Camera toss photograph by Ryan Gallagher, Singular Essentials-35

I admit it. I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie. There was no mistaking that feeling as I let my camera fly out of my hands after depressing the shutter. It was, in short, a thrill. Some people are too chicken to try it. Instead of risking it all, I used my older Kodak LS743. I mean, I'm brave... but I'm not reckless.

My first set of tosses were inside, and not so interesting. I tried my backyard and got this self-portrait after only a few tosses. Perhaps it was luck, but it instantly got me hooked. I used the "fast exposure technique" and the timer setting to force the shutter to release while it was in the air. A clever wrist-twist on the throw and voila!

I had a bit of a panic on my tenth toss, however. I did catch the camera, but found it unresponsive, with the lens still out. "I broke it already!" I wailed, handing it to my observing husband, "And I didn't even drop it!!"

He calmly adjusted it and said, "Looks like the battery popped out- it's fine." Lucky me.

We put up Christmas lights on our house and I realized they would be perfect for a "time exposure" toss technique. Setting my camera to a 2-second exposure, depressing the shutter with my toss hand, and covering the lens with my other hand, I let it fly, outdoors, underneath a moonlit sky. Quite thrilling, actually.

You can see our porch light (the thick white stripe) and our Christmas lights, and in the second picture you can see our neighbor's garage light as a dashed line (lights may appear dashed, depending on the frequency of the power source). The third picture is a shaken, not tossed version of the same scene.

The idea of camera toss came to the masses from Ryan Gallagher, who is known as clickykbd in the flickr community. He maintains a discussion group on flickr and also a blog with how-to tips and suggestions for tossing your camera. I noticed that there are over 2400 members of this group (the majority of them non-tossing lurkers) and about 10,000 photos tagged with 'camera toss' on flickr.

Recently, Adobe licensed camera toss images from several flickrites for the graphics on their new products. I think this gives an undeniable legitimacy to this creative activity. To see some gorgeous camera toss examples check out this and these.

The other night I noticed a poor sap pulled over on the street near mine. Inspiration struck- I grabbed my camera and tossed. The flashing police lights made an interesting subject for camera toss! I wonder what the cop was thinking of the girl in the adjacent yard, hurling her camera into the air. Maybe he didn't notice me. Or maybe he went home and googled throwing cameras.

So if you are brave, or creative, or both, try it out. Be warned, however, bad things can happen to cameras when flying through the air... or rather, when they hit the ground. As with any aerial sport, read the warning label! By the way, Kodak assumes no liability, none at all, (seriously!) for any damages to cameras caused by engaging in throwing your camera around like this. Kodak cameras aren't designed to take this sort of abuse. Toss at your own risk! However you choose to use your camera, have fun.