Instructor certification

 

In order to offer a Pinholica-branded workshop, such as the one at the Center for Visual Arts in Wausau this Saturday, the instructor must be certified both as a cardboard craftsperson as well as a competent pinholer.

This box turned up in a closet rearrangement, with silver and white type on a black field, exactly the size of the front of a 120 Populist. Back then, iPods were packaged in a huge foam block in a box, with a sleeve over that, so there was plenty of material. This will also be the first workshop with the new scheme of the shutters covering the entire front and back of the camera, so the template needed to be certified as well.

Besides the ease of taking advantage of the package illustration, the thick shutters provide a firm base to insert map tacks as viewfinders without worrying about pinpoints inside your camera.

First assessment completed. Now, to qualify both camera and instructor in the field.

I didn't even know there were buoys in Millers Bay until this one appeared on the shore. 

A common compositional recommendation to beginners is to take a picture of something, not just because a scene looked pretty, but here I am just struck by the light. For the past few years, I've been playing with using overexposed backgrounds to create depth.  A "conversation with light" maybe? Is abstract composition enough?

A more classical arrangement with a definite center of interest, which I just noticed one afternoon. At the Fox Valley Photography Group, this month's theme is Still Life. In the discussion, I pointed out that windows and sunbeams in your house make great light sources and that I'm surprised I don't see more pictures of domestic scenes because they seem to happen in front of me all the time. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Doesn't the sun shine into your windows? By the way, in French, Still Life is Nature Morte, but I didn't bring that up.

We've been continuing to have meals on the lanai, despite autumnal conditions. It's our response to a vlogger's soliloquy on how, after living for years in an unheated medieval building, she began to appreciate how her adaptations became pleasures. Overcoming hardships was making her a better person. Our record is 49°F.

There have been a few meals in the dining room.

The mysterious vine that appeared among the tomatoes turned out to be white acorn squash. It yielded three edible-sized gourds, but I haven't tried to cut one in half yet. Depicted here almost in situ in the dappled light in the garden.

Another attempt at the assignment, in the soft light on the lanai.

I recently received two checks for pinhole photography work and went down to the bank to deposit them. The person in front of me was getting a large amount of cash counted out, which took forever. I knew they'd be sensitive to a photograph inside the bank, but I wanted to document the involvement of art in the economy, and I was getting impatient, so I set up the camera. When it was finally my turn, I opened the shutter and approached the desk. The clerk informed me that filming was prohibited in the lobby. I replied that it was one two-minute exposure and everyone would be an unrecognizable blur. She went off to another computer and, after several minutes, returned with my receipt and asked that I not take any more photographs since it was a security risk, as the pictures would reveal the coverage of their CCTV cameras. I think I can identify where the cameras are, but I could have written down a more accurate description of the coverage area.

In August, the black Maserati I've photographed several times on State Street was replaced by a white one, but I ruined the exposure.  When I came by another day and saw the sports car parked there again, the black one had returned, but it didn't occur to me that it wasn't the white one I intended to photograph.

The completed William Waters Gazebo. I wonder what kind of programming will occur here. There's a small lawn in front with no seating, probably because of the current cultural expectation of carrying your own camp chair?

Facing a long wait for the printer at the Library while another patron struggled with printing from a restricted database, I set the camera on the wall overlooking the cheerful staircase.

When I returned home, this appeared before me on the dining room table. It seems another blogger has been around here.

The 60GB iPod has a hand-drilled .23mm pinhole 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film was Kentmere 400 developed in Caffenol.

This fellow does seem to be qualified to reveal all of Pinholica's secrets this weekend.

Antifascism on the Fox

The recent "No Kings" rally in Oshkosh took place on Oshkosh Avenue just west of the bridge at Rainbow Park. Lest you think this is some kind of woke conspiracy, it was located here instead of downtown because the Main Street bridge is closed and this is the next busiest corridor on the way over the Fox. The park is named after the anti-imperialist monarchy 42nd (Rainbow) Division, who came from this neighborhood in World War I. (Wait a minute, weren't we allied with two imperialist monarchies?) Stretching two blocks on either side of the street makes it hard to capture the scale, and even with under-a-second exposures, the busy traffic disappears.

If you didn't bring a sign, there were plenty of odious policies of the current administration to choose from.

 

The No Kings branding was mostly adhered to, but there were also some familiar photographs of someone (with his friend) who has absolutist ambitions, judging by his decorating choices if nothing else.

Some pretty conservative values were being promoted. Winnebago Indivisible, the organizing group, had sent out a tip about blurring faces so people wouldn't get doxxed. I told this couple I wanted to show how dangerous we could appear, but it was OK if they stayed behind the signs. He insisted on being identifiable.

Warms my little Peacenik heart to see a folk group doing the big hits of the '50s and '60s civil rights movement.

I asked these officers if I could document the massive law enforcement presence. One responded, "We can handle it," and the other, "Nice turnout." They were the only police anywhere visible. They asked about the camera and I explained pinhole photography. Everyone recognized I was taking photographs, but no one else mentioned the box on the tripod.

Many people expressed some kind of identity politics. This guy's hat referenced his Navy veteran status and on his hoodie, a wish for the president.

My favorite accessories and pun of the day.

The demonstrators did have some military equipment. This veteran responded to my gesture to move where I could see his shirt and posed proudly. In addition to leading chants through his bullhorn (I played "Blowin' in the Wind" through a bullhorn at an anti-Vietnam War rally), he later drove up and down Oshkosh Avenue honking the truck's extremely loud horn, initially soliciting cheers from the crowd but everyone was glad when he quit.

In addition to the Stars and Stripes displayed everywhere, there was a lot of support for people of Mexican ethnicity.

Will historians remember how this movement was identified with inflatable costumes? I had been going down the sidewalk toward the Portland Frog and met it posing together with three other inflatables. Hopefully, this won't be interpreted as a leftist lie to increase the numbers. I accidentally opened both the axial and rising pinhole. The shaded signs they were holding in the upper image made a perfect screen for the lower image so it looks like they're carrying their own self portrait. Captures a little of the zaniness.

As things were ending, the chicken and unicorn came our way and recognized someone. After a very funny hugging session, they doffed the heads to reveal people you might not have expected this silliness from.

There were a lot of experiences too fast for pinhole. During all this, at a complicated intersection with a left-turn-only lane and several islands, traffic was continually heavy, always stopped at the lights in one of three places. The protestors were in surprisingly close contact with passengers, either waving and cheering or grimly facing ahead, frowning. Very little defense of the opposition. Nice to see all the photos taken with lenses posted in all sorts of media, but I worry watching you run around in traffic where nobody is supposed to be.

The camera was the American-made antifascist Diversity 30, hand-drilled .23mm pinholes on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film is American-made Kodak Gold, developed in Cinestill's C41 kit, mixed and packaged in America. 

For this rebellious roll, I used The Force to determine exposures.

Variable Cuboid fields mid-range offense at Titletown

Emboldened by receiving first award in the Main Street exhibit at the Art Garage in Green Bay, after retrieving the camera and photographs, Team Pinholica, led by the Variable Cuboid, seized the opportunity to take on Titletown. The middle angle 45mm front got the starter's nod. 

Titletown is an office and entertainment development just west of Lambeau Field, the home of the Green Bay Packers, who've won 13 NFL championships, four more than da Bearss. Everything has a sponsor. In the middle is Ariens Hill (lawn care equipment made just southwest of here), a tiny ski slope on the roof of a retail complex.

Stereotypically of Wisconsin, there are two microbreweries. Hinterland, which really makes us sound rustic, was the first advance into their territory. Extra points here for photographing through glass with an effective defense against reflections of the bar behind. Everyone being seated by the hostess passed by the camera leaning on the glass wall. She asked if I needed something, but no yellow flags when I said I was just taking a photograph.

Rising to the occasion, up several flights of stairs for the over-the-top view, this time wide open on a mezzanine with no glass and no football fans.

It's a Hail Mary pass going for that up nort' look with the woodsy mural and iron chandeliers in urban sprawl Ashwaubenon.

After that first qualifying round, time for the big leagues. There really is no "back" to Lambeau Field but Pinholica leads with their typical "Behind..." tactic, combining "Hey, my camera has a square format" composition, an aggressive formation with the rule of thirds, and maybe a fake with a little paradoelia.

Under the bleachers. A little risqué for the straightlaced NFL, but an author/title joke should work in Titletown.

Well, this is an unusual format for a square shooter. With that continuously rising front, it couldn't be correcting for sliding open the axial instead of upper pinhole, so it must be an unforced shutter opening error. A lucky save by that rule of thirds. All the gates are also sponsored. As inconspicuous as its products, the Invisalign gate faces the side of the parking lot bordered by regular residential neighborhoods 100 yards away.

Time out on a shaded stairway to substitute the 60mm front. 

Facing busy Lombardi Avenue and Oneida Street, there's a little more pomp and depth to the presentation, which calls for more perspective compression. Plenty of parking lot to drop back into for the long view. An appropriately monumental staircase leading to a modern temple.

Rolling out that lean-the-camera-against-a-wall play again for the long stretch of the three-story Lombardi trophy, this time to avoid getting blocked by a passing fan.

In a vacant hallway outside the back door of the bar on the luxury box level, a risky standing switch in the changing bag to the 35mm front, to capture the expansive space of the atrium. Oh no, that rookie shutter error again. After exclusive play with side sliding shutters for the last season, we saw some practice with the old style up-riser for a few posts, but they seem not to be able to get it all the way out with the tripod at full reach. Relying again on a lucky balance of the composition and good grab of the light. No harm, no foul.

Bummer for the Pinholicans. Delay of game for jammed film! Panic on the field leads to a broken winder. They're gonna need a proper darkroom for that. Forty-five-mile penalty with no time remaining!

Futzing in the dark regains another frame for a team picture. Mostly to test that a new pinhole for the 20mm front isn't blocked by anything.

Trainer's report

 If the film jams, don't keep trying, you'll break the winder! This is going to take some Dremel and glue therapy.

The film jam occurred because of insufficient care and winding at the beginning of the roll! That crinkled film made it a little wider at the leading bottom edge of the film until new film just had nowhere to go. The film holder should be back in the game with the corners reinforced with a little Liquitex and some extra, careful turns when loading. This wouldn't load onto a Paterson developing reel, but it was easy with a classic stainless steel spiral. Started at the other end, it could have gotten on the Paterson reel, but it was in the dark and I didn't realize the extent of the crinkling yet.

From a problem a couple of posts ago, when looking into the tape blocking problems with the 20mm front, the tape was so near the pinhole because it was a .20mm Gilder Electron Microscope Aperture that's in a tiny, flimsy, 3mm copper disk. I destroyed it trying to improve the mount and installed a new hand-drilled .22mm hole in a piece of brass big enough to stay well away from the pinhole with the tape.

The 35mm front has a .23mm pinhole, the 45mm front a .27mm, and the 60mm front, a .30mm. All are hand-drilled and mounted on a continuously adjustable rising front. The format is 6x6cm. The film was Kentmere 400 semi-stand developed in Rodinal 1:100.

You call that wide angle?

 

My recent experiences with much longer than usual and a little shorter than usual distances from the pinhole got me wondering about going even wider than the 20mm front, which captures a 113-degree view. The Variable Cuboid is made to accommodate as short a front as 10mm. What is it like going into that frontier? I've actually made one exposure in a 16x20-inch camera that's almost that wide. I decided to take a more modest step and make a 15mm front, which would give a 127-degree angle of view. It took me almost all afternoon. It has a 0.18mm pinhole from my cast-offs, mounted in an extra-wide shutter opening so nothing got in the way.

The only camera I know of this extreme is Zernike Au's Zero 4x5 System, which has three sections so you can use it at several angles. The shortest is 25mm, slightly wider than my new front, but only in one dimension because of its rectangular format.

When I started making 6x6cm cameras, they were 60mm from pinhole to film. Moderately wide angle to a lens user at 53 degrees, it's whoppingly narrow angle in the pinhole community. My reason for avoiding the popular wider angles was because of the inevitable vignetting. The closer the pinhole is to the film, the farther the light has to go to get to the corners and spreads out more than it does in the center. With this 15mm front, it's over twice as far, which calculates out to four stops. If you've ever under or overexposed a roll of film by four stops, you know what a big deal this is. You'll just get the highlights, if any, at the edges, and the center is going to be overexposed.

I always expected, and saw a lot of examples, of bright circles of image which faded to black well before the edge of the frame. This is sometimes considered as seeing the entire projected image of the pinhole. I see it as not using the whole piece of film.

As I built wider and wider cameras, I found that this could be managed to a point. Firstly, by using semi-stand developing, which holds back those overexposed centers from getting too dense. Reducing the contrast when scanning makes sure it captures everything that's in the negative. If a little at the top and bottom of the histogram is lost in that process, it can easily be brought back to the full range. With 16-bit grey scale files, there's plenty of data to get a completely smooth JPEG. Then I quite liberally treat the image locally, dodging any detail in the corners, burning in the middle, switching between the tool's ranges, and recorrecting the brightness and contrast as necessary.

There are still the dark corners directing the eye to the center that is so prized by vignettophiles, but there is also a composition of the whole frame.

How much difference will another 14 degrees make? 

All except two of these are the entire negative, and those two are still wider than the 20mm. 

The entire Sunroom, from just above my head. The camera looks pretty high up, but I could reach it without extending my arm. Some photons make it to the edges, but mostly just the highlights.

It's no trouble exposing the edge if it's bright enough. Another thing illustrated here is how exposure and resolution are degraded because, from the edge, the pinhole appears to be a rather flat ellipse, further reducing its area, and flirting with serious diffraction. I've known about this forever, but it's still kind of a shock to see the actual difference diagramed like this. 

In the center, you can read the titles of the books. The handle and middle lock of the guitar case are nicely rendered, but the nearer one is fuzzy, and the corner is practically cloudy.

A scheme for handling vignetting is to find a scene with a dark center and bright edges. Under the archway with the dining room window to the left and the well-lit mantle to the right, this seemed like that arrangement. However, my poor human brain could not get the fact that the whole side of the house was in the frame.

Exposing for the shadowed side of the backlit arrangement on the lanai seemed like it could fill the frame.

To fill the frame with a close-up, you have to get really close. There was barely room to get my finger between the camera and the squash to open the shutter.

From the island in the middle of State Street, The Oshkosh Northwestern looks like a toy temple on a broad plaza.

Converging verticals are going to be prominent if you tilt the camera up. A rising front didn't seem worthwhile with this device.

The shadowed entrance with the better lit front windows seemed like the right kind of target. Another super wide feature is that any little deviation from perfectly parallel to your subject is going to result in exaggerated converging perspective.

I've never noticed these architects' credits on the First National Bank building. This is one of the cropped images, but only to level that window sill. Any deviation from level is also exacerbated by the wide angle, and I can't abide a crooked composition.

The patio at Beckets.' The last bit of fuzzy roofline at the upper left and the one on the right are parallel!

The white lanai barely makes an impression at the edges, but there's just enough detail to define the planes.

That patient and willing model sitting in for the comically wide-angle portrait. Really makes my already comically large spectacles look big. I should have gotten closer for the funhouse look. The camera was at least 10cm from my nose. That tiny sunbeam saves the left side of the frame from the oblivion of my shadow.

The 15mm front for the Variable Cuboid has a .18mm hand-drilled pinhole. The film was Ilford HP5 semistand developed in Rodinal 1:100.