Why Pinhole?

Why do I so enjoy pinhole photography?

I love the inexactness of shooting without a lens. It forces me to open my eyes more and see everything that the camera might see.

The Zero Image 2000 has an F138 aperture which creates a very exaggerated depth of field compared to a conventional camera and it encompasses a very wide angle. This causes vertical objects to appear to tilt toward the center of the frame.

Because pinhole exposures are always long. Sometimes measured in seconds but often measured in minutes, pinhole photography forces me to slow down and think. It's almost a zen process. It's definitely one of mindfulness. Determine the subject, compose the shot, set up the tri-pod, measure the light and calculate the exposure. Once you do all that you uncover the pinhole and hope like hell that the family coming up the boardwalk will wait till you're done. (typically they don't)

I love the imperfection of a pinhole photo. But is it imperfect? Who decides what makes art perfect? The artist or the viewer? It's true I like positive feedback on my work but what's important to me is what I like. A friend recently made the statement that "all photos need to be edited in Photoshop to improve them" Perhaps that's true if you are trying to create something that will have mass appeal but we've all heard it said, "Art does not have to match the sofa". That goes for photography as well my friends. Enjoy what you shoot. Take your time doing it and once the film is processed sit back and just enjoy the shapes, the contrast and even the blur.

A Man Cave for Artists

So here we are at the end of February and it's another dreary winter day in New England.

It's the type of day that you really can't do much outdoors. I've already done the weekly trip to Market Basket so what's left to do.

Well, if I had my dream studio I could be doing all sorts of cool stuff. Printing and framing photos. Organizing albums. Maybe practicing some music. Or maybe trying some new ideas. I've got some great ideas for some creative projects but most of what I want to do needs space and light in an area that won't be disturbed. Not exactly how I would describe our current lodgings. So this post is going to be a description of my dream space to work and create.

Ideally, it should be roomy but not so large that it becomes another house to maintain. The space needs to be divided for different purposes. A clean and brite area for photo work that would allow room for a Macbook and an Epson printer. Another area would be set aside for more dirty and noisy work like sandstone carving as well as a couple of sculpture projects I've got in mind. A small living/escape area is a must. One or two chairs for myself and invited guests to enjoy an adult beverage and perhaps some illegally obtained Cuban cigars. As long as this is a dream space we might as well add a covered area that could be used for welding or maybe a forge. One never knows what type of project may catch my eye. :)

So once I can find a good location, ie a new house, the only problem with this project is that it needs to be funded. Which leaves me with two choices. I can sell my sports car and roll up all of these jars of loose change and see what I can come up with. Orrrrr.....assuming that the grant from the National Endowment for the Arts doesn't get approved, maybe this could be a pilot project for a new HGTV show. Something like Extreme Makeover Studio Edition. Ty Pennington...I can meet whenever it's convenient

Holga 120N (aka king of the light leak)

I dug my Holga 120N plastic camera out recently, loaded it with a roll of Tmax 100, and then covered all of the seams with good old electrical tape from Lowes.

The Holga is a great little plastic camera. There's no frills involved. Trust me when I say that your phone has more capabilities in terms of technology but in terms of artistic and creative photography the Holga is a great tool once you get used to its little quirks.

Those quirks are what help the photographer create some really interesting and somewhat dreamy shots.

You are starting with a two piece plastic box with a manual film advance, plastic lens, two very high tech aperture settings (sun or no sun) and two exposure settings N for normal and B for bulb. If you're not careful the B could mean BLURRY because the switch is on the bottom of the camera and it's real easy to turn it without realizing you've done that. Once it's set to B the shutter stays open as long as you hold the release down. Nobody tells you that though. You have to wait to get a really lousy set of pictures processed first and then go searching for the reason among other Holga users on-line.

The most quirky aspect of the Holga though are the light leaks. Sometimes they will yield some wonderful pictures but often as not they wreak havoc with what you are trying to capture. That's where the electrical tape comes into play.

This particular shot is one of my personal favorites. It was taken last year on Plum Island, Massachusetts and the boards you see sticking out of the sand are part of an old ship wreck that appears periodically depending on the tides and actions of the waves.

The light leaks along with the vignetting common with plastic lenses adds a real ethereal quality to this image that can't be achieved with Photoshop and HDR.

Here are a few from a roll I shot this January.

wooden lobster traps are pretty rare
Massachusetts. This was washed up
on Plum Island

Stone walls line both sides of an
abandoned road on Weir Hill in
No. Andover, MA

This wooden dory caught my eye at low tide in
Chauncy Creek, Kittery Point ME

Argus C44 a classic blend of form, function and industrial design

Sometimes when I start looking around on-line I find things I've just gotta have.

Most recently was an Argus C-44 rangefinder camera.  It was only manufactured for one year 1956-57. Argus was really the driving force behind the 35mm film format in the US. They sold millions of the C-3 Brick, C-4 and the C-44.

All of them were made from heavy machined aluminum with lots of decorative touches. For their time they were quite modernistic in appearance and really works of industrial art.

Modeled after the classic Leica rangefinders the Argus C-44 takes great pictures and has all the features one would expect in a well made hand held camera.

• Five preset shutter speeds plus
• Aperture settings from f4-f22
• 50mm f2.8 lens came standard with optional wide angle and telephoto lenses.

So far I've only shot one roll of Kodak Tmax 100 and admittedly some of the dial and settings take some getting used to but I was very pleased with the initial results. I'm looking forward to trying some other low speed black and white films to try to replicate the artistic look of 1950s photographers.

I love old cameras. Especially those that are still working. There's a sense of touching history when I use them. This is a photo I took in early spring of 2012 in Topsfield Massachusetts. I was using a Kodak Brownie 127 camera made in the UK in the 50's.

random photos

This is a pinhole photo of the Chicago skyline that I took in November of 2012.