Building pinhole cameras is easy. Managing computer files is hard. After the third revision of the templates, I started a "Building the Compact Series Cameras" post, making a 30mm camera. When I got to the last step, the camera front, I discovered that when assembling the PDF from individual one-page Inkscape files, somehow I had imported an earlier version of the third page. There were many changes which made the camera a little wider and this old front was almost 5mm too narrow. Out of stubbornness and because I liked the inclusive feminist theme of the box, I went ahead and adjusted the already-cut-out parts and finished the camera. That made the pinhole opening, tripod mount, and the slots for the winders off center which required some cutting, patching and extra lightproofing.
The film reels were awfully tight when that front when on, but it loaded without trouble and the film advances fine but takes a hair more force than is preferable.
If I drill a pinhole too small for the camera I'm working on, if it looks good, I'll save it and try again rather than trying to enlarge it. It must have taken a few tries to get the pinholes for the Glenlivet Pair, because there was a .23mm and .22mm in my collection, optimal for this camera's 30mm distance to the pinhole.
We've had a weather pattern with lovely sunshine in the early morning, which became thick overcast by the time I got ready to go out and take pictures. After several days of this, I had to go downtown anyway, so set out with camera and tripod despite the totally diffuse lighting.
The back of the east side of the 200 block of Main Steet.
I was curious to see if the extreme wide angle would allow this geometric little bush to achieve Center of Interest status against the busy background. It kind of worked.
The slabs and columns of the hotel parking structure along the Fox.
After my comprehensive coverage of the inoperable Jackson/Oregon Street Bridge this summer (
here,
here and
here), you might like to see it carrying traffic again. The Department of Transportation just approved plans to replace it with a higher fixed span bridge in five years.
The bridgetender's house.
The expansion of space is always surprising when using a camera with a 90 degree angle of view. The tree reflected in the window is less than 6 feet away from the wall.
We had been to the Paine Art Center and Gardens several times recently and I remembered standing in the driveway thinking the back corner of the building would look cool with a wide angle camera. One of those sunny mornings, realizing the sky was going to change later, I got myself together early and went over there.
I've always wanted to photograph the dining and breakfast rooms of the Paine with sunbeams streaming through the windows, but by the time they're open, the rooms on this side are mostly in the shade. It seemed I might get the interior sunbeams from the outside. Not wanting to have my reflection in the window, I stepped aside during the exposure and ended up with the reflection of the white snow instead of my dark visage which made the interior visible.
The corner between the dining and breakfast rooms with just the hint of an interior sunbeam,
The porch behind the Great Hall.
Another try to feature a leafless tree against a busy background.
As I was walking around to the now partially sunlit front, I recognized the scene I had noticed on the previous visit. Maybe would have been better with the sun around this side in the afternoon, but that's not the way the weather has been behaving.
For a long time I avoided extreme wide angles because of the strong vignetting. I hardly notice it anymore. Maybe it's the semistand developing that makes the difference less extreme. I still have to burn and dodge a bit, but it's pretty easy to get a mostly uniform exposure across the frame.
The Diversity 30 has .22mm and .23mm hand-drilled pinholes, on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film is Arista.edu 100 semistand developed in Cafennol.
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