The Latest Camera Trend: Throwing Your Camera In The Air

It seems like there are at least a dozen "photo trends" going on right now but this one has to be the most abstract and definitely the most risky. Steven Leckart of Wired Magazine explains how you too can bring out the artist inside of you by throwing and twirling your point and shoot camera into the air with a long exposure. While Steven explains that you need a few constant lights, I'm willing to bet that you can come up with some interesting results with just natural light too. If you really want to up the ante, throw your DSLR camera with fish eye lens up in the sky ala Mike Larson. I can't find his wedding video at the moment but he demonstrates his unique portrait toss in the second video below.

Mike Larson's DSLR Camera Toss:

Patrick Hall's picture

Patrick Hall is a founder of Fstoppers.com and a photographer based out of Charleston, South Carolina.

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17 Comments

this would be pretty cool with some kind of safety net underneath the camera. i might try this with my s90, but definitely not my 60D...

You can also put the light above you, and put your camera on a safe and secure dolly, tripod, even a PILLOW, and spin it on the ground instead of chucking it into the air...and then just start a brand new revolution called the CAMERA SPIN, (C) copyrighted by Albert Lui. :-P

I always thought this was cool. And to all the people who are hating on it, because it might break your camera:
Start being creative and figure out a way to safely have the camera get caught each time. Seriously, if you can't be creative, why are you doing photography?

What is up with crappy music in EVERY video on youtube?

you can create most of these images without throwing your camera.

I foresee many broken cameras in the near future. 

this is not a new trend at all.

Old news, sorry.

Latest Camera Trend? Really? The video was uploaded on YouTube on February  of 2010. Almost 2 years ago. 

Not mikes video but the wired video.....Mike has been doing that for awhile mow

I think I'll be holding a tight grip on my 7D.

I saw this guy do this same stunt at WPPI in like 2008. I thought it was lame then.... just as it's still lame now

trend following photographers please do this! most will break their camera and will thin out the pool a little bit! 

stupid and lame

Hey all aspiring photographers, this works best with your Pro DSLR with a 70-300mm 2.8 lens! Trust me I did it! Also if you throw this really high, you get a wayyy better perspective and it looks really cool!

Pro Tip: If you let the camera hit the ground you'll get a better effect, it'll look like a wav graph! Just make sure you use a Pro DSLR and 70 - 300mm 2.8 Lens or it wont look like a pro photo!

 there is no such thing as a 70-300 2.8. just sayin