Camera Calendar

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Introduction

Created by Steve Rainwater. Anyone is welcome to add to this list.

There are a lot of special camera holidays out there. Camera days like Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, Argus Day, Polaroid Week. I've never been able to find a centralized listing of them all, so I thought it would be a good idea to compile a definitive list. I've discovered that many, but not all, of these special photo days trace their origins back to Flickr discussion groups. In addition to the date of each photography holiday, I've included the earliest reference I could find and a brief description.

I've also created a PHP program that generates an iCal feed of the events listed on this page. You can subscribe to this feed with Google calendar any program that accepts iCal. The feed won't change often, so it should be safe to set your update interval to a week or a month and still get any updates in plenty of time.

Subscribe to the Camera Holidays iCal feed

The source code to the PHP program is very simple and I've released it as free software under the GNU GPL v3.

Download source code: camera-days.tar.gz

What follows is the full listing of events. If you know of a similar event that's not listed here, please let me know by sending me an email: [email protected]

110 Camera Day

Date: January 10

Ref: Flickr discussion: 110 Camera Day

Description: Created by users of the Flickr group Size Matters: subminiature photography. To participate, shoot photos with a 110 format camera today and post them to the flickr group. The date comes from the similarity of the old-style, non-ISO date rendering of January 10 as "1/10" to the name of the format.

126 Camera Day

Date: January 26

Ref: Flickr discussion: 126 Camera Day

Description: Created by users of the Flickr group Instamatic. To participate, shoot photos with a 126 format camera today and post them to the flickr group Instamatic. The date comes from the similarity of the old-style, non-ISO date rendering of January 26 as "1/26" to the name of the format.

127 Day (aka America 127 day or "Unofficial" 127 day)

Date: December 7

Ref:

• Dec 7 proposed for World 127 Day in 2004
• Dec 7 proposed as "unofficial" 127 Day in 2006

Description: 127 Day was started as an alternate to World 127 Day (July 12). It was celebrated as early as 2005 and since 2006 has been referred to as the "unofficial" 127 camera holiday by the OneTwoSeven.org.uk website community, who has hosted photos of the December 127 day event on their website. The date is based on the similarity of old style rendering of December 7 as "12/7" to the 127 film format name. A third 127 day has since evolved on Jan 27 ("1/27" in old style). The biggest 127 day is still World 127 Day but feel free to join in on any of them. How many other camera formats get 3 different holidays each year? If you'd like to participate, find a 127 camera, load it with film, and shoot photos on July 12. Process and scan your film and post one or more photos to the 127 Format group.

828 Day

Date: August 28

Ref: Flickr discussion: 828 Day

Description: 828 Day was suggested by flickr user half framed idiot. It's based on the same date schemes as 110 and 126 day where the old-style, non-ISO date rendering looks similar to the film format (e.g. August 28 = 8/28). To participate, shoot photos with a 828 format camera and post them to the flickr group 828 Film

Argus Day

Date: Jul 31 + N, where N = the current year - 2000

Ref: Flickr user Argus Day

Description: Yes, you have to do a little math to figure out when Argus day is but it's really pretty simple. Just take the current year and subtract 2000 from it. Add the result to July 31 and you've got the date of this year's Argus Day. For example, in 2010 we'd do it like this: 2010 - 2000 = 10. so add 10 to Jul 31 and get Aug 10. The calculated date is referred to as "Argust N" (e.g. in 2010 the day is called "Argust 10" and falls on August 10, 2010. In 2040, the day will be "Argust 40" and fall on September 9, 2040).

Ok, now that the hard part is out of the way, this works pretty much like other camera holidays. Get out your Argus camera, load up some film and shoot photos. You can submit up to two photos to the Argus Collectors Group.

Argus Day was created by James M. Surprenant, Marcy Merrill and other members of the Argus Collectors Group. The first Argus Day was held in 2001. The official website for Argus day is the photostream of flickr user Argus Day. Photos are submitted by emailing them to [email protected]

International Commie Camera Day

Date: May 1

Ref: Flickr Group: International Commie Camera Day

Description: Annual celebration of cameras made in the former Soviet Union (though the creator suggests some vintage cameras from communist China are also fair game). Cameras specifically mentioned include Kiev, Fed, Smena, Vilia, Zorki, Zenit, and Exakta. The date comes from International Worker's Day, an important official holiday celebrated in the USSR that included massive parades in Red Square. To participate, shoot some photos with your Commie camera and upload them to the flick group International Commie Camera Day.

Polaroid Camera Day

Date: November 26

Ref: flickr discussion Polaroid Day

Description: Polaroid Camera Day celebrates the date on which the first Polaroid Camera is said to have been sold in Boston, MA. This date is sometimes cited as November 28 but the Polaroid corporate historians always listed it as November 26. Some years, physical exhibitions are held at galleries but generally participants just post scans of the Polaroids to the flickr Polaroid group.

Polaroid Week (aka 'Roid Week)

Date: Monday through Friday of a random week in April, May, September, October, or November

Ref: Flickr Group 'Roid Week 2006

Description: Polaroid Week was started by flickr users in 2006. Unfortunately, there's no way to predict in advance when Polaroid weeks will occur, they're sprung on unsuspecting photographers willy-nilly. Oddly, while there's no rhyme or reason to the Date of the events, the organizers are very picky about the exact time of day during which the photos may be taken. There are often specific time ranges during which photos must be taken and uploaded, (eg. between 6am EST on a Monday and 12am PST on a Friday for the fall 2008 event). You can submit a fixed number of photos per day (which varies from year to year) and "days" are defined as starting at 8pm EST (sometimes, maybe). To add even more fun, each year the organizers abandon their old flickr group and start a new one under a different name, so the best we can do here is point you to a recent one like the flickr group Polaroid Week 2010. We gather that part of the fun is in shooting the photos themselves and the other appeal is the scavenger hunt like fun of figuring out when Polaroid Week is, finding the current flickr group, and doing the time zone calculations that will allow you to upload your photos. ;)

P.S. One thing that might give you a head start is following the PolaroidWeek twitter feed, where they should announce the date and location of the next Polaroid Week.

Take Your Box Camera to Work Day

Date: February 1

Ref: Flickr discussion: Take Your Box Camera to Work Day

Description: This camera holiday was invented by flickr user senorton back in 2004. The general idea is that you take your vintage box camera to the office with you today, show it off and take a few photos. Then you post your photos to the flickr group Box Camera Revolution

Take Your Box Camera to Play Day

Date: 4th weekend in March (Saturday and Sunday)

Ref: Flickr discussion: Take Your Box Camera to Play Day

Description: This camera holiday was invented by flickr user art y fotos in 2014 as a response to Take Your Box Camera to Work Day. The goal is to provide a similar camera holiday that's more inclusive and not limited only to box camera users who have a work place. Participants may take a vintage box camera anywhere they wish, show it off and take a few photos. The resulting photos are posted to the flickr group Take Your Box Camera To Play Day

Winter 127 Day

Date: January 27

Ref: Flickr discussion

Description: Winter 127 day is an alternate to World 127 day (July 12) and 127 day (Dec 7). Occurring just a few weeks after 127 day, it is usually enjoyed by those who missed the earlier holiday. The day is based on the old style calendar representation of Jan 27 as "1/27". Winter 127 Day originated on the flickr 127 group in 2009 during a discussion over summer 127 day. While it appears that 2009 is the first time this holiday was celebrated, it was discussed as early as 2004 when it was proposed and rejected as one of the dates for the official World 127 Day.

World 127 Day

Date: July 12

Refs:

• Proposal in Nov 2004
• Date set as Jul 12 in Nov 2004
• Annoucement and rules in Jul 2005

Description: This is the original 127 camera day, created by the folks who run the OneTwoSeven.org.uk website. The date was selected based on the similarity of the standard ISO style rendering of the date (e.g. "12/7") to the film format name. The idea was proposed by Ian Stephenson in November of 2004 based on the recently announced World Toy Camera Day. Interestingly , they initial proposal mention all three of the dates current used for 127 Days around the world. The Dec 7 ("12/7" in old style) and Jan 27 ("1/27" in old style) dates were later adopted by various flickr users. See 127 Day and Winter 127 Day. The OneTwoSeven.org.uk website has since stopped displaying photo galleries from the holiday. 127 camera users continue to consider this the primary 127 camera holiday but most now post their photos to the 127 Format group. If you'd like to participate, find a 127 camera, load it with film, and shoot photos on July 12. Process and scan your film and post one or more photos to the 127 Format group.

World Toy Camera Day

Date: 3rd Saturday in October

Ref: flickr group WORLD TOY CAMERA DAY

Description: World Toy Camera Day was created by Becky Ramotowski in 2003. What is a "toy camera"? According to the creator toy cameras are cameras that take "low-fi, low-brow, blurry and ridiculously out of focus photos" including 120 format, Polaroids, and some "crappy 35mm" cameras. Plastic cameras such as the Holga, Diana, Brownie are specifically mentioned. To participate, shoot some blurry out of focus photos with a film camera and post them on the flickr group WORLD TOY CAMERA DAY. NOTE: Always double-check the date. Despite the official designation as 3rd Saturday of October, the 2010 WTCD was moved up a week and expanded to two days from Oct 9 to Oct 10. Presumably this is a one-time exception rather than a change in the official event date and things will be back to normal next year, but best to check at the source.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

Date: Last Sunday of April (date changes every year)

Ref: Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

Description: First celebrated in 2000, this photography holiday is not so much about a specific camera as it is a way of taking photos. You can take pinhole photos with the latest greatest DSLR or with a completely homebrew camera made from paper and tape. To participate, take some pinhole photos, pick your favorite, and submit it to the the WPPD website. You can also submit one or more of your pinhole photos to the flickr group Worldwide Pinhole Day