Unbelievable...

I have finally picked up my 5 x 4 inch negatives from the lab... I used my new pinhole camera and managed to get the exposures somewhat near close to correct...

I am amazed at the quality of the images considering that they were taken with what is effectively a box painted black inside with the tiniest of pinholes in the front... No lenses, no viewfinders, no menus, no batteries... Woo Hoo!

I think I might enjoy more "slow photography"...

The camera comes in three sections and each has a focal length roughly equivalent to 25mm in 35mm film... So when you add them together you start at 25mm, then 50mm, then 75mm focal lengths. There is a pinhole and a zone plate for each focal length and I forgot to change it for the photo below of the seed pods... I think this is why it isn't as sharp as it could be... Just for reference the focal length for this one was 75mm the aperture was f216 and the exposure time was 96 minutes!!! The various seed pods look amazing and I've yet to take an image of them that does them justice...


The second image is of a flowering plant that I'm sure someone will know the name of and was the first image I took with the camera... It is about a 90 second exposure so you there is some movement int the flower heads but I like the look of this image too...


I don't use my scanner very often and I've just remembered why! It's the most user unfriendly piece of software I have ever used. The scanner itself is great and does a very good job but trying to work out how to select the image to be scanned and then working out how to actually scan it requires opening the instruction manual every single time!!!

Love Melbourne...

I had to take my camera to work today to shoot some images for an organisational chart... I got to work at 6am and the Yarra river and the view to Melbourne was just perfect... It was one of those brilliant, still mornings and the sun had just risen... I snapped a couple of quick images across the river on my way in...

The first one didn't focus and I think it just works as an abstract... The "in focus" image of the same shot is boring...


In the hi res image of the second shot you can see the clock on Flinders St clock tower (yellow building in the bottom left of the image) and it's definitely 6am...

Walking around Southbank...

I went for a walk today around Southbank in Melbourne. I had with me my D700 and 24mm PC lens. This lens allows Perspective Correction which simply means that verticals are vertical when doing architectural shots... The lens also allows for some interesting depth of field fun and I will try to make some images that demonstrate this soon...

I went to see a Da Vinci exhibiton that has been put together by a friend and if you are in Melbourne between now and the end of January 2010 go and have a look... Da Vinci was an amazing observer of just about everything and this exhibition shows his examination of the human body and his attempts at making robots based on those observations. These images are from around Southbank...

Eureka Tower - the tallest building in Melbourne. Check out the bees...


Crown Tower Hotel across the Sandridge Bridge...


Pedestrian Bridge near the Melbourne Entertainment Centre (don't know the name of it as it's not on my map...)...


An anchor near the ship Polly Woodside...

Pinhole photography...

Yes... I haven't done much with my blog lately... Sorry to all you avid readers out there...

I recently bought a pinhole camera. It's a Zero Image 45 Deluxe and is a lovely piece of craftsmanship. The 45 means that it uses 4" x 5" sheets of film which are the smallest of the "large format" film sizes... Each frame segment of the camera adds to the focal length and it roughly equates to 25mm, 50mm and 75mm focal lengths in 35mm film terms. The pinhole apertures are tiny and therefore you need exceptionally long exposure times to make things happen. The aperture for each focal length is slightly different and therefore there's some maths to do once you take a meter reading of the scene. The aperture for 75mm is f216!

Today I took a photo in my kitchen and the exposure time given the tiny aperture was 96 minutes... This was partly due to the aperture but also due to the film. The longer film is exposed to light the less receptive it is to taking in more light... Google "reciprocity failure" for and explanation better than I can give.

The next part of the learning curve comes with handling, loading and processing sheet film... All of this was a natural part of photography 40 years ago when press photographers used large format cameras routinely. I took the five unprocessed sheets to the lab today and have to wait for a week to get them back!!! Talk about delayed gratification!

Next will be scanning the negatives and working out the best way to do that. As soon as I have all of that worked out I will post some images (both good and bad).I am really looking forward to playing around with the long exposures to see what creative things can happen.

There are some awesome pinhole images out there if you Google the term.