Pinhole To Go

June 2019. When my university retiree account disappeared with a new change in policy, the pictures I uploaded to this blog while logged into that account disappeared. I'm working on fixing that but it's going to be at least a summer long project. 

I do a lot of my photography while riding a bicycle around Oshkosh.  

This is the kit I've been going with recently. The back pack is the one that I carried to, from and sometimes around work for 10 years, usually carrying an iPad, several folders, often a laptop and a book or two and occasionally bits of audiovisual gear like mics, cameras and cables.  And of course, pinhole cameras. (I have a different back pack for groceries.)

It has two compartments.

In the small zippered compartment on the front (which always has this stuff in it) is: a Nikon body cap with a pinhole carried in a Sennheiser headphone case, a level that I should use more often, the extra bushings that came with my quick release plates in case I ever want to mount a VHS camcorder or run into a 3/8 inch tripod mount, a pen, a little pair of pliers if it happens that I need a little force turning a film winder, a roll of the divine 3M #235, two extra rubber bands, and a Swiss Army Knife I found in the gutter on Cherry Street one morning riding my bike to work. It has the initials PTG engraved on it which I'm just going to think of as Pinhole To Go

In the main compartment recently I've been carrying: a Manfrotto Compact Advanced Aluminum Tripod, the Moderately Telephoto Pinhole Camera in a Plain Brown Wrapper, the new Evil Cube, the Oshkosh Populist, and the slightly-too-small-first-attempt of the interior assembly of the Evil Cub template which I thought might come in handy as a preview device but which I haven't used. I'm pretty habituated to composing in my head and using the finders on the camera to get it where it needs to be.  Each camera has a quick-release plate attached.

I've learned a few things having all this stuff jumbling around on my back.

You may think the rubber bands on the cameras are just paranoia about light leaks, but they also have a function securing a camera in a backpack.  Despite the deliberate camera-design goal to secure the winders, I pulled the new Evil Cube out once and a winder was missing!  I also found a shutter open a couple of times   If you're going to toss one of these in a back pack, you should take some care to place the rubber bands so they're right up against the winders and over those collars, and pulled over holding the shutters closed. They need to be replaced occasionally when they lose their elasticity.

By far the greatest mass, stretched over 19 inches, is the tripod. My older tripod is an inch smaller and lighter, but I've become infatuated by the 12 extra inches this one gives me at full extension, not to mention that it's really strong.  It just barely fits when the flap is latched and it's important to tie the drawstring closed right around the head or physics can flip it right out at the oddest times or it can swing around and bash the cameras.

If you situate the tripod first and then make some effort to stack the cameras next to it before closing the flap, it's not too lumpy on your back, but on a sunny day it can get kind of warm.  I was out recently and was very comfortable otherwise, but my T-shirt was soaked under the black back pack.

In the past I've attached the tripod to the upper crossbar of my bicycle frame with a triple wrap of a bungee cord attached to the bottle holder on the lower crossbar. If I was only carrying one camera, I left it attached to the tripod and hence no need for a backpack. The problem was that the cameras got kind of beat up and the slightly greater length of this tripod leaves minimal room for a camera. I also got my hands whacked a couple times by that stretched bungee cord when it slipped my grip.

I could go back to this method for transporting the tripod. For the cameras and extras, a rack to attach my backpack to would work. My bike is a 1996 Timberlin Land Rover bought at Recycle Bike Shop in Kaukauna for $60 in 2007 when I realized if I had wide tires I could probably ride through the winter. (I was right, but I also needed a studded front tire.)

I went down to the local bike shop and found out you can't get a rack for a twenty year old bike.  The only options were an expensive one which clamped to the seat post that didn't look trustworthy, and one that attached to the clamp where the post goes into the frame, which on my all-year-round bike is terminally rusted together.

So my next idea was a bag that attaches to the handlebars with Velcro. There's a lot of options on the internet, most pretty small.  I ordered one that I thought, from the dimensions given, would hold at least two cameras. Well, it depends which two cameras. It wouldn't close with the Moderately Telephoto Pinhole Camera in a Plain Brown Wrapper, and the roll of tape wouldn't fit in the map pocket so it had to go inside with the cameras. Not ideal, but I could work with it...until the Velcro on one of the handlebar straps failed completely the first time I detached it. It didn't come off, it just wouldn't stick together at all any more.  I've never seen that.  Back to Amazon.

I had initially rejected the only larger handlebar pack because I thought it might be too big, but it seemed like the only alternative to wearing that backpack I had left. Being a reassuringly boring Schwinn branded product helped and I ordered it.

It is a little big, but it turns out it to be manageable riding with it mounted on the handlebar.  It easily holds three cameras, and on a test ride this weekend, I also got two pounds of Oaks Chocolate in there.  The extra little toolset fits easily in the smaller zippered pocket. I left out the Nikon body cap and the tripod bushings even though I had plenty of room. Maybe I could carry extra rolls of film. The bungee cord can go in the map window on the top. I've got to get a controversial bumper sticker to put in there.

It has a shoulder strap that comes in handy if you venture away from the bike on foot which stashes neatly in a little net pocket on the side.

Looks like I'm all set for some rollin' pinholin'!

The last picture done with the Evil Cube, .3mm pinhole 6cm from 6x6cm frame on Lomo 100.