I finally tried Austin, TX Flickr photographer Ryan Gallagher's camera tossing technique tonight and produced some cool results. Ryan pioneered this radical approach by tossing his old Agfa ePhoto CL18 digital camera in the air at night in front of street lights with the shutter open. On most digital cameras, if the flash is turned off, the camera will do a long exposure when the scene is dark. Ryan's camera view tumbled past street light sources to create amazing digital spin-art abstracts. He is also adept at catching his camera! Ryan's work, and others--including mine now--are collected in the camera toss group on Flickr.

The best examples from my first night of camera tossing are in my own photo set on Flickr. I used a Polaroid PDC 3080 3.2mp cam I bought at Target tonight.

If you can stomach the risk to your equipment, Camera tossing is a refreshing new way to create generative digital art. I plan to do some more camera tossing during my upcoming trips to Boston and San Francisco. Stay tuned.

- mike lee - wheaton, md