This article is courtesy ColourLovers.com.
Who exactly threw the first camera is hard to know for sure, but the viral spread of awareness and popularity of the photographic technique known as Camera Tossing has been attributed to the Camera Toss flickr group and its creator, Ryan Gallagher (known as “clickykbd” on flickr). Currently, the original flickr group has 6,569 members with nearly 6,000 submitted photos. There are some 17,000 photos tagged “cameratoss” on flickr.
With the spread of its popularity around the Internet, the technique has quickly gained acceptance and legitimacy, with subsequent articles, gallery showings, and image licensing from companies such as Adobe, who used camera tossing images for some of its past Acrobat packaging.
This article will give you information on how to start, show you examples, and point you to places where you can learn even more.
Photos by clickykbd + clickykbd
Camera Tossing Basics
It is exactly what it sounds like. To achieve the proper results, first realize there are no proper results and just throw your camera in the air. Try to remember to push the shutter first and, of course, to catch the camera.
For more information on camera tossing and the camera tossing community, a good place to start is Camera Toss (The Blog).
Photo by daddy0h
Ryan Gallagher created Camera Toss interest group on flickr after doing throwing his camera and enjoying the process and results. “Essentially,” Gallagher says, “I thought others might enjoy doing it or looking at the results so I shared them as I went. It also embodied some very core ideas about art that I find fascinating.”
Photo by davespilbrow
“How it went from there to getting linked everywhere, having a blog that at times attracts thousands of visitors a day, getting covered by the print media, and needing a how-to is another story,” he continues. “Regardless of everyone’s individual reasons for viewing or participating, it apparently had all the right ingredients to capture imagination and continue spreading.”
Photo by blmurch
Throw and Motion Styles
In his camera-tossing how-to, Gallagher notes that the object of tossing is not necessarily height, “although some people attempting daytime aerial photography have found that an interesting challenge. Camera Toss is about applying motion to the camera that is otherwise impossible if you keep it in your hands. A short, wildly spinning throw is one good example. Experiment with as many types of throws as your camera allows.”
Some common methods:
* Toss the camera up and down toss with as little rotation as possible
* Flip the camera end over end so the lens sweeps a full 360 degrees or more
* Spin the camera on the lens axis facing the subject
* Mix the above methods
Photo by clickykbd
Gallagher continues, “Also consider that lateral motion plays a part, simple up and down throws are a good starting point, but other results are possible if the camera and lens are traversing a scene/subject while spinning. For serious traversal throws a partner might be needed for catching, or a very soft landing zone so that you don’t have to chase the flying camera, a very difficult situation to effectively catch anything. A little bit of traversal goes a long way when working very close to a subject (macro style camera tossing).”
Camera Tossing Links:
Camera Toss flickr Group
Camera Toss (The Blog)
Tagged Photos
lightxposed.blogspot.com
Camera Tossing Color Inspiration
Photo by clickykbd
Photo by greentea
Photo by grahamdoig
Photo by frenkieb
Photo by cobalt
More Images
Photo by donovan1969
Photo by clickykbd
Photo by clickykbd
Photo by clickykbd
This article was last modified on July 11, 2023
This article was first published on May 28, 2009
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