Tag Archives: zero image

Inspiration week of 9/19

September 23, 2016 Kier

Forth-bridge
[singlepic id=487 w=600]Forth Bridge, ©Rudi Neumaier 2016[/singlepic]

Rudi Neumaier is a talented and prolific photographer that used his Reality So Subtle camera to make this photo of Forth Bridge, which is 9 miles west of Edinburgh City Centre. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it’s just over 125 years old. Rudi has a lot of work available online, between his Flickr site and his personal website – I highly recommend a look.[spacer height=”20px”]

Beach
[singlepic id=485 w=600]Beach, ©Fitt Tamás 2016[/singlepic]

We previously featured a photo from Fitt Tamás back in the week of 7/18. As before, he used his Natasha 612 to make the capture, but this time on Delta 100 film. The photo was taken at the Lake of Balaton, the largest lake in Hungary, as people walked in and out of the water. People’s unfamiliarity with pinhole cameras allowed him to photograph the scene without interrupting the people there. Tamás has some amazing work on his Flickr profile that is definitely worth looking at.[spacer height=”20px”]

Eighty Minutes Of The Night
[singlepic id=486 w=600]Eighty Minutes of the Night, ©Eric K.F. Li 2016[/singlepic]

Eric Li made this excellent capture over the course of 80 minutes, as the title suggests, using his Ondu 6×12 and TMAX 100. It’s a stunning example of what can be done with pinhole at night with a little patience. Coincidentally, Eric was also previously featured on the 7/18 weekly post! He’s an extremely talented photographer – with or without lens – and you should check out his Flickr profile to see what he’s been up to since we last featured him.[spacer height=”20px”]

Pinhole Pittsburgh 1
[singlepic id=488 w=600]Pinhole Pittsburgh 1, ©Dennis Salizzoni 2016[/singlepic]

Dennis Salizzoni made this moody image of the Roberto Clemente bridge in Pittsburgh, PA with his ZeroImage 6×9 loaded with Acros 100. Dennis has a very stylistic trend in his Flickr profile, with great lensed and lensless work to be seen.

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Inspiration

Inspiration Week of 8/15

August 19, 2016 Kier

Welcome to this week’s set of pinhole inspiration! It’s been a busy week – as the Call for Entry came to a close, we got a flood of GREAT work! We’re very excited about this upcoming project. Don’t stress if you entered and haven’t heard back yet – we have some catching up to do!

Low Season
[singlepic id=449 w=600]Low Season, ©Vincenzo Caniparoli 2016[/singlepic]

Vincenzo Caniparoli made this image recently in Sardinia, Italy as part of his work looking at popular holiday locations during the less popular hours. He used his homemade 4×5 camera with Fomapan 100 to capture the reminiscent scene. You can find more of Vincenzo’s wonderful work on his personal website and his Flickr page.[spacer height=”20px”]

Untitled
[singlepic id=453 w=600]Untitled, ©Petr Stul 2016[/singlepic]

Petr Stul provides us this beautiful rushing scene that pulls you in close. You can find more of his work on Live Journal, Facebook, 500px, and Flickr.[spacer height=”20px”]

Lunargraphy in summer
[singlepic id=450 w=600]Lunargraphy in Summer, ©Dirk Ahrens 2016[/singlepic]

Dirk Ahrens produced this lunargraphy photo as a first attempt, and a quite wonderful one at that. The experience has taught him a lot, which he’ll use to produce more. The moon stayed low in the sky because of the summer latitude. You can find more of his work, which will soon include more recent lunargraphs, on his Flickr page.[spacer height=”20px”]

Pordenack Point
[singlepic id=451 w=600]Pordenack Point, ©Mark Rowell 2016[/singlepic]

Mark Rowell made serene this photo with his Zero Image 45 loaded with New55 film from Pordenack Point looking across Zawn Trevilley towards Carn Boel. He has more great imagery on his Flickr profile.[spacer height=”20px”]

Trouville crépuscule
[singlepic id=452 w=600]Trouville Crépuscule, ©Etienne Boissise 2016[/singlepic]

Etienne Boissise likes how “pinhole sets you free from the ordinary eye’s perception” and how holding the camera over a long exposure involves the hand and body in a way that other forms lack. The result in this beach scene is extraordinary. You can find more of Etienne’s work on Flickr.

Inspiration

Inspiration Week of 7/25

July 29, 2016 Kier

Welcome back, friends, for the latest installment of our photos to get you inspired for the weekend. Just a short set this week as coordinating things for our open Call for Entry took up a chunk of time. Hope you enjoy this set! When you’re done, there’s lots more to check out at the past features gallery! Use the newsletter signup on the right side of the page to get these updates mailed to you weekly!

Look Back
[singlepic id=425 w=600]Look Back, ©Dirk Ahrens 2016[/singlepic]

Dirk Ahrens made this photo as one of his first pinhole photos. Before this, he was working a lot with solargraphs until he picked up a Sharan Wide 35 and loaded it with Agfa APX 100. This foggy scene is from 1850 meters up in the Alps, at the passage between Kanzelwand and Fellhorn as rain fell in the valley. You can find more of Dirk’s Alps photos, solargraphs, and other work on his Flickr profile.[spacer height=”20px”]

GW Metro
[singlepic id=423 w=600]GW Metro, ©Scott Davis 2016[/singlepic]

Scott Davis is an experienced photographer in historic printing processes, and has recently started to work in pinhole for additional inspiration. He’s developed an appreciation for the simplicity of pinhole and how it lets him focus on the image, not the equipment. As he states: “Working with cameras that don’t have lenses or shutters per se, or at least that have primitive ones, means that serendipity becomes important in my work…What interests me is the capture of whole seconds, minutes and even hours of time in a frame, contrasting the things that move in the scene with things that remain static.” I encourage you to learn more about his work and processes at his site, dcphotoartist.com [spacer height=”20px”]

Lake Erie
[singlepic id=424 w=600]Lake Erie, ©Kier Selinsky 2016[/singlepic]

I made this photo of Lake Erie from the shores of the small city of Avon Lake, near Cleveland, OH, at about 8PM as the sun got low in the West. It was an exceptionally calm day, and my family and I enjoyed just basking in the warmth. I made this photo with my Zero Image 69 and Kodak Ektar film, exposure was about 9 seconds.

Interviews

Michael D Hawley – Raw Pinhole

July 13, 2016 Kier 2 Comments

Michael D Hawley grew up in photography. His father lugged cameras, and eventually, so did he. It’s an introduction to the art that I’m sure many of us share – I know I do. I still have my very first photograph sitting around here somewhere – it’s a portrait of my parents and their best friend, all of them laughing and hunched down, because I kept pointing the K1000 further and further down as my 6 year old fingers fussed with the focus ring.

It’s a bond that’s formed with this art form – whether you pursue something else in life or stick with photography professionally – the smell of an old camera still brings back a lot of warm memories. Michael stuck with photography, and made it his career. He lives in Vancouver, BC and works as an independent cinematographer, photographer, and camera operator. I think you’ll see that professional discipline in the work displayed below.

After taking in the interview below, be sure to check out Michael’s website (http://www.mdhphoto.net/), filled with both lensed and lensless images, plus some great motion picture work.

Your bio mentions that you grew up in a family that often had cameras around, and your father lugging the heavy home video equipment of the day for the family goings on. Eventually your mom swapped your pellet gun for a camera. If you had to pinpoint the value you got from this early photographic experience, what do you think it would be?
Yes my Father’s love for capturing experiences was very much my introduction to cameras. He was never very interested in the art of photography but an avid documenter, both with stills and video so the camera was always around. Like many people I was fascinated as a child at magic of freezing time. I use to spend hours scanning over any old black and white image I could find, wondering who the people where in the photographs and what their lives must of been like; It was a time machine for me. When I look back there were a few moments that really turned my interest toward photography. The first was in high school I was never very good at writing so I convinced my teachers to let my friends and me produce short videos on the topic instead of writing essays. With in-camera and deck to deck editing really it was much more work then writing but we had a lot of fun; our classmates loved the videos and hey we got a good mark. The second influential time for me was when I was a teenager and my mom sent me away in the summers to work on my uncles farms. One of the ranches was in a very remote part of British Columbia’s interior called Falkland. It was a very beautiful cattle farm that lay in the bottom of a valley. There was no one around, the town only had about 500 residents and out of shear boredom I picked up my aunt’s video camera and started shooting the farm and surroundings, this was when I really began to observe light and composition even though I probably would not of been able to communicate it at the time. The next and I would say most important time of my development was when I first introduced to a Twin Lens Rolleiflex this of course was when digital had already essentially taken over. I could not believe the look of the images and how beautiful medium format film is. What followed was pivotal to my development was learning how to meter light and really understand exposure. Also shooting medium format restricted me to twelve exposures and really forced me to ask myself why I was taking this image, what did I like about it.

In the Desert
[singlepic id=387 w=600]In the Desert, ©Michael D Hawley 2016[/singlepic]

It’s not often that we see a professional photographer devoting so much of their portfolio and online presence to pinhole. What is it that draws you to pinhole?
After the Rolleiflex I became a camera junkie and with digital taking over I found many cheap sales on incredible second hand film cameras some really wonderfully crafted tools. Which took me all the way to the earliest and most primitive camera the pinhole camera. I instantly fell in love with pinhole it was so raw and basic. To me when the elements all come together the images just feel so surreal, like stepping into a dream. Because pinhole is so simple of a camera with a fixed aperture and self controlled shutter, no focusing, no choice of lenses you can really just think about placement. I have always felt that getting a really good wide angle shot is much more difficult to achieve because you have many more three dimensional elements to consider in composition but can be much more rewarding for the viewer. Since pinhole is super wide angle when you bring your eyes right up to the camera essentially what you see is what you get and with its long exposures I love how the pinhole camera captures motion, like paint strokes on a canvas.

A Perfect Night
[singlepic id=385 w=600]A Perfect Night, ©Michael D Hawley 2016[/singlepic]

Floating
[singlepic id=386 w=600]Floating, ©Michael D Hawley 2016[/singlepic]

How did you discover pinhole photography?
I discovered pinhole photography while visiting my local camera shop Beau Photo in Vancouver. Beau sold Holga pinhole cameras and I thought it would be fun to play around with one and a camera for $50 did not seem like much risk. I love the Holga 120PC the camera is awesome it gave me some of my favourite pinhole shots. I really like the F192 aperture on it allowing for some long exposures. I also picked up the Holga 120WPC panoramic camera and had great success with it. I often found that Holga cameras would either give me my best shots or ruin them with light leaks, backs falling off, forgetting to take the lens cap off etc. so I wanted to find a camera I knew was not going cause quite so many problems. Which lead me to the Zero Image 612F multi format camera. The Zero Image is a handmade camera and it’s polished teak wood finish and brass controls are almost as beautiful as the photographs it takes.

Time Travel
[singlepic id=396 w=600]Time Travel, ©Michael D Hawley 2016[/singlepic]

New Day
[singlepic id=392 w=600]New Day, ©Michael D Hawley 2016[/singlepic]

Do you feel that pinhole improves your professional photography? How so?
Yes I do feel pinhole has improved my professional work. It has really taught me how important camera placement is and further to that it has taught me a great deal about what makes for an interesting wide angle shot. Pinhole has also showed me the benefits to keeping things simple and exploring new mediums. I often wish the professional world would be more open to taking creative risks and trusting an older, slower process.

Kilmainham Jail
[singlepic id=390 w=600]Kilmainham Jail, ©Michael D Hawley 2016[/singlepic]

Siwash Rock
[singlepic id=395 w=400]Siwash Rock, ©Michael D Hawley 2016[/singlepic]

One of the hardest aspects of pinhole photography is the visualization before the shot. The “seeing”, as it were. How do you approach your shot visualization?
I try to approach locations and scenes that will utilize the camera’s strengths which I feel are it’s long exposures and super wide perspective. I will look for things that are in motion and will give the viewer as sense of movement, like clouds, trees or water. I will also look for locations that will create a good sense of depth and height. I always move the camera in a little closer to the scene then what would appear natural to the eye. Pinhole is always a bit of guess work and with time the guessing becomes less.

Saturna East Point Pinhole
[singlepic id=394 w=600]Saturna East Point Pinhole, ©Michael D Hawley 2016[/singlepic]

What do you find to be the biggest challenge with pinhole photography? What stops you?
I do not find many challenges with shooting pinhole photography as the camera is very simple. However since the pinhole camera has many limitations in its simplicity it is not the best tool for many projects. The biggest challenge for me with pinhole is in the printing. The camera vignettes heavily and more so with panoramic, the exposure varies greatly from the center to the edges and I find it is very hard to strike that balance when it comes to the print. However when everything comes together the prints to me are stunning and feel so unique. Another challenge with pinhole and which I think might be its greatest is trying to get people to look at the camera as a legitimate camera and art form, I find it is often dismissed too easily.

Late Light
[singlepic id=391 w=600]Late Light, ©Michael D Hawley 2016[/singlepic]

Palace Window
[singlepic id=393 w=600]Palace Window, ©Michael D Hawley 2016[/singlepic]

You’ve photographed some notable actors – Gary Oldman, Pierce Brosnan – how soon till we see you attempting this with a pinhole? 🙂
I have been fortunate to photograph some very talented people and even though I really love pinhole photography I don’t think I would use it much for portraiture. Pinhole with its wide perspective and warped edges is not very forgiving on the face. Perhaps if the scene called for a dramatic surreal effect, or perhaps I would maybe mix some elements in the post work. There is a pinhole photographer I follow on Flickr Scott Speck who has shot some interesting portraits with pinhole, I enjoy seeing his work.

There are so many talented pinhole photographers out there and I am always excited to see what they come up with next, always an inspiration to me!

In the Morning
[singlepic id=388 w=600]In the Morning, ©Michael D Hawley 2016[/singlepic]

Kilauea Volcano
[singlepic id=389 w=600]Kilauea Volcano, ©Michael D Hawley 2016[/singlepic]

Inspiration

Inspiration Week of 6/20

June 24, 2016 Kier

For this week’s inspirational set, we bring 4 movements, all from Europe. Which is appropriate, I suppose, since the whole world is looking to Europe today due to the passage of the Brexit. No matter your political leanings on the issue, we think you’ll find these works inspiring. If you need more, as always, you can check out our recap galleries!

Pinhole No.1
[singlepic id=370 w=600]Pinhole No.1 ©Christian Schaus 2016[/singlepic]

Christian Schaus wielded his Zero Image 2000 loaded with Ilford Pan-F to make this image at Jervaulx Abbey Park, in Yorkshire Dales, England while on holiday in August last year. This trip was his first time using a pinhole camera, where he fell in love with the simplicity of it, and he hasn’t used any other format since! You can find more of his fantastic pinhole images on his Flickr page.

Stockholm Central Station
[singlepic id=371 w=600]Stockholm Central Station, ©Gunnar Eld 2016[/singlepic]

Gunnar Eld loaded his Ondu 6×6 with HP5+ for this scene of the Stockholm Central Station, and as a result of the 6 minute exposure, most of the people have vanished from the image, which “adds another dimension to images where only things more permanent stay visible. Perhaps a thought that applies to other things in life as well.” Indeed. You can find more of Gunnar’s work on his Flickr page.

Machina
[singlepic id=369 w=600]Machina,©Zoltan Adam Varga 2016[/singlepic]

Zoltan Adam Varga made this abstracted detail of a washing machine with his homemade 6×6 pinhole camera and Kodak Ektar 100. His camera is made of LEGOs, plastic sheets, a mouse pad, and aluminum beer can for the pinhole. Something to remember if you ever lament not having the shiniest and newest camera! You can find more of Zoltan’s remarkable pinhole photography on his Flickr page.

Untitled
[singlepic id=372 w=600]Untitled, ©Maciej Mucha 2016[/singlepic]

Maciej Mucha made this impressionistic capture in London with a homemade box camera loaded with Ilford IVMG paper. He held the camera for 25 seconds while making the exposure of skyscrapers. A creative boldness that has paid off very well in this case! You can find more of Maciej’s excellent pinhole work on his Flickr page and on his portfolio website.

Inspiration

Inspiration Week of 6/13

June 17, 2016 Kier

Today’s inspiration is in 3 movements: the scenic, the abstract, and the impressionistic. I love all 3 and, when out shooting my own pinhole camera, often get twisted up trying to decide which to do. The following are some fine examples, to help open your eyes for the weekend. Need more? Check out our galleries of prior inspiration!

Untitled
[singlepic id=360 w=600]Untitled, ©Sarah Taft 2016[/singlepic]

Sarah Taft made this soft scenic capture in North Carolina while visiting family in the Fall of last year. She made the capture with her Zero Image and Ektar 100 and the result is some very creamy colors. You can check out more of Sarah’s work on her website and on her Flickr page.

Walt Disney Concert Hall
[singlepic id=361 w=600]Walt Disney Concert Hall, ©James Thorpe 2016[/singlepic]

James Thorpe caught this abstract scene with his RealitySoSubtle 4×5 pinhole camera at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Due to the harsh lighting in Los Angeles, James was challenged with finding a color film slow enough to get the time effects he desired. He made this capture with Fuji CDU II Duplicating stock – a film originally made for darkroom duplication work – which has an ISO of 4. James has examples on his Flickr page of other experimental films, such as Kodak Vericolor II from the 70’s, also with an ISO of 4.

Osterseen xiv
[singlepic id=359 h=600]Osterseen xiv, ©Michael Richter 2016[/singlepic]

Michael Richter captured this impressionistic scene of a forest by vertically panning his “beast” of a homemade pinhole camera, named “Vivian”. Vivian has a focal length of 35mm and was loaded with XP2 for this photo. You can check out more of Michael’s work on his flickr page or on his blog (in German).

Interviews

ƒ/D Interviews Jana Obscura

June 15, 2016 Kier 2 Comments

Today we’re excited to bring you our interview with Jana Uyeda, AKA Jana Obscura. You can’t get very far in the pinhole world without crossing her path in one way or another. She is a vocal proponent of the pinhole format on social media as well as on the podcast she co-hosts, The Pinhole Podcast (archives, Twitter). Read on to learn about her vision in pinhole, how she built community around pinhole, and get introduced to anamorphic pinhole. Afterwards, be sure to check out her website, Instagram, and her Flickr page for additional pinhole and other photographic goodness.

How did you first come upon the world of pinhole photography? What convinced you to stay?
I learned about pinhole photography through Jeff Soderquist who purchased a Zero Image 2000 at Blue Moon Camera in Portland. There were also a number of pinhole groups sharing images on Flickr and I was inspired by the wide angles, the distortions and the unique character of pinhole photography. At the time I was experimenting with film and plastic cameras but when I saw the possibilities of pinhole, I got hooked.

You often accentuate perspective in your pinhole photos. Is this intentional for your pinhole work? Or subconscious?
I would say it’s due to necessity, or maybe it’s a necessity due to my laziness. I rarely carry a tripod with me, in fact it’s one of the reasons I enjoy pinhole photography. The cameras are smaller, light weight and I don’t need a lot of gear to shoot. I also don’t carry light meters or paper or notebooks either, I just bring my camera, film and a mini tripod. This means I spend a lot of time shooting from the floor looking up or using flat surfaces as a makeshift tripod. It is also my experience that many places don’t allow tripods, so my use of floors and handrails means I’m capturing extreme perspectives.

[singlepic id=356 w=600]Sagrada Familia, ©Jana Uyeda 2016[/singlepic]

What other aspects of pinhole do you find yourself trying to exploit?
My first experiments focused on stillness and movement. Since pinhole is a longer exposure, I was looking to frame motion within a motionless environment. A passenger standing against the rails on my water taxi commute, plates on a lazy susan at a dim sum restaurant, shopping carts at Costco and flags waving in the wind. It was challenging because I had to be very aware of the exposure time and my subject. If the exposure time was too long, the subject in motion would ghost out of the image entirely.

[singlepic id=352 w=600]Dim Sum, ©Jana Uyeda 2016[/singlepic]

Subjects ghosting out are exactly why I started experimenting with what I called multi-lapsing – multiple exposures timed when people were in almost the same place to build up one exposure. Which reminds me, I need to do more of. What do you feel the challenges of pinhole add to your creative thought pattern? Do you find anything you’ve learned in pinhole changing how you shoot in other formats?
I think the challenges of pinhole make me more adventurous. I know there are elements I cannot control and I cannot always anticipate how much the final image will capture, even if I know the angle of view for my camera. There were a few months when I experimented with infrared 4×5 pinhole which I thought would be insane and it turns out, it was insane – in a good way! To your other question about pinhole changing how I shoot other formats, I can genuinely say I’ve become a dedicated medium format shooter since I started with pinhole photography. When I shoot with my Rolleiflex I find myself using that lower angle to emphasize perspective, something you noticed from my pinhole work. I’m realizing that perhaps I’m more comfortable with the Rolleiflex because the TLR allows me to shoot from a lower angle. In my photography school I’d worked with 35mm almost exclusively, but since I started shooting pinhole I’ve made investments in developing and scanning equipment. I have a workflow based on 120 film now.

[singlepic id=357 w=600]4×5 IR, ©Jana Uyeda 2016[/singlepic]

As if pinhole photography isn’t obscure enough of a photographic form, you tend to work quite a bit in anamorphic pinhole. For the folks who are interested in anamorphic, what do you feel are the best subjects to start shooting anamorphic and learning the format?
Thanks for the reminder, I need to shoot more this summer. For those interested in anamorphic pinhole, I would recommend looking for straight, horizontal lines to learn about exposure, angle of view and how to work your camera. Anamorphic is a lot of fun but it takes a few rolls to understand how to position the camera and expose it correctly. Underexpose and your image will have dark bands with no shadow detail. Overexpose and the image will have blown out bands where the light hits the film plane. I have been most successful with BW film but there are so many talented photographers doing amazing work with C41. I started shooting fences and rows of books in the library which helped me “see” and then I tried shooting more deliberately for that anamorphic bend.

[singlepic id=354 w=600]Palm Trees, ©Jana Uyeda 2016 (anamorphic pinhole)[/singlepic]

[singlepic id=351 w=600]Chairs, ©Jana Uyeda 2016 (anamorphic pinhole)[/singlepic]

Is there any subject matter that you try to shoot with pinhole and just can’t seem to get the shot? Why not?
Sunlight and sunbeams. This isn’t a big deal since I live in Seattle, but when the sun comes out and I point my camera in that direction I get crazy light sprays across my image. There are pinhole photographers who do gorgeous work with sunlight and it creates this lovely rainbow of light on their image. I just can’t figure it out.

[singlepic id=353 w=600]IR Mess, ©Jana Uyeda 2016[/singlepic]

I hear ya – I lived in Seattle for a couple years and from November through June the sky in particular can be a real challenge. How does your creative process tend to flow? Are you looking for something in particular? Or do you come across something that seems interesting and try to find how to shoot it?
I look for interesting subjects that I can really get close to. Since pinhole has such a wide angle of view, I feel I lose too much detail when I shoot a broad landscape scene. When I shoot sunrise shots near the water I look for rocks or other items of interest that I can incorporate in the foreground. If I’m shooting a carousel or flags on a boat I look for something stationary and often I’ll place something deliberately in front of the camera. When I’m travelling I let people fill the space because the shape of their motion is perfect. Maybe a good challenge to myself is to shoot broad, sweeping landscapes and find a new way to make those pinholes more interesting to me. I saw some Hiroshi Sugimoto prints in person recently and I’m inspired to shoot simpler. I’m going to try that this summer.

[singlepic id=355 w=600]Pont del Petroli, ©Jana Uyeda 2016[/singlepic]

Besides your personal photography, you regularly contribute to a number of other publications, help run Pdexposures, and co-host the Pinhole Podcast. It sounds exhausting! What was the least expected benefit from doing all this?
The community. Connecting with like-minded photographers from across the globe is the most surprising and the greatest benefit. Beyond Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day there are postcard exchanges, meetup groups, gallery shows, DIY classes and art projects. Pinhole is not something I assume most people know about outside of their high school b&w photo class, but I feel there’s a growing trend towards embracing this form of photography. Social media plays a big part in bringing the community together, though I think most pinhole photographers also have stories about random interactions with a fellow pinholer in person. We’re weirdos and we’re out there and it’s awesome.

Do you have any recommendations for people who’d want to start up a pinhole club in their local area?
Yes, just do it! I met Todd Schlemmer through Twitter years ago and even though he lives in Seattle, I’d never met him until Twitter brought us together. He’s been building various 3D printed pinhole cameras and eventually started a meetup for local pinhole folk to connect. It’s been great. I get asked questions all the time when I’m waiting patiently for my exposures and I hope I’ve encouraged people to try pinhole. I usually end up chatting with a mix of film photographers, students, and creative builders then invite them to join us on our next stroll. Blue Moon Camera in Portland does a fantastic job of promoting pinhole photography as well which sustains a network of artists in the northwest. So my recommendations would be, use social media, connect and join photography meetups in your area.

[singlepic id=358 w=600]WPPD 2014, ©Jana Uyeda 2016[/singlepic]

Inspiration

Inspiration Week of 5/16

May 20, 2016 Kier

This week ƒ/D brings some more photos that I’ve been very excited to see. If there’s a common theme to these, I’d say that they’re all moments in transition. Vignettes of a story – a day at the pool; traveling cross country; the vanishing sun at the beach; the setting of another day in the backyard; or a deep, full breath in the expanse of nature. When you’re done enjoying these, I’d invite you to take a gander at the inspiration we’ve shared in the past.

Nicolas Dollman took up pinhole photography to free himself of the technical minutia of other forms of photography, so that he could simply focus on the exposure. Furthermore, Nicolas describes the idea of photographing moment – telling a story – in time as opposed to a single instant as “poetic”. The practice introduces a bit of meditation and mindfulness to his photography, keeping him in the moment. Indeed – I love this photo because of the hint of a moment in the two figures at the end of the pool. He made this image with a Zero Image 6×9 with a red filter and TMAX 100. To enjoy more of Nicolas’s excellent work, head over to his Flickr page.

Craig Coss made this image with a Holgamods Da Vinci Mini Pinhole with a Polaroid back loaded with Fuji FP-100c. If you can’t tell, he’s on a train. Self portraits with the pinhole can be amazingly powerful. The trick is to work the angles and wide angle to your advantage – a standard self portrait setup will not do in pinhole. Craig really nailed it with this one! You can find more of his dynamic work at his Flickr page.

I’m extremely jealous of Ingrid Budge’s eye. Last time we featured one of her photos, I stared at thing photo for at least an hour. She made this pano image on the west coast last year, although she doesn’t recall where. She used her trusty Sharan camera and “cheapo film”. Ha! Remember that next time you sweat the small stuff! You can find more of her inspiring work on her Flickr Page.

Darren Constantino made this moody capture of a walnut tree in the back yard in April for Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. This is another example of the great results you get on pinhole when shooting into the sun. You can find more great pinholes from Darren on his Flickr page.

Paul Bender produced this deceivingly minimalist scene with his Zero Image 612D on a cold, rainy day in Colorado’s Bear Creek Lake Park. Paul’s story is one that we hear often: he spent time in digital, but it was pinhole that reignited his love of film and brought his photography “full circle”. The simplicity – the zen – of pinhole is a refreshing wellspring we can all appreciate. Paul has some more great pinhole photos on his Flickr account, and we encourage you to check them out.

Inspiration

Inspiration Week of 5/9

May 13, 2016 Kier

Every week on ƒ/D we scour the web for some fine examples of pinhole photography to inspire you to get out and shoot some pinholes of your own. This week is no exception, as we bring you examples of great captures and a very happy accident.

After you take a gander at these, if you still more, we have you covered!

Andrew Bartram made this captured this minimalist scene using his Intrepid Camera fitted with a pinhole and a 1 minute exposure, then printed on Ilford MGRC. You can find more of his work on his Flickr page.

Paco Casado Cepas created this photo in bad weather, at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, and without the aid of a tripod to steady his cylindrical tea can pinhole camera. The wind blew his camera off a railing during his 12 minute exposure. As Paco explains:

I was very surprised when I developed at home and saw such an interesting image. Chance, the unexpected, is from that moment not an enemy anymore to me. Actually I consider random exploring as part of the pinhole game, a different way of making images apart from the photography industry. Although we measure light, pinhole diameter and set up our cameras in a certain position, the intention of the photographer melts with the inaccurate and let something not expected ‘happen’. As Vilem Flusser wrote, “pinhole photography becomes less a program and more an act.”

You can find more of Paco’s work on his Flickr page.

Nicolas Escoubeyrou captured the essence of this rowboat scene using his Noon pinhole camera loaded with FP4. Nicolas is using pinhole to aid his exploration of analog photography and various film formats. You can find more of his work on his Flickr page.

Gabor Pal used to use software to manipulate or even damage his photos to create a mood, but now with pinhole he has no need for post-production manipulation. He made this scenic capture with his Zero Image 2000 and Portra 400. You can find more of his work on his Flickr page.

Inspiration

Inspiration Week of 4/25

April 29, 2016 Kier

For this week’s inspiration photos, we bring you five excellent pieces showing some great captures in wide open expanses. The weather in the Northern Hemisphere has warmed up, but the sun is still a little lower, making dramatic lighting more accessible than in the summer. If we do our job right, this week’s selection will get you motivated to get out there and make some fresh pinhole captures this weekend. Enjoy!

Don Pyle is a Washington based pinholer who captured this excellent vantage point of the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland, OR using a camera he builds called the Innova. A number of these Innova cameras are used in the wild by pinhole photographers around the world. The excellent results photographers are making with these cameras can be seen in the Innova Pinhole group collection on Flickr. Don captured this image on Ektar 100 film in 120 format. You can find more of his photos on Flickr.

Pasha Apletin is a talented photographer from St. Petersburg, Russia who’s been working on a series about the ships there. He made this photo during an early summer morning at the banks of the historic center there. He captured this on 5×7 film, which he sometimes uses for cyanotype printing. You can purchase this print here, or learn more about him and his work at his website, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, or Flickr

Andy Werner is as equally talented behind the camera as he is building one in his cabinetry shop. He made this photo of Jack’s Rake – the diagonal path running across the face of the rock – in the Langdale Valley in the Lake District, UK. The rock is known as Pavey Ark, and you can see the camera he used here. Andy has been shooting and building pinhole cameras for about ten years. So far the cameras have been for his own use primarily, and is currently working on selling small batches of his cameras.

You can find more of Andy’s work on his website, Facebook, and Flickr. His cameras will soon be available here, or you can get updates on Facebook.

Photograph After Visiting My Mother’s Grave
[singlepic id=309 w=600]Photograph After Visiting My Mother’s Grave, ©Cameran Ashraf 2016[/singlepic]

I love this powerful landscape capture that Cameran Ashraf made using his Zero Image 2000 pinhole camera on Acros 100 film. He made this photo while reflecting on his mother’s life and passing, and provided the following text to accompany:

“I took this photograph after visiting my mother’s grave on what would have been her 70th birthday. She had long feared growing old, never did, and passed away at 67. I didn’t say much to her at the grave, and though it had been years since she passed, I was still angry she didn’t stick around.

In the mountains north of her grave, I sat on this long dead log and let the day reach its close. The silence of the setting sun strongly called me to take a photograph, and as set up my pinhole camera I began to weep and said many things which my heart had desired to say to her.”

You can view more of Cameran’s excellent work on Flickr, Instagram, or follow him on Twitter.

Marie Westerbom made this awesome, ephemeral capture using IR film in her Zero Image 2000. She hand held the camera while making the photo over a 2 minute exposure. The result is a practically translucent impression of the field in a breeze. You can see more about the background of this photo on Marie’s blog, or see more of her work on Flickr.

Exploring the Art of Pinhole Photography