Filmwasters Blog

From a gig at the Dragon Bar, Birmingham, earlier this month.

Keep mucking up with the database and WordPress. I think I’m getting there gradually, but it is a damn frustrating and laborious process. As an IT person I make a great ED nurse… I think a combination of shift work, family and managing a couple of websites has taxed my brain too much. After another database disaster I hope I finally have things (sort of) sorted out. Unfortunately I lost my last couple of posts and all my links.

In my last couple of posts I talked about the last (Saturday 18th October) WTCD (World Toy Camera Day) and how I took the blackbird,fly camera out for a spin. I didn’t really take many inspiring shots this year, but every day is toycamera day for me, so I have a whole 365 days in the year to practice…

I also mentioned that the blackbird,fly website is updated (again) with an english version and links to availability of the camera outside of Japan. - For Australian readers that would be Via Alley, which I have provided a link button to on the sidebar. Not only do they sell Superheadz gear but have lots of other interesting stuff on their site. If you visit and actually order something (like, let’s say a bbf) - please tell them theplasticlens sent you!

Polaroid 600SE, Mamiya filmback with Delta 3200. Handheld at about 8th of a second....hence its shaky....dont blame me, blame the coffee.

Regular visitors to the plastic lens may have noticed some changes lately. It’s a long story, but basically the php script running the ‘front end’ (the photos part) was a bit naughty and became unmanageable once I reached a certain number of images, causing problems with the server, in some cases resulting in the site being inaccessible. So I am converting the photos part to a WordPress based blog (as the ‘words’ part is) and am now trying to find the right template. I quite like the current one you see, but unfortunately it doesn’t handle lightbox (the pop-up images script) and doesn’t have thumbnailed archives. Stay tuned and thanks for your patience!

To all my Australian friends asking about the bbf please check out the Via Alley site. This comes to me today from Kat White (thanks Kat) -

“I have spoken to one of the guys at the Via Alley store (based in Paddington) and he has told me that they will have them instock in 2 weeks and they will be selling them for $180. I’ve asked him to tell me when they come in stock, so I’ll let you all know. Oh and they will be getting all three colours in”

happier times!

Wiesmier has added a photo to the pool:

For those who have been trying to access the site and been getting a “server not responding” message (as I have for the last few hours) - my apologies. I have requested some sort of explanation from my host for this and other buggy behaviour I’ve been experiencing lately.
Back to business. The bbf website has been updated with lots of cool stuff including a gallery ~ most of the text is in Japanese of course, but I did note that it looked like there was going to be an option for an English version in the future - why else would they have a small tag on the home page saying Japanese (which is pretty obvious, looking at the site) except to offer the choice for other languages further down the track?
True to their wonderful nature, Powershovel sent some prints from the recent set of film I took for them. I got some of my photos back from Tokyo today. The only disappointment is that the over 30% of exposures I took with no mask in the BBF (exposure to the sprockets) were not printed as such, obviously the lab Powershovel used in Japan couldn’t handle that… but not to worry, when I eventually get the negatives I can scan them myself. (Responsive as ever, one of the people at Powershovel read about the lack of sprocket holes on my flickr photos and emailed me a promise to send the negs to me as soon as their art director was done with them) - they really are that nice to work with.

wish i was on holiday.....