Pinhole Day … the ones that got away

In my last post I wrote about how as Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day 2020 approached I increasingly wanted to recognise the circumstances in which it was to be celebrated, namely the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown.

But I had already been making preparations for other images. I had set up a number of pinhole solargraph cameras for 6-month exposures ending on WPPD. Two of these remained but due to the lockdown I would be dependant on each of my daughters to close the shutters and store the cameras until they could be retrieved. In case of any problems with these and before I had decided on setting up a room obscura to make the exposure that was to be my WPPD submission, I had also planned a pincam shoot-out in the back garden.

Not only was the pincam shoot-out made on the day, both solargraph pincams were closed by my daughters and have since been recovered without breaking lockdown restrictions. It would be a shame to waste these images so this is their story.

First, the shoot-out. On the left is the Balvenie 12-Year Old Anamorphic Cylinder Pincam and on the right, the WPPD2014 Foamcore Pincam. Both cameras were loaded with Harman Direct Positive Paper and exposed simultaneously for about 30 seconds.

This was the WPPD2014 Foamcore Pincam as seen by the Balvenie 12-Year Old Anamorphic Cylinder Pincam:

… and this is the Balvenie 12-Year Old Anamorphic Cylinder Pincam as seen by the the WPPD2014 Foamcore Pincam:

Both solargraph pincams were Illy coffee cans with drilled pinholes of 0.3mm. The exposures were made on quite old Kenthene VC paper from 26th October 2019 to 26th April 2020:

The hills are alive

Sunshine on Leith

That’s it for Pinhole Day 2020. In the post, I’ve received a surprise package of assorted photo papers of indeterminate vintage and varying degrees of fogging. Lumen and Chemigram experimentation are in the pipeline. Watch this space!