Take a tour of the burgeoning world of plastic cameras and low-tech photography in this fun and funky guide to creating the most artistic pictures of your life! Whether you're an experienced enthusiast or toy camera neophyte, you'll find this guide full of tantalizing tips, fun facts, and absolutely striking photographs taken with the lowest tech tools around. You'll learn how to prep your plastic camera, their advantages and quirks, and what film to feed it. You'll also explore what makes a good subject, vignetting, multiple exposures, panoramas, close-ups, night photography, color, flash, problems and solutions, and so much more. Michelle Bates also takes you from a negative to either prints or pixels so that you can show off your photos and jump on the toy-camera revolution! Contributors include: Michael Ackerman, Thomas Michael Alleman, Erin Antognoli, Jonathan Bailey , James Balog, Michelle Bates, Phil Bebbington, Gyorgy Beck, Susan Bowen, Laura Corley Burlton, David Burnett, Susan Burnstine, Nancy Burson, Perry Dilbeck, Jill Enfield, fotovitamina, Annette Elizabeth Fournet, Brigitte Grignet, Eric Havelock-Bailie, Christopher James, Michael Kenna, Wesley Kennedy, Teru Kuwayama, Louviere & Vanessa, Mary Ann Lynch, Anne Arden McDonald, Ted Orland, Sylvia Plachy, Dan Price, Becky Ramotowski, Nancy Rexroth, Francisco Mata Rosas, Richard Ross, Franco Salmoiraghi, Rosanna Salonia, Jennifer Shaw, Nancy Siesel, Mark Sink, Kurt Smith, Sandy Sorlien, Pauline St. Denis, Harvey Stein, Gordon Stettinius, Ryan Synovec, Rebecca Tolk, Marydorsey Wanless, Shannon Welles, Matthew Yates, Dan Zamudio

The art of film photography using plastic or "toy" cameras is the sensational new trend among camera buffs and hipsters. Featuring a shoot-from-the-hip attitude and a playful retro look, Fantastic Plastic Cameras is the definitive guide to the low-fi phenomenon referred to as Lomography. Inside, photographers will find a roster of forty of the most popular plastic camera models, tips and tricks for shooting with them, and examples of amazing photographs. Perfect for both beginners and die-hard fans, this handy volume is sure to enchant anyone who loves the soft-focus world these cameras capture.

Fifteen-year-old Dominic is crazy about the pop group Plastic—especially their attractive lead singer. Lisa Voyd is a style goddess, and her voice makes Dominic’s heart melt. He knows every word and every note of every song, of course, and has sworn his allegiance to all that is Plastic. So what if Dominic’s best friend, Emma, thinks he’s wasting his time? The silly girl likes classical piano music. Anyone who knows anything knows Plastic is the best. But when Dominic gets trapped in an elevator with none other than Lisa Voyd, she’s nothing like the star he thought he loved. Turns out the life of a pop singer is not all it’s cracked up to be. And the world’s biggest fan might have an even bigger fan of his own.

Traces the history of view cameras, discusses lenses, shutters, and accessory equipment, and offers practical advice on working with large format cameras

The camera revolution has begun This hip how-to volume will help lo-fi photographers take their shooting to the next level, be it with Polaroid, Diana, Holga, pinhole camera, or many more beloved analog favorites. In 35 fun and imaginative projects, users will learn dozens of unexpected and beautiful techniques, from cross-, push-, and hand-processing to experimenting with film speeds and film types, bleeding images, and using multiple exposures and lenses. Illustrated with striking shots from lo-fi aficionados and organized by technique, this easy-to-follow guide--with simple step-by-step instructions and handy tips on camera quirks--will inspire plastic camera pros and enthusiastic beginners to point and shoot in a whole new way.

Rafael Goldchain's 'I Am My Family' is a family album of traditional portrait photographs with an unconventional twist - the only subject is Goldchain himself. In an elaborate process involving genealogical research, the use of make-up, hair styling, costume, and props, Goldchain transforms himself into his ancestors.

Unique portraits of Japanese photography fanatics and their gear from the trendsetting Tokyo Camera Style blog Founded in 2008, John Sypal’s blog, Tokyo Camera Style, has a devoted and passionate international following and has inspired a network of similar blogs worldwide. In street portraits taken on the fly, we see Tokyo’s film-camera enthusiasts posing with their favorite photographic equipment. The images not only catalog the amazing range of cameras used by the most obsessive photography geeks but also offer a glimpse into a street culture where the photograph means everything and the camera takes center stage. Now, 300 of Sypal’s colorful photographs of weird and wonderful cameras and their creative owners have been gathered together in a one-of-a-kind book. Often taken from above, with the camera owners’ faces out of view, the images show telling details that might otherwise have been missed: the clothes, the jewelry, hands and feet, shoes and socks, customized camera straps, and other photography-related paraphernalia. Beyond the wonderful selection of rare, customized, and vintage analog camera makes, models, and lenses are portraits of the individual personalities who make up the avid street photography scene in Japan.

Known as the kamra-e-faoree ('instant camera'), Afghanistan is one of the last places on Earth where it has continued to be used by photographers as a way of making a living. Under the Taliban, with the banning of photography, it was even outlawed, forcing photographers to hide or destroy their tools. Spanning decades, from peacetime to war, box camera photography in Afghanistan exists within a more sophisticated photographic history. With the help of dozens of Afghan photographers, this book illustrates the technique and artistry of a visually enthralling photographic culture.