fun

Street View Stereographic is a fun little web app that creates a “little …

It looks like Microsoft is finally putting its war chest and brilliant minds to good use: the company has …

Here’s a fun entry to add to your brain’s collection of “totally random facts about the world”: Nikon’s 52mm …

Want to create a photography-related costume this halloween? Here are some fun costume ideas to give you some ideas. The above is a standard Canon point-and-shoot that has a tiny camera in the lens.

The Image Fulgurator is a brilliant device created -- and patented -- by Berlin-based artist Julius von Bismarck. It's an optically triggered slave flash that fires through the back of a camera, projecting a message or image on the film through the lens -- basically, it's an optically triggered projector. What this allows von Bismarck to do is prank unsuspecting photographers by adding random pictures or words into their photographs whenever they use their camera's flash.

John (AKA knife141) loves turning junk into unusual creations, and one day came up with idea of building a camera for the sole purpose of confusing strangers. He took a $15 digicam and transformed it into a Argus C3 from the mid-1900s:

My goal was to install a modern digital camera inside the housing of an old, obsolete camera. I thought it might be fun to pull this camera out in a crowd of people and make them wonder why in the world an old man would continue to use a camera that was obviously as old as he was, as opposed to something more modern.

[...] I've had a lot of fun with this camera, taking it places and watching people's puzzled looks as I appear to be using an old beat-up camera that was made about the time I was born! I have even had people approach me and ask if I can still get film developed -- with no idea that the heart of my camera is actually digital! I have also had people ask me how many pictures I can take with the camera, and they always look puzzled when I tell them, "Oh, around 4,000 or so."

Expose two images without advancing your film, and you have yourself an in-camera double exposure photograph. With …

Instructables user art.makes has a tutorial on how you can make a pair of paper iris glasses with adjustable apertures. You could definitely build upon the idea to make each side more like a camera lens (e.g. adding barrels, f-stop values) -- perhaps as part of a geeky Halloween costume?

Hayashi Natsumi’s levitation photos have received a lot of publicity as of late (check out her blog …

Last week we published a post asking whether anyone had made a “print” on their skin by …

Yesterday we shared some fun portraits of dogs taken while they shook of water, but you can take similar portraits of people too. It's called "jowling", and is far less adorable. Here how Urban Dictionary defines "jowling":

The violent shaking of one's head side-to-side in order to obtain a photograph of one's face distorted from the intense side-to-side motion.

One useful thing you can do with this technique is to simulate a heavy punch to the face.

Here’s a fun photo project you can try: recreate each of Calvin’s funny face photographs from Calvin and Hobbes.

This Canon 7D and 70-200mm combo only costs $36 and helps you save money. How? Well it's actually a fancy piggy bank! Like the Canon 350D and 24-105mm L piggy bank we shared last year, you use this one by shoving coins into the lens.

San Francisco-based photographer Ian Tuttle came up with this funky way of …

Textify.it is a neat little web and …

Here’s another video tutorial teaching how to give your bokeh custom shapes. When a point …

DC Watch has a tutorial on how to make your own bellows on which you can use various lenses …

Here’s an idea for a quick photo activity (perhaps on a rainy day?): pick a random color, walk around …

Redscale is a technique where film is exposed on the wrong side -- rather than having the light hit the emulsion directly, you expose the film through the non-sensitive side.

The name "redscale" comes because there is a strong color shift to red due to the red-sensitive layer of the film being exposed first, rather than last (the red layer is normally the bottom layer in C-41 (color print) film). All layers are sensitive to blue light, so normally the blue layer is on top, followed by a filter. In this technique, blue light exposes the layers containing red and green dyes, but the layer containing blue dye is left unexposed due to the filter. [#]

The two main ways for doing this are loading the film upside down (if your camera allows it), or by purchasing film that has been "converted" already. A third way is to make DIY redscale film by going into a darkroom, pulling out the film, cutting it, flipping it, taping it back together, and then winding it back into the canister. Messy, but it works!

We suggested a couple weeks ago that you start collecting things via photos if your idea tank …

Here’s something cute and creative way to share your photographs: turn them into tiny, confetti-sized postcards. All you need …

National Geographic created this nifty little video teaching how to turn any room with a view into a giant …

If you have an instant camera, have you ever tried taking digital photos of the prints right after you made them? For his series titled "Instax Windows", Shawn McClung carries around a digital camera and snaps a digital photo of his Fuji Instax prints right after they're taken, with the scene in the print lined up with the real world.

Twaggies are fun little comics based on unique Tweets found on Twitter. The …

Forget Little Trees. “Sweet Snapshots” are the air fresheners photo enthusiasts should have …

David Eger has a fun 365 day photo project called "365 Days of Clones" in which he posts a daily photo involving Star Wars clone trooper action figures. He also has a neat mini-series in which he recreates famous photographs, called "Cloned Photos". See if you recognize any of these.

If you want to make a “bullet time” video like the kind made famous by The Matrix, …

Claire Chauvin over at Poopscape has a …

If you need a break and an opportunity to flex your brain muscles, see if you can figure out …

Camera toss photography involves having your camera shoot photographs while it’s being tossed …

Did you know that flatbed scanners make fun portrait cameras as well? Just place your cat on the glass, do a quick scan, and you'll have a strange looking portrait shot from below! Apparently this is pretty popular among cat lovers -- a Flickr search for "cat scanner" returns thousands of results! This gives "cat scan" a whole new meaning!

You can now build you own version of the cardboard Hasselblad pinhole camera that we featured a couple days ago. Kelly Angood has released a PDF with the template and detailed instructions for putting the pieces together. The finished product is a working pinhole camera that takes 120 35mm film.

Here's an idea: find a bunch of photography-lovin' friends, borrow their DSLR cameras, and shoot your own Matrix-style bullet time videos from home! The above video shows a workshop where they were able to bring together 24 cameras for this awesome purpose.

There are plenty of iPhone apps that mimic the look of vintage analog photography, but what about retro video …

This cute little vintage twin-lens reflex camera by Chinese stationary company deli is actually a pencil sharpener in disguise. Instead of loading it with film, simply stick a pencil into the top "lens" and turn the handle on the back to sharpen it. It has an adjustable sharpness knob, and the top half pulls out when you need to dump the pencil shavings.

You’ve all seen multi-photo picture frames before, but the “Comic Strip Picture Frame” …

Jonathan over at PhotoWeeklyOnline created a couple …

Make just published this short but informative tutorial on how to turn your …

Have an unloved camera strap lying around? You can repurpose it as a strap for a shoulder …

Lomography shop manager Liana Garcia Joyce recently discovered an awesome trick for increasing your film stash: all you have to do is get married to someone who loves analog photography just as much as you do!