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Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

Pinhole Cookie Tin Camera

The last Sunday in April is a fun day in photography and experimentation celebrating Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. (It’s new to me, too, but now it’s on the calendar!)

My first pinhole image was a “shot in the dark” completely guessed exposure of “a few minutes.” I used expired photo paper I got in a darkroom kit sale last summer. The paper was in a darkroom paper safe storage container but even I opened it in daylight at the garage sale to see what was in it. (For shame!) The darkroom kit had been stored in a barn or an old musty basement. All this to say – it’s not an exact science and this DIY fun can make a mess of your best intentions to calculate precise exposures!

Great way to just go shoot and not stress the details.

Pinhole Cookie Tin Camera
Homemade DIY Pinhole Camera from a cookie tin and old darkroom photo paper
Diving Board Pinhole Photograph Negative
Cookie tin canister pinhole test, pool diving board, unknown photo paper
Diving Board Pinhole Image Positive
Diving Board Pinhole Image Positive – Cookie tin canister pinhole camera test

More info here at pinholeday.org – enjoy!

Join in!

Pick up some new darkroom photo paper here or embrace the strange and take your chances with secondhand papers here!

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Vines Climbing Alley Walls – Holga Film Photography

Holga black and white film photo of vines climbing alley garage siding

Holga black and white film photo of vines climbing alley garage siding

Perfectly imperfect.

A life motto, really. The toy camera that inspired Instagram, the Holga, was my escape from the Digital SLRs that had helped to jump start my photography endeavors. All that whiz-bang technology, wireless photo transfer accessories, those hours poring over editing presets and bad effects just needed to be simplified.

In addition to instantly reviewing my DSLR shots came the rushed pace of taking, reviewing, editing and uploading photos faster than I could appreciate them. Most of all it was a race to fill social media feeds with snapshots rather than to wait for an interesting subject and make, not just take an image.

Every walk is a photo walk if you believe!

While my children were in school a few blocks away I began walking the neighborhood to pick them up. I had just bought film to try out and it seemed like the perfect time to get to know my surroundings and photograph unique finds along the way. We’d stroll back home together and talk about their day in class, noting interesting architecture, cars, and yard art. I saw vines overtaking a garage along my walk and made sure to bring my Holga along the next time I would be passing by.

This image further illustrates many problems with and characteristics inherent in Holga photography. Most noteworthy of the quirks are light leaks and streaking, questimated zone focusing, unpredictable vignetting, questionable sharpness just to name a few. It is a distant opposite to the clean, crisp, predictable digital image reviewed down to each pixel.

Finally, just go shoot. Whether the results are interesting or artistic are up to each viewer to decide. What I found in carrying my Holga around was that it helped me clear the larger hurdle of just taking a camera along with me. Probably the hardest part for a camera gear collector is just choosing what to bring! Most all my other cameras have multiple lens choices, but my Holga only has that dead-simple “Optical Lens” on the front.

Intention needs action.

A camera with very few options makes that first step to creating a simple choice: take a photo or do not take a photo. There is no try. Either you press the shutter lever and snap an image or you don’t. Whatever photo making thing you’re carrying with you today, #JustGoShoot!

Prints of this photo are available here

Pick up a Holga here on eBay or Amazon

Join me at Instagram or Flickr to see a larger version of this scan.