Category: Pinhole

Experiment: pinhole camera toss

Nicolai Grossman 4 Comments

Pinhole camera toss (atomic)

I think the camera toss phenomenon, started by Ryan Gallagher (also see his Flickr stream), is really cool. The idea is that you set your camera for a relatively long exposure in a dark place with a nifty arrangement of lights, and throw the camera in the air while the shutter is open. The results can be jaw-dropping.

I decided to give it a go while I was out shooting pinholes the other day. At f/235, I figured I’d better do it outdoors in bright sun to have any chance of getting anything on film. As it turns out, the sun was the only thing that actually turned up. This is on Fuji Astia 100F cross-processed in C-41, shot at about ISO 25, with multiple tosses in the air per exposure.

I may use this one for holiday cards this year (if I send any), as I think it looks a bit like a wrapped present:

Pinhole camera toss (gift)

Also check out the first known pinhole toss photos ever, by Alan Cooper aka alspix, using his famous matchbox pinhole camera: photo 1, photo 2.

See also: Ryan Gallagher’s blog post about these and alspix’ photos, Tarja Trygg’s pinhole solargraphy project (which I thought I posted about before but apparently didn’t… check it out, it’s really, really cool)

Web site launched for f295 symposium on lensless, alternative, and adaptive process photography

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

Tom Persinger of f295, home of excellent pinhole and DIY & alt process photography fora, has been working his butt off organizing a Symposium on Lensless, Alternative and Adaptive Photographic Processes. It will run from 26–29 April, 2007, in Pittsburgh, PA, US, with specific workshop, seminar, and guided trip locations to be announced.

Persinger has set up a Web site for the symposium. He writes:

…It’s designed to distribute information about the symposium AND about things to do in/around Pittsburgh. It’s in the preliminary stages, but it has lots of links to restaurants (that i particulary like), hotels/places to stay, museums, galleries, shopping, walking tours, other activites (amusement parks, zoo, etc) and lots of stuff to keep you and your family busy for days and days.

With the birth of son #2 I haven’t been able to check into hotel rates. Please feel free to email or call the hotels directly to check on availability. I’ll do my best to get to this detail in the coming weeks.

I’ll be adding more agenda information, links to register for workshops, and bios for each speaker and topics they’ll be discussing in the coming days & weeks!

The link: www.f295.org/wordpress

Cheers!
Tom

The lineup already looks tasty indeed, a veritable bonanza for the low-fi photographer. This is going to be worth traveling for.

Double-sided lens and pinhole bi-cam

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Double face bi-cam by bricolage.108

Flickr member bricolage.108 hacked a 35mm trashcam into a double-sided lens/pinhole monster. He writes:

If using a normal film roll this camera takes redscaled ["redscale" is where you shoot the film backwards, so the light gets filtered through the antihalation layers before hitting the emulsion and turns the image red/orange or yellow, depending on the film] pinholes from one side, and trashy lens shots on the other. It also makes doubles, exposing both sides of the film.

The same way if i redscale the roll first, i can take redcale shots using the lens and "normal" pinholes, on the same roll with the same camera.

I can, for example overlap the same subject using two "different cameras" and techniques or (and this i think it’s conceptually interesting) create (simultaneously) an image where the shot and what’s "behind the camera" are both visible.

Here’s an image he made with it, more here.

Represent eternity by bricolage.108

Homemade pinholga floppy disc shutter

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

Will Luo's DIY pinholga floppy disc shutter

Check out Will Luo‘s sweet 3rd-generation homemade pinholga floppy disc shutter. He writes:

the third incarnation of the pinholga’s shutter. i got the idea of using a floppy disk from this blog entry. this one is customized for the holga though. it was much easier and faster to make than the last version:

1. cut off the part of the disk that has the spring-loaded protector. the disk i got had some soft paper coating inside which i removed as well.

2. make a small cut here and bend the corner up to make a small "handle" that can be used to push the floppy door open. i glued a little piece of foam there to make it less slippery for the cable release…

Continue reading at Luo’s Flickr photostream.

Pinhole photography group show in Ann Arbor, MI

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After a successful pinhole workshop at the Ann Arbor District Library in August, photographer Matt Callow is curating an exhibit of work created by the workshop participants, to be displayed at the Malletts Creek branch along with a selection of photos of the workshop in action.

Opening reception Friday, 22 September, 2006 at 7pm, at 3090 East Eisenhower Parkway, Ann Arbor, MI, US.

Details at the library Web site.

Wavycam pinhole camera by Steven Taft

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Homemade Wavycam pinhole camera by Steven Taft (photo used with permission)

Photographer and camera hacker extraordinaire Steven Taft built this wavy film plane camera. He writes:

…the latest is a "planomorphic" box with shower door rollers to guide the film along several wavy paths. I ran 2 rolls through it yesterday, and discovered a few light leaks and an exposure issue I had worried about. When the film is loaded along a path with deep bends, the single pinhole leaves dark bands down the middle of the image. One solution i had considered before the tests was to go with a multi-aperture system, but i would like to solve it as a single first. I designed this to make the rollers relatively simple to move, so i think i will try placing the film path in more of a convex arc, with the canisters towards the front of the box.

…

…it was never a very reliable/easy camera to use (hard to load, light leaks, film might jump the tracks). New version needed.

Even though the design needs some tweaking, this is a great idea!

See the results and more photos of the camera itself in this thread at f295.