlaced, and that delay is long enough for a gap or "shift" of each recording of that image in the photograph.

You'll find some displays behave differently however, such as a laptop LCD, which doesn't rely on scanning at all... and instead allows you to get smooth blurs. Each screen type has been used by different photographers of this group to achieve intentional effects made possible by those distinct properties of the screen.

(sorry, probably more technical detail than you asked for) ;-)

I could go into even more detail about refresh rates and shutter sync rates etc etc, but you can learn most of that by googling 'photographing televisions'

Math is Beautiful

20061229 066
Originally uploaded by dennyt.

Over the year of photos being contributed by the public to the Camer Toss Photo Pool there have been many that speak to the underlying mathematics (or physics more specifically) of the technique.

A few photographers, such as dennyt, in performing digital manipulations, such as color inversion, have hit upon a wonderful combination of effects that, in my opinion, really speaks to the math of camera tossing.

The image posted here reminds me of graph paper, or blue-line reproductions of scientific drawings... only with a twist. Folded onto itself... graph paper as imagined in four dimensions perhaps. And in essence, this is partially true.... for time is an important dimension of any camera toss photograph... any long exposure photograph for that matter.

Time is not a new subject to photography, and the earliest photographs were always long exposure due to the limitations of the medium, but photography has always found a way to look at time in new ways. A camera tossed photograph usually captures a very short interval of time, but just because something is small and seemingly ordinary, does not exclude it from being incredibly complex... and... well... simply beautiful.

Psychadelic Flowers

Psychadelic Flowers
Originally uploaded by See_What_Dave_Sees.

One frame of FILM, 4 exposures, 4 lenses, some pretty flowers, and 1 camera toss. The aciton sampler is finding a new niche I think. Thank See What Dave Sees for this contribution.

Flags the Camera Toss Way, by Offstage4

Germany by Offstage4

Offstage4 has outdone himeself with this Camera Toss'd tribute to the countries of the world, particularly their flags, appropriately timed the current Winter Olympics. I was very impressed. I encourage all to have a look at his entire photo set. If you think creating these was easy, think again... and read his blog posting about how he did it!



Originally uploaded by Offstage4 (36 Images Total)
View the entire set or watch the slideshow.

Inspiring work shane!

uniform variations, a series

uniform variations #10
Originally uploaded by clickykbd.

Rope lights make such a wonderful subject that I decided to use them in an ongoing series, uniform variations containing mini sets that are each processed differently, and utilize different arrangements of the flexible light source. To date I have done 5 variations...






Photography by Ryan Gallagher (clickykbd) (50 images total)
View the whole series or slideshow.