As most folks know, I spend a lot of time trolling around on flickr. I love photography and all the quirky and odd things you can do to manipulate an image. A few years ago I stumbled across the Through the Viewfinder group. I was completely captivated by all the images. Seriously. All of them. It was like there wasn't a bad photographer in the group. I quietly bookmarked a few of the links found therein and filed it all under 'someday.'
A few weeks ago, the ever clever and talented Ms Soto started posting her own TtV (as the cool kids call it) photos. Ever the bandwagon jumper, I quickly followed her lead and snagged myself a old camera to use.
It's a really cheap and easy set up if you're looking to try it out. Kodak used to make the Duaflex series of film cameras where the viewfinder is a bubble-ish dome on the top of the camera. The basic TtV set up is to take a photo of the viewfinder of the Duaflex. The beauty of the whole process is that the Duaflex doesn't even have to be a functioning camera. The dust that comes on the mirror only adds to the mood of the resulting photos. You can pick up and old one on Ebay for anywhere from $2 to $20.

Once you get the Duaflex, you build what's called The Contraption. Basically it's a light blocking tube that you put between your digital camera (the top camera) and the Duaflex (the bottom camera.) You can find a ton of tutorials online on how to build one. The best place to start is the links in the main
TtV flickr group page. I used the cardboard from a
Ginger Ale fridge pack. After that, head outside (you'll need plenty of light) and snap away. A square crop and pinch of post-processing later and you have some funky photos!

Totally fun to try and inexpensive to boot!