Experimenting at the March for Science.

In addition to trying out my new steel knee before I was officially allowed to by the doctor (it was fine), I decided a March for Science was appropriate to do some experimenting while I participated in the march.

One of my favorite pinhole photographs is a hand held shot taken by my son of an open air concert on the Boston Common, that has always reminded me of Renoir's painting Le Moulin de la Galette, and I've been intrigued by some of the work I've been seeing lately on Facebook by Kurt Norlin deliberately handholding images and using oversize pinholes.

In addition, if you're using a cane to walk, the last thing you need is to keep track of a tripod as well (although for years I used a tripod as sort of a stealth cane)

So I tried some hand held shots with the Populist. It was a sunny day so the exposures were only about a second or two.

The march began in Roe Park in downtown Oshkosh.

It's right next to the Oshkosh Human Services building.

I used the cane as sort of a monopod for some of the shots.

That seems to have been pretty effective.

It's not really an experiment unless you're comparing things.  So here are the three different treatments.

My standard technique of using the desktop tripod held against a lamp post. Not a really good comparison because I was reaching as high as I could get and had to keep from losing the cane with my other hand while I did it and couldn't get my finger I used to slide open the shutter out of the way.

Holding the camera against my face like it had a viewfinder.

And supported with the cane.

The Populist's sliding shutter isn't the best thing for this kind of work.  I'm thinking of trying this again when the summer Farmer's Market starts on Main Street again in a month.  I've been meaning to make a 35mm Populist with my new template, and I think I'll put some kind of swiveling shutter that's easier to open and close while holding it against my face.

All with the Populist. .15mm pinhole 24mm from 24x36mm frame.