April 27, 2008

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day 

Worldwide Pinhole Day (on Flickr)

Pinhole (on Flickr) 

Homemade Pinhole (on Flickr)

Pinhole Photography (on Flickr)

Pinhole Perspective (on Flickr)

Zero Image (on Flickr)

Pinhole on Wikipedia

(If I forgot something I am sorry. Steph)

my graflex 12-speed graphic

Weekend project #2: Getting my old Schwinn Traveler roadworthy for the spring and summer, and tricking it out for hauling my 4x5 cameras around.

The Graflex camera company originally started out as the Folmer and Schwing bicycle company, so I'm taking my cameras back to their roots:

"Graflex / In 1887 William F. Folmer and William E. Schwing entered into partnership to establish a bicycle company in New York City. The company was incorporated in April 1890 as the 'Folmer and Schwing Manufacturing Company.' Because of the general association of bicycles and cameras at that time, the company gradually added cameras to their line, probably made first by Scovill and Adams. Their 1896 catalog shows a '4 x 5 Cycle Graphic camera' on the back page; this sold for $25 with a Victor shutter and Rapid Rectilinear lens. They also listed regular 'Graphic' cameras in three sizes up to 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, costing $50."

Rochester Optical Company

by: Ben Rains 

Photo by: Graflex.Org 

Welcome to Graflex.Org 

On camerapedia

Enter the world of Graflex 

Graflex pool on Flickr 

( I always wanted one, great story, also love your bike. Stephanie)  

The 12 minute camera, as will be seen on TV!

Through a couple twists of fate it turns out me and my pinhole photography will be featured this week on the talking picture box via OPB's Art Beat. To make a long story short, one of OPB's writers saw a show of pinhole photography I did last year and was instantly intrigued so he contacted me late last year about possibly being filmed for an episode of the weekly Art Beat show.

I said, "Uhhh sure" Maybe in not so many words...

So for a morning my house got turned into a film set, it was kind of... ok a lot more than kind of... a surreal experience. I mean, I am used to being behind the camera (one of the many reasons I am a photographer, to stay on that side of the camera ;-) ). They set up their lights, carried in their video camera, an impressive beast that prompted quite a few questions on my part, professional and natural curiosity.

And I made a pinhole for them. Mind you, I don't make pinhole cameras. I use them all the time, but I rarely make them. I made a couple for a class I taught a few months ago at a high school in Vancouver. That was actually my first time ever making my own pinhole. So of course I was a bit nervous when they asked me to make one while being filmed for the show. They really are not that hard to build, though they are also not that hard to mess up either and I kept thinking "Oh wouldn't that be ironic to completely flub building your own pinhole camera when you are supposed to be fairly experienced at this sort of thing". But build it I did.

In 12 minutes flat at that, from start to finish.

Filming video is quite a bit different from still photography though. The worlds may be related but they are still very different worlds. For example, they wanted a shot of me pulling the oatmeal container from the cupboard. They filmed that scene four consecutive times from different angles. I thought I felt ridiculous enough trying to act natural while rummaging through my cupboard for an oatmeal container the first time... It becomes sort of like when you write a really common word so much, like "book" for example, that after a bit you convince yourself it looks weird and you must be misspelling it.

Anyway, I don't want to go through the whole filming of the episode and give too much away before it has even aired. Need to save all that for the director's cut re-release un-rated version.

I will tell you that it was an interesting and educating experience. I am both nervous and excited to actually see the episode air, which it does this Thursday, April 10th at 8pm. It will re-air Sunday the 13th at 6pm. Don't have Tivo or out of the country? You can even download the episode on OPB's website.

This by the way is the image I made from the Quaker Oats pinhole. I forget exactly what the exposure was, though it will probably be in the show. I had not worked out all the kinks of this pinhole, it was afterall, the first sheet of paper I put through it. No trial run for this guy. We took cameras (the pinhole and video) into the darkroom to film the developing of the paper. I could tell after only a few seconds my pinhole was leaking light and the paper was going to go all black. It almost did, but I pulled it from the developer after only about 20-25 seconds before the exposure was lost, then scanned it and reversed the negative image in photoshop and this is the result.

Interesting to say the least, in more ways than one.

by: Zeb Andrews
Portland, USA

OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) tv ArtBeat

 (love to see this. FP)

By Luciano Noble II

The first book by the world's premier Polaroid portraiture photographer. 

IT IS FINISHED.

I HAVE DONE MANY THINGS I AM ASHAMED OF TO BRING THIS BOOK TO YOU.

BUT IT IS READY.

AND IT IS GORGEOUS.

80 PAGES OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND STORIES ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY.

PRODUCED WITH THE HELP OF THE MEMBERS OF THE BACK ALLEY TABERNACLE. BLOOD, SWEAT, TEARS, CADAVERS AND PROTOCULTURE HAVE GONE INTO THE CREATION OF THIS WORK OF ART.

BUY IT.

MAKE MY MOM HAPPY.

BUY HERE

By: Luciano Noble II

Luciano did it, congrats, I know it will be a success (FP)

He is a amazing photographer but also a cool writer : Give it a good 30-90 seconds

I was looking at a blend filter the other day and wondered if it would be possible to print out an overhead projector (remember those?) transparency sheet with some sort of graphic, cut it to the shape of a filter, and lay it over a pack of 600 - basically, in-camera photoshopping. Apparently it is. I just added the white type to this old paper/halftone pattern and it came out pretty sharp. The photo even took on the orange cast of the paper. Now I'm wondering what other cool stuff I can do with this technique. Possibly some lasers and explosions or other interesting elements added to toy shots. Hmmm.

Didn't Polaroid once have film with words or pictures on the film? Or am I imagining that? Is this how they did it? Anyway, at the very least, it's a great technique for making your photos look all turn-of-the-century and western-y.

Here is the template if you want to try this. Just lay some pattern over the template in Photoshop (or whatever) and print it out on a transparency. Then cut it out and adhere it to your film pack the way you would a blend filter. Keep in mind you'll either have to shoot a whole pack of film with a pattern on it or remove it in a dark room to avoid wasting a shot. 

by: Sean Tubridy 

Nice work! (Steph) 

polaroid, sx-70, 600 film

It's hard to believe that the production of our beloved Polaroid film is coming to an end. It is incredibly disappointing to me as the magic of instant film has urged me to see the softer, dreamier side of life in an otherwise harsh world.

To think that my little girl will never really know the joy of Polaroid photography, of watching an image appear as it is held in the hand, or on her lap, it is really heartbreaking!

I am dismayed because I know that my time to play with the qualities of 669 is limited, when I just barely started using it to create transfers and lifts. I have just begun to incorporate Polaroid magic with mixed media in my art.

Above all else, I am most upset about what this means in a social context. It is a running theme: "out with the old and in with the new." It's not a bad thing to move forward and practice smart business. The thing is, this is NOT smart business. Who the hell wants DIGITAL Polaroid equipment? It so irrational for these tycoons to think that it is a good idea to screw us Polaroid enthusiasts. We are their best bet at success.

It is all about GREED. We have been loyal to you, Polaroid. We are devastated that you don't care about us. We have so much love for our Polaroid cameras, we even name them and include them in our lives as faithful companions and even family. We have Polaroid families.

We love Polaroid for the FILM! We love it for the MAGIC! We love it for the atmosphere and *feel* the textures and tones give us.

Long live instant film photography.

Thank you,
Mia Moreno
aka. mia_magic 

save polaroid website

(and we at F.I.N.D.I.J.S.F agree.  FP) 

Bessa L - 15mm Heliar - Expired Fuji Superia 200, 2.39:1 movie widescreen,
cropped from full-frame neg. view the full-frame version

With a full frame 15mm who needs a Hasselblad X-Pan !?

Testing a new lens, and the results are better than expected. The landscapes and other places were quite basic. But i just wanted to fill up the film to see the result. And it was hard to compose an interesting shot, because the lens is wider than your own eyesight. You can't just zoom in to the interesting part and take the shot. Instead, the camera will capture more than you can see at once. But in the end, even a seemingly boring landscape might end up as an incredible aspherical super-wide angle image.
I hope i get to make a lot of those. More to come ..

The strange glow around darker colored edges is the scan light shining trough the unexposed parts, during the scan process. Everything black is unexposed and therefore transparent. I guess my 1998 Nikon film scanner isn't yet perfect.

Maurice d'Anjou
The Netherlands 

______________________________________________________________

The Bessa L (35mm) on camerapedia

15mm and more

the Hasselblad X-Pan 

(I love wide, FP) 

Readers

by: Ellis Nadler
(UK)

shot with a Pinhole Blender

Celebrate Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day with your Pinhole Blender.
The next pinhole day is
April 27, 2008

A what?  :) (Steph) 

11M

Hoy hace 4 años de los salvajes atentados terroristas que tuvieron lugar en Madrid, en trenes de Cercanías Renfe, que costaron la vida a 192 personas.

Este es el monumento que se ha construido en la estación de Atocha para recordar a las víctimas, rendirles tributo, y como monumento a la Paz y el fin de la violencia terrorista.

Y este es mi tributo personal a todas las víctimas, los que sufrieron y siguen haciéndolo, los que ayudaron, y todos los que trabajan o aportan su grano de arena cada día para la defensa de la Paz y los derechos humanos.

______________________________________________________________________________________________ 

It is 4 years today that the most brutal terrorist action in Spain took place in Madrid, in trains coming from the outskirts of the city; that left 192 dead person.

This is the monument that was built at the Atocha railway station to commemorate the victims, make a tribute to them, and claim for Peace and for the end of the terrorism.

And this photos is my little tribute to the victims, to those who suffered and are still suffering; to those who work and take their little everyday action to defend Peace and human rights.

by: David Pérez F
(Spain)

The 2004 Madrid train bombings (also known in Spanish as 11-M) FP

Incarcerated

I finally splashed out on Tim Rudman's Book 'The Master Photographers Lith printing Course' , and it's like someone has turned on the light!!! Highly recommended by everyone, and I wish I'd got it sooner.

The Holga exposed HP5 neg was dev'd in Diafine as usual. This was then scanned on the flatbed and the histogram endpoints adjusted to provide a full range of tones.

As I'm still using my old Phillips Enlarger without a lens, I printed the scanned neg onto some OHP clear film to make a digital negative, which I then laid over the photo paper and covered the two with a sheet of clear glass and exposed the paper for 1 sec.

The exposed sheet of Kentmere Kentona, was then Dev'd in an 18:1 mix of LD20 with 100ml of 'Old Brown' added per litre. The solid blacks gave a snatch point of about 7 mins, but I preferred the print that was pulled early at 3 mins. The wet print was devoid of all colour, but after 'Dry Down' tool on this lovely Olive/Green Black.

The print was then scanned on the flatbed and given a mild colour tweek to correct the colour before converting to the jpg seen here.

I really do need to invest in an enlarger lens, so the exposure can be more carefully controlled, but I'm quite pleased that I got the print I wanted in 3 prints, rather than the 9 or so from my last session.

The next stage will be to start experimenting with different papers. 

by: Nick Tonkin
(UK)

“The Master Photographers Lith printing Course” by Tim Rudman
on  amazon

Lithography pool on Flickr

Lith Printing on Alternative Photography 

"Lith printing is a simple but 'different' Black & White printing technique, using 'ordinary' B&W or colour negatives, a suitable black & white paper and Lith developer - from which the process gets its name. It involves heavily overexposing a suitable black and white paper - usually by two or three stops - and then only partially developing it in a highly diluted lith developer. " (from Alternative Photography )

(FP)