Korea Through a Pinhole Camera
The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. I've been wanting to blog about several things, but our trip to Busan and return to the USA have made for very little extra time. And now that we are back home, there are SO MANY things to do. Taxes, dishes, potty training, job research, classes, more travel (to Upstate NY), etc., etc. Of course, what I'd really love to do is get into the darkroom to work on some things.
While in Korea, I managed to squeeze in (barely) a whopping 28 pinhole frames. This may not sound like a lot to those of you familiar with shooting 35mm negatives at 36+ frames per roll, but believe me, this took a great deal of effort and planning to pull off. It involves loading and unloading in a dark bag. There is also the challenge of finding appropriate subject matter. I was hoping to have some images with human figures in them, but this involves finding someone who is stationary for at least 6 seconds minimum (and sometimes as long as 45 seconds). I'd hoped to do at least one per day, but the necessities of daily life made that pretty hard. Towards the end, I was managing up to three a day. Then I made the mistake of trying to do some Sugimoto style images on the rainy beach at Busan. So much for the paperboard pinhole camera body. It's served me pretty well and was pretty cheap to construct, but it was already starting to show more wear and tear than it was designed for. The massive amount of rain water put it over the edge. I never even took any photos of the thing just to remember it. Now it's gone and I must build a new one.
Since there isn't get much in the way of meta data when using a 5 x 7 pinhole camera, I decided to start taking a reference photo with the G9. And since I've had a few malfunctions with the pinhole body, I wanted to have some kind of back up of the image. This way I could at least remember what I was intending to take if indeed it comes to pass that the negative is crap (it's sometimes several months before I can process film). I'm anxious to see what the 5 x 7 negatives will look like in comparison to the references because I actually ended liking some of the reference pics on their own. Now if I can find time to get to the darkroom...
Here are some of the B & W 5 x 7 reference photos. They are conversions to B & W and the subject matter is mostly the same as what was shot on film. I also did eleven 4 x 5 colour shots, but I've not worked any with those images yet.
While in Korea, I managed to squeeze in (barely) a whopping 28 pinhole frames. This may not sound like a lot to those of you familiar with shooting 35mm negatives at 36+ frames per roll, but believe me, this took a great deal of effort and planning to pull off. It involves loading and unloading in a dark bag. There is also the challenge of finding appropriate subject matter. I was hoping to have some images with human figures in them, but this involves finding someone who is stationary for at least 6 seconds minimum (and sometimes as long as 45 seconds). I'd hoped to do at least one per day, but the necessities of daily life made that pretty hard. Towards the end, I was managing up to three a day. Then I made the mistake of trying to do some Sugimoto style images on the rainy beach at Busan. So much for the paperboard pinhole camera body. It's served me pretty well and was pretty cheap to construct, but it was already starting to show more wear and tear than it was designed for. The massive amount of rain water put it over the edge. I never even took any photos of the thing just to remember it. Now it's gone and I must build a new one.
Since there isn't get much in the way of meta data when using a 5 x 7 pinhole camera, I decided to start taking a reference photo with the G9. And since I've had a few malfunctions with the pinhole body, I wanted to have some kind of back up of the image. This way I could at least remember what I was intending to take if indeed it comes to pass that the negative is crap (it's sometimes several months before I can process film). I'm anxious to see what the 5 x 7 negatives will look like in comparison to the references because I actually ended liking some of the reference pics on their own. Now if I can find time to get to the darkroom...
Here are some of the B & W 5 x 7 reference photos. They are conversions to B & W and the subject matter is mostly the same as what was shot on film. I also did eleven 4 x 5 colour shots, but I've not worked any with those images yet.
My favorite is the one with the two people under the umbrella.
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