Some pinhole shots

[John B]

So, I put together my own pinhole camera using a kit. The kit consisted of a bunch of pieces of cardboard to be folded up and assembled. With no instructions. Luckily, there was a photo guide to assembly on the site where I bought the photos. Kind of like Lego instructions.

I took the camera with me on my trip. I didn't get anything good when I was with Millring (there was a FANTASTIC moon over cornstalks that I missed), but I did get some at the lake my aunt & uncle's cabin is on. Here are three of those shots.

The view of the cabin from the lake



Looking past the Adirondack chairs to the lake



Looking down the arm of an Adirondack towards the lake



All of these were roughly 2-second exposures, with me sliding the cardboard shutter back and forth. No tripod or anything, just setting the camera on a flat surface. I couldn't figure out a stable way to mount a nut on the cardboard bottom of the camera.

Film is Rollei 120 B&W film.

[jdd]

2-1/4" square?

[John B]

Yup. The cabin site goes back to 1912, when my aunt's great-grandmother and great-aunt bought 40 acres of land on Lake Charlevoix. Imagine two single women owning that much land in 1912!. The original cabin was built in 1912, a second cabin in the 50's, and the original cabin was replaced sometime in the early aughts.

My aunt has a scrapbook dating back to 1912; my pictures look like they would fit in with some of the early photos.

[Cornflake]

Those are nifty, John B. I've never played around with one of those but I'll bet it's fun.

[Cosmic Wonder]

Very cool .
Mike

[sekhmet]

wow! nice work John! love it! Are you developing yourself?

[John B]

I don't develop right now, but I'm thinking of getting some equipment. On the small scale I would be developing, it wouldn't take much to get started. But I'm concerned abou chemical disposal. I'm on a septic system, so I can't just run it down the drain. I'm thinking I could collect runoff, etc. in 5 gallon buckets and take them to our local hazardous waste disposal collection site.

I'm seriously looking at getting a negative scanner, most likely this one. It uses a "glassless" negative scanning system so there aren't any distortions caused by the negative being pressed against the scanner glass. Frankly, I don't know if that makes any difference. But apparently the hi-res scans I've been getting can be greatly improved on by doing some manipulation with the right software.

[Cornflake]

Do you use that thing when photographing nudes?

[John B]

I've tried, but balancing the camera on my toes while I pose has proved difficult.

[John B]

Here's one in color. Either it's (1) an interesting, artsy kind of picture or (2) an out of focus picture with weird artifacts in it.