We recently started carrying these funky camera tripods in the Kodak Store called Gorillapods. You can bend the legs of this tripod to wrap around all sorts of things to get a good shot.

My mind started churning.

I knew what I wanted to stick the Gorillapod on.... my dog, Oscar. Just like it's interesting to get pictures taken from a child's point of view I wanted pictures from a dog's point of view. But they don't have thumbs. Thus, the Gorillapod.

I wrapped the Gorillapod with digital camera around Oscar's neck and collar, set the self timer and let him loose. (no pugs were harmed in the making of this post) I used one of my older cameras in case of a mishap.

Stop looking so pathetic.. it'll be fun!

Granted, the majority of the pictures Oscar took were like this... blurriffic. But we persevered.

Other than his food bowl, this is probably the scene Oscar sees the most... us looking down at him.

Stewie is also a favorite subject of Oscar's.

I think this is going to catch on like wildfire and we are going to see exhibits from everyone's furry friends. Just like cats that paint!

Go to the Blog Gallery to see a few more pictures that Oscar took.

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Everything old is new again! Just like Art's post yesterday about the Kodak Stereo camera, I have a story about breathing new life into some very old Kodak Duaflex cameras.

Being a Kodak employee, I always felt that vintage Kodak cameras were an appropriate thing to collect. Eight years later I have a collection that fills three large boxes in my attic. I had lofty plans of actually using some of them to take pictures, but that turned out to be harder than I expected. Mostly they serve as conversation items on my mantel.

Then I read about Through the Viewfinder (TTV) pictures. This technique involves using a digital camera to take pictures "through the viewfinder" of an older camera. Goodness knows I had enough of those so I decided to give it a shot. After fiddling around with an old Kodak Duaflex, I quickly learned that because of reflections it is necessary to build a sort of box to block light out between the digital camera and the viewfinder.

I needed some foam core for this, so I went to the photolab down the hall from my office. Not only did I get foam core but I got a whole lot of help from the team there. They measured my Duaflex, used their air gun to blow the dust out of it and cut some foam core for me.

Armed with my new contraption I headed out to take pictures. The results surprised me. Seemingly ordinary scenes became much more interesting when framed through this cobbled together device.

I have more TTV pictures and some pictures documenting my Duaflex contraption on our blog gallery. (There are some of Tom's in there too!)

I realize that what I am using is nothing more than a really awkward, funny looking filter. These aren't even what pictures would have looked like had I taken them with the Duaflex, since they are taken through the viewfinder and not the actual lens.

If I bought a camera today that took pictures likes this I would think it was a horrible camera... the pictures are blurry, speckled with scratches and distorted. What is it that makes these images so appealing?

There must be something about them because there is a Through the Viewfinder pool on Flickr and even pictures of other people's handmade TTV contraptions.

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