Pinhole

I was given a beautiful wooden pinhole camera just over a year ago - a Zero Image 69. Made from teak and surprisingly light to carry around, it's a versatile multi-format film camera which can be adjusted by a pair of interior dividers to give a range of formats: 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7 and 6x9. Although I had coveted it for quite some time, it took me a while to bite the bullet and try it out! My only previous pinhole experience was with one made out of an old biscuit tin and the results had not been a success so it was with a fair amount of trepidation that I shot my first roll of film.

It's fair to say that even with a precision made camera like this one, it takes a bit of practice and I'm only just beginning to get the hang of it. The main problem is getting the correct framing and timing - most of the time I seem to have over-estimated the exposure time a little and the framing is a bit hit or miss. I think the trick is to move in closer as it gives a very wide-angled result so it's easy to get in unwanted detail at the edges of the frame. I had imagined that the images would be a bit sharper - I have seen examples where the detail is pin-sharp but mine seem to be rather soft, though the depth of field is there. This combination of softness and depth of field creates an unwordly, ethereal effect which I rather like. The magic of photography in its purest form - produced by what is little more than a box with a hole and some film! 

I haven't printed any of the negatives yet so it will be interesting to see how they compare with the scans. I have plans to take my pinhole camera on an outing soon but in the meantime, here are some examples I took last year......

2012 R.I.P.

A postscript to my six of the best of 2012.  Here are six of the best of my ongoing project In the Midst of Life from the last year. The series is an investigation into memorial customs and rituals which reveal our attitudes towards death and the notion of oblivion. A cheery memorial to the year just past......

The best camera....

.....is the one you have with you, or so goes the oft-quoted saying. There is certainly a good deal of truth in this mantra, but in my case I suspect I've been using it to justify my reliance on my iPhone Hipstamatic app as my phone is of course always with me! At the last count, I discovered I had 15 cameras in the cupboard, many of which have not seen the light of day for 2/3 years or longer. There are both digital and film cameras, sundry lenses and two plastic bags of film in the fridge. The list includes 2 Nikon digital SLRs, a compact digital Leica (abandoned in haste on purchase of my iPhone!), a Fuji Finepix, a Mamiya RB 67 medium format (the beast), a Hasselblad medium format, a Pentax ME Super, an Olympus OM1, a plastic Holga and Coronet Flashmaster, a Polaroid Image System, a couple of autofocus old style film cameras dating from the 70s, and of course the ubiquitous iPhone. So plenty of scope there for carrying a different camera with me from time to time!

I have decided to blow the dust off some of these cameras and put them through their paces over the next few weeks. This may involve a bit of relearning of old techniques, especially where the film cameras are concerned. But I hope that it will prove to be useful, and if nothing else, I will get to use up some of that old film that is taking up room in my fridge.

First off, the Hasselblad, which to be honest, has not been gathering dust as I have used it quite a few times over the last year, but not since early summer. I took it off to Highgate cemetery last week to shoot a roll of black and white film as part of my ongoing series In the Midst of Life, a project examining memorial customs and traditions. Highgate cemetery is the last of London's 'magnificent seven' cemeteries on my 'to visit' list (more details here). I processed the film myself and scanned the negatives, but plan to go into the darkroom next week and make some prints. We are so used to viewing our images on computer screens these days, that the qualities of a well-made print can easily be forgotten.

The Hasselblad is relatively compact for a medium format camera and can easily be used without a tripod. It is a joy to use with its waist-level viewfinder, simple operating system and pin-sharp lenses and the square image is probably my favourite format. Working with medium-format film cameras makes you slow down - there is no in-built light meter so you have to use a hand-held one and of course, no checking to see what you have shot as with a digital camera. I usually only take one roll of film with me (12 shots) so try to make sure that every one counts.  Here are some of the results.....

More from the series can be seen here