Thursday 22 April 2010

World Pinhole Day...

It's almost here. World Pinhole Day... 25th of April...

A day to reduce technology to the barest minimum and to get out there and celebrate the original "camera obscura".

With all of the technology that goes in to cameras these days it's an amazing fact that we can still take images using a box with the tiniest of holes for a lens. The images from these simple devices are truly miraculous.

I have a need to get back to the basics that I feed with my pinhole camera. There are lots of options. You could build one from a matchbox or buy one ready made like I did. You can use 35mm film or large format film and there are even adaptors that replace the lens on your camera so that you could use your digital SLR.

The use of a pinhole camera is simple but you do have to understand the basics of composition and the working out of exposure times. Fortunately the basics are readily understood and after that it's all slow, contemplative art.


World pinhole day coincides with ANZAC day in Australia so I'm getting some ideas of what images I would like to get. I'll be posting the results in a few weeks - there's another difference to digital imaging, everything takes longer!