• A tour of the creative, fun world of toy cameras and low-tech photography
• Chock Full of Fun Facts and Tantalizing Tips
• A "First" By the internationally known "Holga Queen"
• IF you have a Holga, Now What?
• Find out what to Feed your Holga

Take a tour of the burgeoning world of toy cameras and low-tech photography with Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity. Whether you're an experienced enthusiast or toy camera neophyte, you'll find Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity chock full of tantalizing tips, fun facts and, of course, absolutely striking photographs taken with the lowest tech and simplest tools around.

I got me a Holga. Now What?
Holgas need a little TLC before they're ready to go out in the world and start snapping. Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity digs through all the different Holga models available, lays out thier advantages and quirks and helps you get up to speed on all the prep you'll need to do to jump in on the toy-camera revolution.

What should I Feed my Holga?
Holgas, Dianas, other toy cameras can use many types of film. Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity, lays all their pros and cons on the line letting you get some images you want, and some you could just never imagine.

Can Holga come out to play?
Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity will help you steer your way through all the details and quirks of taking wonderful and weird pictures with your toy camera. We'll explore possible subjects and the best way to shoot them and play with all sorts of techniques from vignetting, to multiple exposures, to panoramas, close-ups, movement, night photography, flare, flash, color and more.

For the Intrepid Holga-ographer
For the Holga master, we've diagramed and described advanced toy camera modifications and introduce you to a variety of problems, solutions and inventions born from toy cameras' "limitations."

What Next?
From negatives to prints or pixels, we help you navigate your post-shooting choices.

Don't Forget
The Diana, Banner, Action Sampler, Photo Blaster, and Lensbaby are all toy cameras with their own loveable qualities. We'll look beyond the Holga to show a whole wide world of toys.

Artists Artists in this book include:
Michael Ackerman
Jonathan Bailey
Eric Havelock-Baillie
James Balog
Betsy Bell
Susan Bowen
Laura Burlton
David Burnett
Nancy Burson
Perry Dilbeck
Jill Enfield
Annette Fournet
Megan Green
Wesley Kennedy
Teru Kuwayama
Mary Ann Lynch
Anne Arden McDonald
Daniel Miller
Ted Orland
Robert Owen
Becky Ramotowski
Nancy Rexroth
Francisco Mata Rosas
Richard Ross
Franco Salmoiraghi
Michael Sherwin
Harvey Stein
Gordon Stettinius
Mark Sink
Kurt Smith
Sandy Sorlien
Pauline St. Denis
;-p r a b u!

*The first toy camera guide written by the internationally known "Holga Queen"
*Full color, fabulous images illustrate what can be done with toys, for fun or professionally
*Step-by-step examples clearly explain how techniques are achieved

Customer Rating:
Summary: Join the fun!
Comment: Hey, Jack and Meg White of the White Stripes will sell you their signature model plastic camera, but to be really cool, you need to buy this book and learn exactly what you can do with retro-photography. Digital photography didn't make Holga and Diana-style photography obsolete -- it made it mandatory.

This book will provide you with the ideas you need to get really creative with your camera. And what you learn may spill over into your digital photography work, too.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A reference and manual.
Comment: Michelle Bates has the experience and expertise to give an overall review of the Holga, Diana and others. The book contains an extensive collect of works by major toy camera artists and an explaination of their methods.
There is an interesting history of the Holga and several chapters demonstrating the use and modification of our favorite piece of plastic. Film selection and processing is also discussed.
If you are a Holga or Diana user or are considering purchasing one, then this is the book for you. Read it once, refer to it often, it's that good.
It's also well bound and excellently printed.
Well done, Ms. Bates

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource for the non-digital photographer
Comment: As someone who has been involved with digital photography for over 10 years, I first became curious about 'plastic' cameras after seeing an exhibition of the author's work a few years ago. The images were hauntingly beautiful and I was surprised to find out they were completely un-touched by any digital process. Holgas, one of the models that form the centerpiece of this book, can produce a variety of images depending on how they are set up, or in some cases, not set up.

Michelle's book is fun to read and offers many tips, tricks and techniques for the amateur and seasoned photographer alike. I disagree with the reviewer who described the images in the book as too 'artsy fartsy'. I feel they appropriately serve to illustrate the techniques discussed and are a good overview of contemporary artists using 'plastic' cameras.

This is a great title for the curious. I'm now inspired to attempt some panoramas and double exposures as described in the book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Could this book be as good as everyone says it is?
Comment: Most books either inspire, through the wonderful work of other photograpers, or are how-tos. This book is both.

However, you must be familiar with cameras that use good old-fashioned FILM to use it. I can't imagine using the how-to section of this book if you've never used anything but a digital camera. On the other hand, there is a little bit of info at the end of the book on computer scanning and pixels that goes right over my head. (I'll study up on it.)

But here it is: When my cameras were stolen a few years ago, I wasn't concerned about replacing the Olympus. It devastated me to lose my toy Dories. I bought another for a lot more than $5.

Read Toy Cameras. Buy a toy camera. You'll never go back to "the real thing" again.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book for Holga users
Comment: I bought this book because I own a couple of toy cameras. I have a Holga that I didn't use often and I thought the book might have something in it to inspire me to use it more. I found the book excellent for new users of toy cameras. It has all the information that you need to start using a Holga. I also like learning about the origins of the toy cameras. The book is easy to read. The pictures are excellent and it's also good that the book includes short background information about the photographers. I've shown the book to some of my friends and they loved it, too.

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