This is an amazing opportunity for all of you filmmakers out there. Our friends at Powershovel / Superheadz are holding a contest and film festival at Space15Twenty in Hollywood from May 27th to May 31st, 2010. For all those that follow Poketo, you know that the Digital Harinezumi 2 is a mini digital video camera that makes images look like old super8 film. It not only creates a rad, lo-fi film look, but, also records sound!

Here is what you need to do to be part of the festival:
1. Submit a short film under 10 minutes shot on the Digital Harinezumi to the Vimeo Pool by May 21st, 2010
2. The film will be judged by a panel comprised of Powershovel, Space15Twenty, and The Masses
3. Those selected will have their film screened during one of the four days.
4. The jury will then select the a winner for “Best Film”.

Grand prize for the winner will be an all expense paid trip to Tokyo to meet the Powershovel crew and another opportunity to make a short film in Tokyo!!

The Powershovel team are super rad. Last we were in Tokyo, we had the pleasure of meeting with Hideki, Jun, Yuki, and the Powershovel team at their studio/office in Daikanyama district. It was a place of dreams, a total inspiration–a new three floor building full of creativity. Along with running a very successful business with offices in both Tokyo and New York, one thing you need to know about Powershovel is that they are deeply passionate about music, audio, and photography. The first floor of their Tokyo office is dedicated to their sales team, but, oddly enough, has a killer DJ and VJ set up with a top of the line German crafted speaker for full range sound. The second floor is where their creative and graphics team continuously work on photography publications and product development. Third floor is a killer meeting room.

Okay, what are you still doing reading this? Go and buy the camera and start making! Deadline for the festival is May 21st, read the full rules here.

Haven’t thought about them in ages until I was cruising the neighborhood, spotted, and shot this spontaneously. It was lovingly scrawled on a blank wall. I wonder what she was waiting for as she wrote this. Was Tiger Trap playing a secret show? Was she bored waiting for a drink? I love having my Lomo around to capture things like this. On another note, lets bring back Tiger Trap!

Here are some picture I found of my Mom (Ted’s mama) back when she was just a little baby and growing up. It’s crazy how much we resemble each other. Happy Mother’s Day… call your mama!!

Check out the twin reflex camera my Mom has there! Runs in the family I guess.

This picture is amazing… My mom is in the middle there (2nd row from bottom, 2nd from the left), next to my Aunt (my Dad’s sister, 2nd row from bottom, 1st from the left ) and the woman in the lower right corner (2nd from right) is my Grandmother on my Dad’s side of the family. My mom was in high school here, one of the first times ever to meet my Dad and his family. She didn’t like him at all when they first met. He had girls following him around all the time. My mom would say he was a “casanova”, but, she didn’t think anything of him. Funny how things change.

We just got Lomo’s 35mm Mini Diana into the Poketo store! This camera is a knock out! I’ve had people stop me because it looks so darn cool. Beyond the looks, it has awesome and practical features–Square frame and half-frame mode with a flick of a switch, Bulb setting for long exposures, mulitple exposure capabilities on a single frame, and a very beautiful flash. Best thing about the Diani Mini over the regular Diana is that it takes regular 35mm film. This means easy processing at any of your local 1hour photo shops. I just take mine to the local drug store/1 hour photo place, $5 bucks for processing and a cd of the images, easy!

Here are some pics I took around Echo Park, Los Angeles… not far from the Poketo studio in Downtown.