goyablog

I am sooooooooo bummed. We started to develop some of the kids’ oatmeal canister pinhole shots and they are are way overexposed, to the extent that a slow, glowing, global light leak is likely the culprit. I just knew the cheap-ass oatmeal canisters nowadays would be a problem. The Quaker Oats looked flimsier than the Kroger generic, so I got the generic and painted the insides the black-duct-taped the outsides the best I could. However, a section around the shutter (which appears light-tight when checked, cannot be easily taped because of the shutter mechanism there. I think that’s the weak spot. Funny thing is, all three cameras checked out fine during the test shots, but the test did not include running around for many minutes in daylight with the film in the camera. We got partial images on the last two shots that were done late in the day and were not subjected to as much running around in the daylight. I’m sooooooooooo bummed–the kids spent a good two hours making the cameras and all afternoon having fun taking shots they really wanted to see. But, they still had fun doing it and it was a great day. We’ll try to salvage something from the mess tomorrow….

Today, April 25, is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day! In preparation, I made oatmeal box pinhole camera kits for the kids to put together on Saturday. They did a great job: measuring, taping, drilling their own pinholes, taking a test shot, and developing it (funky curvy shots with 5×7 paper negatives!). Seeing that it is just past midnight now I can’t do any (outdoor) shots myself, but we all plan to take our cameras out tomorrow, weather permitting. I’m sure we’ll get some shots of something even with thunderstorms in the forecast.  We can each then submit one shot to be posted on the official Worldwide Pinhole Photography website. Should be fun (maybe I can do an hour-long exposure during Mass….). I need have a few cameras to use: the iPhone Box (will use color 120 film in that), the Anyway 35 (3.5×3.5 paper negatives), Schrödinger’s Cat (5×7 paper negative), and the Crazy 8s (8×8). We’re also going to start a 6-month-long pinhole solorgraph with a little cam I made with a 35mm film canister.

I’ll post our efforts as I develop them. Hopefully we’ll have some selected for the Pinhole Day website.

Okay, need to sleep now; I’ll tune up my cameras later.