pinhole pt. 1

pinhole photography is usually thought of as just something you "did in a photography class in high school" - something used merely as a learning tool to teach photographic principles and some of the history behind photography.

fortunately this isn't all it's good for.

so why use a slow, labor intensive method of photography in our digital age? a well-built pinhole camera with a carefully crafted (or laser-drilled) pinhole can take very high quality pictures. pinhole cameras can even be designed to take pictures that just can't be taken with regular cameras.

since pinhole cameras don't have lenses they have infinite depth of field - everything in front of the pinhole is equally in focus. also, since you are most likely making your own camera (they can also be purchased online) you can modify the film plane in any way you want to. a good example of this is having a curved back on the camera. i built a camera out of a section of 10 inch pvc pipe that holds 3 pieces of 4x5 inch film to form a sort of panoramic tryptich (here's a drawing of the camera). it has a whopping 150 degree view. the train picture in my blog header above was taken with this camera.

here's a picture of the gallivan center in salt lake city that was also taken with this camera.



here's another pinhole image that i took with a regular old 150 mm pinhole camera with 4x5 film. it's a staircase in the joseph fielding smith building at byu - looking up.


unfortunately if you're looking for crystal clear pictures then pinhole photography may not be for you. the images have a softer feel because the pinhole isn't able to focus the objects perfectly. however, this softness can also add to the aesthetic of the picture. if you're going for a sharper pinhole image you can use a larger type of film - like 4x5 inch sheet film - and the details will be a lot sharper.

it's definitely an exciting experience building a camera from scratch that actually takes new and exciting pictures.

as for pinhole pt. 2, i plan on making a camera obscura and photographing the image cast on the wall. for those of you who didn't have that high school photography class, a camera obscura (literally dark room) is a completely darkened room with a small hole at one end. the scene on the other side of the hole is projected (upside down and backwards) onto the opposite wall. it's basically the precursor to the camera. pretty exciting...

scanography pt. 1

have you ever thought to use a scanner as a camera? truthfully i hadn't until i stumbled upon "scanography" on the internet. basically it's using a scanner to take pictures of objects. usually scanners are used to scan images and pictures, etc. but then you're limited by the resolution of the image that your scanning. you don't get much more than a digital copy of your picture that's been degraded by being enlarged.

so what if you scan something that isn't limited by resolution - the closer you look the more detail you see. i tried this with some japanese maple leaves in the fall last year. the result is a high resolution image that i could print out at 40 inches wide.



this technique can also be used with 3d objects - check out dawn campbell's flower scans for some examples.

as for pt. 2 of this post... i'm hoping that in the near future i can try out another branch of scanography - using the scanner as an actual camera by placing a light tight box on the scanner with one of my large format lenses on the front of it. because of how the scanner captures images (with a moving bar) anything that is moving in the scene will be distorted depending on how it's moving.

take a look at this site for some examples (those are cars in the street on the bottom right).

scenes from the boston subway

did you ever see castaway? you know how a friendship grows between tom hanks and wilson, the volleyball? well, while we were in boston i made a friend kind of like wilson; he was hand drawn (with what i think was a light colored lip stick) on a tile wall of the alewife station of the boston subway (the "t"). i would pass this little guy every day when i would get off the subway on my way to work.

i first noticed him because of his simple shape - an arc, a straight line, a squiggle for teeth and two eyes. i thought it was pretty clever. i also liked how it was someone else's addition to the "established art" that already existed on the wall - the painted tiles (which i assume were placed there to break up the monotony of the brownish red tile-covered wall).



i also love how the tiles are all a little uneven - it gives the wall more texture.

i've included this detail from the picture just to give you an idea of how awesome the resolution is on 4x5 film.



there was just something nice about the porter square t station. i loved the big arching wall and the big pipes sticking out on the side. the next best thing about this t stop has got to be the absurdly long escalator. i swear it must go up like 5 stories. don't look down if you have trouble with heights!



edit: i just discovered that the escalator goes about 143 feet from bottom to top. and at an angle somewhere between 25 and 30 degrees that would put it at a total of 60 to 70 feet vertical rise (thanks pythagoras!). so i guess i wasn't too far off when i said it went up 5 stories!

nyc update

i took my long anticipated trip into new york city last tuesday, spent the day there, and hopefully will come out with some nice photographs. i started at the flatiron building, then headed down to battery park, then i walked across the brooklyn bridge taking pictures along the way and then finally ending up at brooklyn bridge park which has a great view of the bridge with downtown manhattan in the background.

i've sent the color pictures in to get developed and i'll develop the black and white stuff in my bathroom/darkroom soon. and as soon as i find a reasonable price to get them scanned i'll post some of them!

by the way, i was never stopped or questioned by anyone - but i'm guessing that was because i was prepared. if i hadn't gotten the permit i probably would have been stopped and told to leave!

a healthy dose of holga

for some reason i feel that the holga lends itself well to architectural photography. maybe it's just my own preference, maybe it's because the holga's plastic lens cuts out sharpness and detail and reduces objects down to forms, maybe it's the square format, who knows. whatever it is there's something unique about the way it captures architecture.

here's a dose of holga architecture photographs...


this is the foot bridge leading to the wells fargo building in salt lake city with one utah center in background. if you've ever seen this building and/or bridge at night it's pretty exciting - it glows this great shade of neon blue - it's not harsh, it's just nice and cool. i tried this same shot at night with the lights on but it just didn't work. the color detracted from the forms of the bridge.


the utah commercial and savings bank building was built in 1888 and has since been squished between the two newer buildings on either side. it makes me feel kind of sorry for it - hang in there little buddy!


looking back at the parking levels of the portland international airport i noticed the soaring framework above - i had to take the picture. i thought it was fitting for an airport to have such a lofty structure.


the southeast tower of the salt lake temple - nice day downtown at a wedding...