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 Creativty 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
• James Balog
• Betsy Bell
• Susan Bowen
• Laura Burlton
• David Burnett
• Nancy Burson
• Perry Dilbeck
• Jill Enfield
• Annette Fournet
• Megan Green
• Eric Havelock-Bailie
• 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
• Mark Sink
• Kurt Smith
• Sandy Sorlien
• Pauline St. Denis
• Harvey Stein
• Gordon Stettinius
• ;-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

Michelle Bates has been playing with Holgas since 1991. She first discovered toy cameras at the Maine Photographic Workshops, where they're used as a teaching tool. Currently, Michelle Bates is a member of the Advisory Board of Photographic Professionals of Freestyle Photographic Supply. Bates teaches toy camera workshops in Seattle and around the country. She guest lectures regularly at the Academy of Art in San Francisco and ICP in New York, and is a member of the Society of Photographic Education.

Bates' Holga photographs have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions around the US and internationally. She has been featured in many publications (from Calumet Photographic, Maine Photographic Workshops, Silvershotz Magazine, and others) and websites and has received awards from PhotoCentral, several print awards from the Golden Light Awards, as well as being named in their Top 100 Photographers each year she entered.

We like to call her the "Holga Queen."

What are Plastic Cameras; The Photographers and The Photographs; That's so Cute! The Cameras; I Got Me a Holga. Now What?; Feeding Your Toy; Let's Get Shooting!; Taking Your Toy Out to Play; Advanced Tips and Camera Modifications; Holga Camera Modifications; Film Processing; The Final Image: Prints and Pixels; Resources