Okay … lame name for this ‘dressed up’ copy of a Blackbird, Fly camera. It’s quite a relief to finally be able to complete work on it. Took me maybe a month (or was it two?) of painful, careful and frustrating effort but it’s all worth it in the end when I see the final result. Honestly, I am not 100% satisfied with the final result but I think that’s the best I can do. I’ve ‘dressed up’ many Holga cameras and even the most challenging one (Lego Holga) wasn’t this difficult. The Blackbird, Fly has one too many curves and holes (eg. the film counter and also the hole to ‘plug’ the rewind lever into) and being a bit too ambitions, I wanted to work on the ‘flaps’ (sorry I do not know what they are called) on the top of the camera (the one you open up to reveal the viewfinder).
I only had sometimes 10 minutes to 30 minutes on some nights to do it. So I am sure you can imagine my old eyes (and hands) struggling to stay awake, and trying not to slice off my fat thumb in the middle of the night with a pen knife in my hand.
The reason I chose to do the ‘wooden’ design for the Blackbird, Fly was simple. I had some extra material in my drawer after doing the wooden Holga some time ago. I swore not to ever do a same design on a Holga, so I thought ‘why not try doing a ‘wooden’ Blackbird, Fly?’. I imagined how it will look like once completed and now that it’s done, the result is pretty much what I expected. Certain details had to be sacrificed as there wasn’t any way I could do better (okay, I admit I can’t stand working on it any further). I ripped off certain sections and redo them again and again sometimes and almost wanted to tear out the last few strands of hair on my head.
This camera will not be part of my future charity sale because … it ain’t mine. It actually belongs to someone else and it will be flying long distance to another owner soon.
Finally a ‘nightmare’ is over and I shiver at the thought of doing another design on the Blackbird, Fly in the near future. Time to get some rest and then complete the Holga 135BC ‘dressing up’.
Oh … and I did a custom 
‘logo’ for it too! 
WINZ LIAO!
ps. My wedding next Sunday hor.
excellent job!!! *applause*
nicely done, well thought out and good idea but why? the bbf is one of the prettiest cameras there is unlike a holga. it doesnt need help looking good. but i guess to each their own.
Gerbil & Cyan, thanks.
Penguin … this one I worked on is a black BBF … and … it’s not mine
your logo is damn funny…. fat old wooden bird….
Noreen … believe me … it’s not a self portrait! X(
please sign ur name and initial it somewhere.
So what lucky person is it going to?
…. I need to start sending you some cameras to ‘customize’!
that looks like a lot of work. i especially like the logo on the box. i dont see why powershovel doesnt hire you. did you have to take it apart peice by peice? can you still use the sport finder though? so many questions. did you document the process step by step?
Jim, I’ll leave my paw print behind the box
Nic, it’s going back to its hometown
Diesel, thanks. I did not take it apart because I did not want to risk damaging a brand new camera. Unlike the Holga, I think it’s a bit complex trying to rip this cam apart. So I had to put extra effort working around it instead. Haha. You noticed the sport finder eh? It took me a while to decide not to do anything on that part. I did a first test and it didn’t look very nice if I cut around the sports finder. I did not document the process as it was way too tiring already doing it. Haha.
power sia~~~
wooden bird fly
u r not leaving the paw print…. u leaving the fat old wooden bird feet print…
Grrrr! I’ve got my signature at the back of the box already.
I can’t stop looking at it over and over again! Now I did some Holga (white skin) and Diana (chocolate/copper paint) dress up too, but this BBF dress up is definitely a real challenge, and you said you didn’t take apart the camera, that’s even more difficult.