The World View Project with Gerty Globetrotter.

Guys, I love travelling. Who doesn't? But being at university eats up all my time and money, so alas, I cannot afford to just set off around the world, no matter how badly I want to see it all. *Sulks*

So what do I propose we do about this? Start:

The World View Project

with Gerty Globetrotter!

What is it?

It's a project combining two of my loves: Photography and snail mail.
I want to send a disposable camera/cameras out to various corners of the globe and invite YOU to take snaps of the place you live, before sending it onto the next person to do the same, somewhere else in the world. Then when it is returned to me, we'll have an album of photos from all around the world.

Now you can see the world for a fraction of the price!

Interested so far? If yes, read on!

Who is Gerty Globetrotter?

Gerty is the happy little camera character, hand drawn by me, on the envelope above. It is also the name given to the camera/cameras that will be winging its/their way towards you all!

How many photos do I need to take?

The number of photos you need to take depends on the number of people that sign up. Most cameras have around 30 exposures in them, so say 6 people signed up, you get to take 5 pictures each.

If a lot of people sign up, I'll send out two or three cameras at once, because I'd like everyone to take 2 or 3 each.

And what of?

Because it's about seeing the world through other people's snaps, the pictures should be of the town/city that you live in. One of the photos should have the name of this place in, so we all know where these photos came from. This could either be in the form of the "Welcome to..." sign or you could write your town/city name and country on a piece of paper and have it in one of the photos. You should definitely be in at least one of the shots too.

I want to see my lovely participants!

How do I know who to send the camera to next?

Like most online swaps, you will be paired up with someone by me and I will email you letting you know who you are sending the camera on to, before it even sets off from my house on its journey.

Is there anyway to tell where the camera/cameras are on their travels?

I've installed a map over on the right sidebar to keep tabs on it. Once you have received Gerty, send me an email as soon as possible, letting me know where you are in the world and I'll update the pointer on the map. (If there is more than one Gerty flying around the world, I'll have a few different pointers tracking them all on the one map)

How do I get to see the photos when the cameras get back to you?

When I have all the photos developed, I'll scan every single one and upload them to my flickr account. Or alternatively, I'm working on the details of possibly sending out sets of the prints, for a small charge, to any participants who would like them.
As I'm still ironing out some kinks in this idea, the details will follow in another post.

When do I have to sign up by?

You have from today up until September the 10th to sign up. (I know it's a long sign up time, but I'd like to get as many people as possible involved so we can get a wide range of snaps!)
And please only sign up if you are really committed to doing this. I'd hate for the camera to get lost somewhere and the swap come to a halt, because somebody wasn't really bothered about doing it in the first place. SIGN UP IS NOW CLOSED! Thank you so much to everyone who signed up!

This all sounds pretty cool beans! Where can I sign up?

Leave me a comment below (Make sure to include your email!) letting me know that you're interested and I'll shoot you all an email when the sign up closes with some rules and other info.

Help the swap grow:

I would love for the cameras to reach many far flung corners of the world, but for that to happen, I'll need your help! Bears and Bunting only has a small (but none the less fantastic) following and I'd like to get the word out.

If you would like to blog about the swap or retweet this blog post to help get the word out, I would be eternally grateful to you all. Unfortunately, I can't offer you anything in return for doing this, apart from the warm fuzzy feeling in your tummy that comes from knowing you made a nerdy British girl very happy! ^_^ (Sorry, I know that's a giant cop out!)

And here's a linky button in case you do want to blog about it :

Last but not least, have fun with it!
I want this to bring people together and to give everyone
a taste of other parts of the world.
So let's get snapping!