Bino as a pinhole

Happy Birthday Bino!!!

pinhole positives

Here are some of the final results of the pinhole workshops. We tackled with rain, wind and clouds (typical weather in Esposende), with long exposure times, sometimes even 10 minutes and plenty of patience. In the end, I think everyone was surprised and still a bit doubtful about the whole "take a photo with a tin can" thing.

I'm hoping to be able to do more workshops soon, in Lisbon and in Esposende. I'll keep you posted...  

pinhole negatives

fresh out of the box for your viewing pleasure:

tin can

shoebox

shoebox

small cigarette box

cookie box

pinhole cameras

The pinhole workshop is coming along great, everyone seems to be enjoying themselves in spite of the slight disappointment when some of the photos turn out blurry or just plain black. I explained them the principles of this alternative photographic technique and at first, no one really believed me... they had to see it to believe it. 

The museum's basement became our darkroom and I help transform cans, boxes, matchboxes and even one of the museum's trashcans into pinhole cameras with the help of black spay paint and lots of tape.  

The results are in their water bath and tomorrow they'll be dried and ready for scanning. 

diy paper pinhole camera

FACT: all great photographers used very simple cameras.

# 54 pinhole

While everyone else was embracing red carnations, holding up protest signs and singing Grandola Vila Morena, I was looking for the perfect spot to settle my pinhole camera. In Portugal, the 25th of April is national holiday in memory of the revolution, but for the rest of the world it’s International Pinhole Day.

Paper negative pinhole of the Avenida da Liberdade made with my tin can camera. (55 sec.)

 

Paper positive. The roundness of the can produces this 180º effect. This was my first shot and one of the most sharpest images of the whole afternoon.

The workshop was promoted by Movimento de Expressão Fotográfica who supplied the cameras, paper and darkroom. I brought along my tin can pinhole camera I had made about a year ago.

Pinhole is not new to me, but the cameras they supplied were extremely well crafted and hold medium format paper and I had never printed out pinhole images as big as these. I do have my very own pinhole made from an apple juice box which is always interesting to see people's reactions when I am photographing with it. Next I'm going to make one out of a match box. But my true goal is to have one like the ones we used during the workshop.
I had a great time and met some interesting people who are also very passionate about analogical photography, a rare thing nowadays...
  

Paper negative of the Comunist Party headquarters (where the workshop took place) made by a pinhole camera (1min 45 sec.)

Paper positive

Paper negative from tin can pinhole of the parade. The blurry effect are people walking down the avenue. (2 min.)

Paper negative with pinhole camera (5 min.)