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Alireza Rostami

Photographer hacks his old phone to take film photos

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I’m pretty sure all of us have at least one old phone collecting dust in the depths of some drawer. And to be fair, it’s difficult to put it to good use. But Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami thought of something pretty cool to repurpose his broken old phone: he turned it into a film camera.

You may already know Alireza. He’s a is a super-creative and resourceful photographer who’s shared a few of his DIY projects with us before. Each is more creative than the other, and now he’s made something pretty cool again. He has kindly shared his photos and some backstory with DIYP, so let’s see how he turned a camera phone into a film camera phone.

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This guy made a wrist cam from a broken 35mm film camera

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Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami has a limited budget, but unlimited imagination. We’ve featured some of his awesome DIY projects, and he just shared another one with us. He gave a new life to a broken 35mm camera and turned it into a wrist cam. It doesn’t only take photos, but it looks pretty good, too!

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This photographer made his own tilt-shift lens from a CV boot

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Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami is always full of interesting ideas. This time, he made his own tilt-shift lens from a CV boot. This DIY project requires virtually no budget, and yet it produces fantastic results. Alireza shared his process and some sample images with us. If you’re looking for a DIY project to have fun with over the weekend – this may be the one.

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This camera traveled over 10,000 miles to tell the story of trust and solidarity between 27 photographers

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I’m a big fan of collaborative projects, both as a participant and as a mere observer. Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami has just finished a pretty epic one and he’s kindly shared the results with DIYP. His little film camera traveled 16,284 km (10,118 miles) between 27 photographers. The journey started in Tehran where it also ended when the last negative was shot. During its 11-month duration, the project has told a story of solidarity, trust, and collaboration between people, and it’s a story that brings back faith in humanity.

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This photographer built a DIY talking camera from scrap components

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Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami has come up with some really cool DIY projects so far. This time, he’s made a prototype of a talking camera. As usual, he used various scrap parts, this time pairing them with talking mechanisms of old dolls. Even though it’s a pretty basic prototype – could a smart, talking camera be our future?

We talked with Alireza a bit about his project, the inspiration behind it, as well as his hopes for the future of the talking camera.

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Photographer makes two working film cameras out of old film cassettes

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Perhaps you remember Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami for some of his epic projects. He has turned an old watch and a broken computer into working cameras, and now he has made two film cameras from 35mm film cassettes. One of them is a 4×5 camera with 120film back, and the other is a medium format camera. They don’t only look interesting, but pay a perfect homage to film photography many of us still love and shoot.

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This photographer turned an old watch into a wearable camera flash

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Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami has a true DIY spirit. He loves repurposing old and broken stuff and turning them into camera gadgets (or even into an actual camera). This time he combined a broken flash and an old watch and created a powerful, wearable camera flash.

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This photographer turned a broken computer into a working large format camera

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What would you do with a computer you used 20 years ago? Most of us would take it to a recycling center, perhaps feel a bit emotional about ditching it, and that’s about it. But Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami had other plans for his old, broken computer. He dismantled it and turned it into a working large format camera.

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This photographer made a working “watch camera” from a broken vintage camera

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Perhaps you remember Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami for his experiment with “magic bokeh.” This time, he has made something you may find even cooler. He used a broken camera and turned it into a watch. And it doesn’t only look sharp (no pun intended) – it can take actually take photos, too!

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How to create “magic bokeh” by modifying a vintage 50mm f/2 lens

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Thanks to lens mount adapters, you can play with vintage lenses on modern cameras and get some of their bokeh goodness in digital photos. Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami made a simple modification to one of these vintage lenses. By flipping a single optical element, he has created “magic bokeh” which adds a dreamy, unique feeling to images. In this video, he shares a process and a couple of sample photos he took after modifying the lens.

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