photo of the month from randy kato Last month was World Hoop Day (on 10/10/10), and today is NYC Hoopers Day, so in honor of the hoop this month's photo is of a hoop jam at Spin Cycle camp at Burning Man. Fittingly, this is a 360° image taken with a Lomography Spinner 360° camera - a full circle image! The camera spins around, exposing a long strip of 35mm film, sprocket holes included. There is a little overlap so you can see the same hoopers (a split second earlier/later) at both ends of the shot. I am a hooper. I love hooping as well as watching others of all levels hoop. It is impossible to hoop and not be in a good mood. If you have access to a hoop, just try it some time. Whether it's overcoming your own self-consciousness and allowing yourself to "try some silly kid's toy" or getting blissed out hoop dancing to your favorite song, I guarantee you'll come out of it smiling and/or laughing. So being in the center of this hoop jam, in the midst of Burning Man, was one of the most beautiful and inspirational experiences I've had. And I had to try to capture it. Luckily I had this unconventional camera that let me do so the way no other traditional camera could. This one absolutely needs to be seen bigger, so click the image to view a higher resolution version. NOTE: if your viewing on a browser that automatically resizes big images to fit into the window, click that image again to view it full size (your cursor will turn into a magnifying glass with a "+" sign in it) and scroll through the image. Of course, hooping/spinning is all about motion so a still photo can't do it proper justice. If you want to see more of the Spin Cycle jam check out this incredible video (not mine) from 2009. Enjoy! Randy Photo of the Month archive