Tokyo, Procrastination

April 27 was International Pinhole Day.  Note that I wrote PinHOLE not PinHEAD (I read somewhere that Pinhead Day is the 29th).  How many of you got your pinhole cameras out?  I missed it, but better late than never.  A great example of pinhole can be seen here. It's a flickr group for pinhole that really inspires me to try it.  This person has beautiful work.

 

I've been interested in Pinhole photography for a while.  I've seen some amazing work on the internet and a friend of mine has done some nice work with a pinhole she made on a body cap and attached to her 35mm.  

I had a summer project in mind when I went home last year.  I wanted to build a pinhole camera with my Dad.  I did lots of research with it but he just gave me a strange look and slowly backed away when I mentioned it.  I think he has other plans for his retirement.

After doing quite a bit of research on the pinhole camera, I decided that the pinhole I'd really like is the Zero Image 6x9.  I don't have a few hundred dollars to spend so I had to look elsewhere. I thought about using my holga to do pinhole but opted not to mess with my Holga anymore than I have.  It might have been cheaper to make my own but after looking at various plans and realizing I would have to buy most of the stuff to make one I wasn't sure.  And I wanted to have some fairly consistant results and not have so much human error in the mix at this point.

Eventually, I found that Kenko filters has a pinhole bodycap that is painted glass with a small hole etched into it. I tried to find a better link but only came up with this one for a store in Tokyo.  The kenko filter needs an adaptor for the 35mm SLR but it seemed to be the cheapest option with the least room for me to screw it up.

It seems the biggest challenge for good pinhole photography is to get the hole uncovered without shaking the box or tin that the paper or the film is in.  Yay, cable release!  It was also nice to use my film camera.  I haven't used it too much since I bought my digital SLR.  I suppose technically, since the body cap is not open air, I could stick it onto my digital.  I read some blogsand it seems that opinions vary. I think that pinhole really needs the vagaries of film to really make it shine.

It rained most of today and when the sun finally peeked out, I packed up my gear and took 20 shots of black and white film using my pinhole 35mm.  Now if I were a pinhole camera, what would I be able to see?  This the part that sucks, and is also the beauty when you get it right.  It's like a crap shoot.  The framing is really hard because there is nothing to see in the view finder.  Next time, I will sketch what I think I took a picture of and compare it to what I got.  I hoped to use up the whole film but it got to dark and when I calculated that an exposure would take over an hour it was time to go home.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny so I will use up the rest of the film and maybe shoot a roll of color slide or color negative.  I won't get results back for a while since it's Golden Week and my film store is closed until Wednesday.

 


Comments
on May 03, 2008

Here's a sample from the pinhole.  The camera is about 10 centimeters away from the subject but the focus is still horrible.  I like the composition and don't mind the hazyness except that I probably could have gotten the same effect from a filter.  The most dramatic thing was the amount of dust that glommed onto my sensor.  

pinhole digital blah

on May 03, 2008

I have NEVER heard of this before...and woman I took photographs professionally for many years (News stories and for publication photos, not personal family type) and developed them in a dark room before the digital came along.

It looks amazing.

Good luck with it!

Natl pinhole day....whodda thunk it?

on May 03, 2008

Oh and POST your pics!

on May 03, 2008

Did that picture not show up in the first reply?

It shows in my mac, but I'm using my husband's computer now (windows) and it doesn't show.

Can anyone see the pic in reply one or is it MIA?

on May 03, 2008
It's MIA...
on May 05, 2008

Maybe it will work this time.Chinese Lantern Plant by Pinhole 35 mm

on May 05, 2008

I think the photo link worked this time.  I used flckr instead of Picasa.  I quit and restarted the browser and still see the pcture.

So this is not only a shameless bump, I want to know--can you see the blurry pinhole picture I took?

on May 05, 2008
YES!

It's gorgeous!

I'd love to have it on a 10 by 5 foot canvas.

The lines are excellent.

on May 05, 2008

I love this plant.  It has beautiful color and wonderful texture. I bought this at a dried flower shop run by a surfer-looking dude in this tiny corner of a shop. 

I'm glad you like the photo.  I don't think it would stand up to such a huge enlargement but if it would it would be pretty cool.

My next plan is to do some alternative printing methods using solar plate etching and lithograph printing.  Still trying to gather all the resources together.  The main hold-up is finding a place that will teach me to use lithograph print without charging me limbs and internal organs.

on May 05, 2008
My next plan is to do some alternative printing methods using solar plate etching and lithograph printing. Still trying to gather all the resources together. The main hold-up is finding a place that will teach me to use lithograph print without charging me limbs and internal organs.


Sounds hard...do you have to buy the equip?
on May 06, 2008

Lithography equipment is beyond expensive.  Cheap ones are a couple thousand dollars.  It's better to find a studio where they will let you use the equipment for a fee. 

Solar plates are much cheaper.  You can even do a block print with them (and get cheaper equipment).  I like the photographic style detail of lithograph, though.  Solar plates start at about $7 for a 5x7 plate.  I think I will need to order them by mail.