Flying High = Fantastic Lights

Hey art likers, I hope things are coming up roses where ever you may be.

Gonna keep this one brief in hopes that you’re taken by this week’s post and rush out the door to throw some gear around. Granted, this may not be terribly nouveau and 100 percent cutting edge but damn, how about we all toss our cameras into the air in hopes of catching them in one piece and coming out with a very cool image in the process.

It is no secret that I whole heartedly appreciate and support any artistic practice, process or idea that blends analogue and digital living. In my brain camera tossing definitely lives down this alley. Developed…or maybe discovered…or I guess a little of both, by Ryan Gallagher, camera tossing is as simple as it sounds; throw it into the air, have it take a picture and see what you get. The general idea is to create motion for the camera in a way that could not be created if it were in the hands of a human. Kinetic photography with no strings attached. A serious how to with styles and examples well worth the read is right here.

The thing that really gets me about these is how digital/CGI the images look. I mean sure, assuming the majority are taken with digital stills cameras could play a factor, but the colour consistencies, fluidity and deep space vibe had me guessing boring old image generators & plugins in full effect. It was not until I started taking closer looks at the photos that I noticed the fickle details and general noise throughout a lot of the pics. Very cool.

The other thing that these images got me thinking about was my sense of process vs product. As I alluded to above, had these been created on some jerk’s Macbook Pro with a mouse instead of a toss, my appreciation of them would have been far more…uhmm…simple(?). But hold on, somebody threw a camera into the air! I’m sold. Coolest thing I’ve seen all week. Call me bias or superficial or even duped by simplicity, but I tell ya, a screwball idea with tangible danger is always (ok, well sometimes) better than staring at a screen until you have clicked the right combination of parameters to get the same result.

And with that, if you go on to read the how to and manage to toss a few into your SD card, email them to yours truly for a posting onto this Artengine blog.
Hot Tip – Also works with video cameras

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2 Responses to “Flying High = Fantastic Lights”

  1. Artengine says:

    Ummm . . . a note from the AD. We really want you to experiment with technology here at Artengine, but I will be quizing any upcoming rentals on potential gear to air potential 😉

  2. chillerman1602 says:

    and let’s face it, dropping the camera, breaking it and not being able to get the photo off the memory card pretty much defeats the purpose.
    Safest route: start with the cheap, move to the horribly expensive later on.

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