For the easily distracted…

I’m delighted to say that the photo swap has now successfully been run three times and that this section of my blog is a showcase of all the photographers that took part and the photos that they sent.

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How did it all start?

The first idea for the photoswap came to me after the lovely Susannah Conway posted a link on her Twitter about disposable cameras… I love photos and I especially love photos taken by film cameras and I also love surprises!

So… I started thinking how wonderful it would be to take photos to then send to someone else to develop – I love the anticipation of waiting for my own photos but waiting for someone else’s with no clue about the photos would be beyond exciting!

The original photoswap was held in 2009 and amazingly had 50 participants… you can see all the photos here and in the 2009 Flickr group here.

The next photoswap was held in 2010 and to my amazement had 85 participants and the photos can be seen here and on the 2010 Flickr group here.

The 2011 photoswap had just over 100 participants and the photos can be seen here and in the 2011 Flickr group here.

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How does the swap work?

The swap is based on the idea of two people sending each other films or disposable cameras for each other to develop!

Once the swap is open, anyone who wants to take part leaves their details with me – then I pair together two people depending on their location, postal requirements and the type of film that they want to use and develop.

Once the partners are paired I then send out the relevant information to each person regarding their partner and a date is set for the photos to be taken by. The photo taking period is normally about a month, however it can take two months to get all the photos in.

Once the photos have been sent, received and developed, they are then uploaded somehow onto the internet – normally through Flickr or the photoswappers blog (see column to the right!) and they then make their way onto this blog via Me!