A Statistically Odd Cluster of Events

My calendar is generally an expanse of blank squares with an event every week or so. A statistically rare cluster occurred recently, with a week of daily events, two on some days.

The first was the formal installation ceremony of the new Chancellor of the University. When I got the invitation to retirees to march in the academic procession, I casually asked Sarah if she knew where my robe and hood were. She knew exactly where, but it took some digging into the deepest corner of the closet to get them. I never marched at commencement while I was working (I used to do the PA and record the speeches in my youth). It sounded like an odd experience to try. I even wore a suit that I had only worn previously to pose for a picture. I was skeptical I would be able to take any pictures, but ya never know. Fast Portra 800 went into the piercing gaze of the EyePA 30.

Some of my robed former colleagues probably would have been willing to pose, but not without drawing considerable attention to myself. However, after we had stood ready for the procession for ten minutes with another five to go, I asked permission to step out of line to get a photograph.

Immediately following was a public reception. The offerings were not bad for food service catering. Most of this exposure was taken up explaining what I was doing to the fellow in the green shirt - a biology prof maybe. I had to end the exposure when I smacked the camera gesturing.

I joined my Art Historian friend, and she introduced me to the Gallery Director, who teaches History of Photography. As we talked about Julia Margaret Cameron and our feelings about working in the darkroom, I pointed the camera and opened the shutter. She watched me and didn't mention it until the exposure was over.

I don't think Chancellor Singh chose the narrow, dark passageway to greet visitors; he probably just got stopped there, and people piled up to talk to him. There wasn't going to be any better opportunity. Maybe I would at least get his brilliant Golden Turban floating in a misty crowd. It turned out that most of the moving well-wishers in dark coats didn't reflect much light, or stay long enough to block it, leaving the stationary Chancellor relatively well rendered.

U Club occurred later that night, but I also had to take a guitar out to Heid Music, and forgot the camera.

The exclusive gathering at Photo Opp for Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day.

The next night was University Open Mic night. Here's my entire set. Pretty strange bunch of highlights from the few remaining bits of chrome hardware on my guitar.

The next day was the weekly underground jam in Hortonville. I made an exposure, but it was ruined by an accidentally opened shutter while trying to haul a guitar, amp and tripod around at the same time.

That evening, a three-session planning event for the Oshkosh Area School District began, which I was triggered into attending by the current political climate. Everyone who registered was sorted into tables to include a broad range of voices in each group. Mine included a high school art teacher, a middle school principal, a mid-sized business owner, a parent of students, a retired education professor I had sat on many committees with, and a retired school bus driver. 

It took place in the large multi-purpose space at the front of the new Menomonee Elementary School. Every effort was made to highlight the achievements of students. During registration and while we ate the contributions of local restaurants, the High School Polka Band played. For an inevitable team-building pep activity, we all stood up and clapped along to a public education-themed parody of a polka, which we were reassured had no reference to beer. In the back corner of the room, I tried to take the opportunity to hold the desktop tripod above them against a column, which kept slipping around. I quit when I noticed the shutter had come open for most of the attempt.

I gotta increase the drag on those shutters, i.e., slide a bit more cardboard behind them.

The music the next evening was provided by the High School Jazz Band. There was a spot for the tripod on a table right in front of the band, and an explanation for the surprised women whose shoulder appears at the right.

Then a two-day break with no place to go. Oh, that magic feeling.

No high school band on Saturday morning for the final session of the school planning event. I had been outed with my pinhole cameras during a discussion on the Arts, so I brought the full-size tripod.

Tables were combined for the final deliberations. It was a very interesting event. I was rather surprised that MAGA didn't appear at all. Critical thinking and evaluation of evidence, and diversity, inclusion and equity were prominent themes. There was an emphasis on private-public partnerships, not only for internships and learning opportunities, but also to fund special facilities and programs, which our businessman participant said they were eager to do. Wouldn't it be easier just to pay some taxes and let everybody decide what to do with it?

My calendar is completely clear now, including basement band practice skipping a week, but back at it with a workshop in Wausau in two weeks. During all this interaction with other humans, I got to talk with a lot of people about Pinhole Photography and how a volunteer might get involved doing it with students, at the University, the school district and the Boys' and Girls' Club. I hope someone follows up.

The EyePA 30 has two .23mm hand-drilled pinholes, on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The Kodak Portra 800 was developed in a Cinestill powder C41 kit.

This always happens at the end of April

Central Street has experienced great trauma in the past year in order to improve the infrastructure under it. Our Merrill Magnolia was often the center of drama as brutal, gigantic machines wrent asunder the earth and concrete. It had two large branches torn off "by accident." (Actual quote from one of the contractors after they left it on the ground without mentioning it.) The roots were severed within a meter in three directions and trod over by worker and iron for months in the fourth. The street paving contractors crudely argued it needed to be removed.

So the least I could do was load a camera and capture it's brilliance blossoming in the spring. Not quite the exuberance experience of the recent past, but a very welcome recovery. It's now successfully putting out leaves to eat plenty of CO₂ to recover, as long as those heroic roots can give it water. The city has planted eight youthful trees along the block to keep it company.

An inadequate attempt to capture the backlit view as you walk by under it. 

One of the torn-off limbs remains in the back yard and made a valiant attempt to blossom, which it couldn't complete. The bud was rather violently shaken by the wind just as I opened the shutter.

And then it was Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day.

A long and heavily promoted event, for both analog and digital practitioners, was planned at Photo Opp in Appleton. No one registered. I had shot my mouth off promoted the idea that you could just show up with a bodycap, and I would make a pinhole for it. That made me obligated to go up there in case droves of people arrived to discover digital pinhole. No one came.

Responsible Board Member and Potions Master Char Brandis was there with me. Fox Valley Photography Group colleague Giles La Rock came with a new 3D-printed pinhole front for a Hasselblad Film Holder he wanted to test. Andrea, an artist from Oshkosh, also came unexpectedly for the analog option and got a very personalized experience from Char and me. She did some very cool photographs. Somebody finally listened to me that they probably wouldn't be close enough.

Everyone got prepared and was off. I found myself alone in the building, by the available light of stained glass windows in the expansive nave. I had brought along the Tiltall-clone Star D tripod I had bought at the Photo Opp sale last summer, which extends to two meters. With the camera that high, with the upper pinhole, all of the front wall could be captured with a level camera. Tricked again by the wide angle, much of the ceiling was also included. There are two strange mergers. The great oculus window hanging by a wire from the ceiling, and perched up in the niche, my curious halo, as I selflessly review submissions to the Pinhole Day gallery.

The basement by available light.

The window light in the kitchen with a foreshadowing of the next frame.

The tripod is a very well-used specimen, and the screw into the camera tends to come loose. Not that big a problem out of the wind as long as no one touches it, but an attempt to wind the film will twist it crazily and require retightening the camera. Somewhere along this process, the shutter reopened and recorded this crazy sequence as I struggled to advance with the camera on the unreliable attachment. 

I went outside for a classic architectural rising front picture with the tall tripod. Again fooled by the 90-degree view, and a bit of the sky has been cropped. The super wide-angle and the slightly less than vertical pole holding the lights give it a bit of a Looney Tunes aspect anyway.

The bowing awning stand and the mural seemed worth a frame. It's a little to the right of what I intended. 

Again, my severe paradoeilia has been triggered, and the right wall appears to be quite shocked at what's going on the left, or is that just a political metaphor? Bricks are always fun in any event.

Another double exposure which this goofy light stand joint seems quite amused by.

I don't know why this reminds me of Man Ray. If I ever give a lecture on Composition, this would be a good example for repetition of form.

And the Sun sets on another Pinhole Day.

I still have frame of color film to look at before I decide what to submit for Pinhole Day. You'll have to check to find out. If you took a pinhole picture on April 26, don't forget to submit it before June 30.

La Paquet Trente has two .23mm pinholes, on the axis and 11mm above it , 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film is Kentmere 400 semistand developed in Rodinal 1:100.

With a cherry on top.

In their first workshop ever in 2023, Photo Opp of Appleton held a gathering to celebrate Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, which has continued each spring. Pinhole Day this year occurs on April 26th. For the fourth time, I invite you to use one of my cameras to expose a roll of film, and develop and contact print it. 

For the first time, if that doesn't suit your style, if you bring a bodycap for your DSLR or Mirrorless camera, I will drill and install a pinhole for it. ASP-C SLRs do OK, full-frame SLRs are not bad, and mirrorless cameras are incredible. 

Sign up for the analog part at Photo Opp's website ($40) or just show up with the body cap from 11-5.

This makes me a little obsessive about providing reliable cameras. I recently held a similar event with ten high school kids, but still have that nagging concern that there might not be enough cameras. This, combined with a Cricut cutting machine, has led to a series of new Compact 30 cameras. I decided to use all 30mm, 90-degree cameras because that's what people expect from a pinhole camera. There'll be a few longer cameras available if you're curious about that.

Le Paquet Trente and The Badgersette I've written about before.

Most recently, I made three cameras at the same time to learn if there would be any benefit to scaling up parts making. It does a little bit, but I made them in spurts over about a two-week period, and customized the placement of the design, so I'm not sure if it was better than just doing them one at a time.

The red KitKat Ice Cream Bar and the blue Drumstick cameras were film-tested at the No Kings event last month.

The last one was made from several varieties of Häagen-Dazs ice cream bar cartons. The cherries are featured on the front because I liked the illustration.

Here's the test of that one. It was loaded and sat around for awhile, until this time-stamped sunbeam occurred one afternoon.

At least a 1:1 macro of some little orchids.

Occasionally, a winder breaks (@#!%&!!?!) and the little tab has to be removed from the spool. I needed a particularly narrow pair of needle-nose pliers to accomplish that. The beading pliers by itself was not in stock at Michael's and required a shipping fee. This set of five was in stock for only twice as much and included some nifty calipers to measure things.

Nobody likes it when a tomato gets lippy with you when you're peeling it.

A bouy by the bay.

Gnarly roots next to where I left my bicycle.

The interesting sky is what led me out. They have installed a wind-indicating banner atop a flexible rod on the dock in Millers Bay. In my series of protest events, flags were always interesting time-smeared elements. I knew a black flag in front of white clouds was more of a challenge than white on a darker field, but tried anyway. I made several placement adjustments and waited for consistent wind that might hold the flag in place. It seems I opened both pinholes for an over-and-under double exposure. Looks like it might have captured the flag OK.

Better luck with three flags at one time, a few meters down at the boat ramps.




Navigational aids.

The last remains of the ice shoves.

The geometric stairwell and elevator shaft on the side of the Water Treatment Plant.

The neoclassical boulevard of Washington Avenue.

The Cherryo has two .23mm pinholes, on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film was Kentmere 400 semistand developed in the same old bottle of Rodinal, 1:100.

Still No Kings

Despite the continual presence of small groups of protestors all over the country, declaring a nationwide event can motivate a movement and make the news. There were two No Kings gatherings in Oshkosh.

In the morning, Winnebago Indivisible organized things in Rainbow Park.

That was supposed to be the table for Shirts and Destroy, a local print shop that I have to give a shout out to for giving away T-Shirts and well-designed signs.

Big signs for the big issues from the organizers.

The representation of inflated costumes was a little lower than in the past, but they were still around. Or somebody has installed Pokémon Go on my pinhole camera.

This sign held the text of the First Amendment, which is practically a dare to get out and disagree with loathsome behavior.

This activist was happy to pose with her No Kings crown, which is a pair of sunglasses that would have been difficult to wear with her warm chapeau. It was below freezing in the Fox River wind.

There were several dogs in attendance. Two others would only show their south sides when facing north, but Cody turned and held this three-quarter profile.

One theme was that an election is not license to have everything decided by one madman and a reminder to his wimpy enablers how the process works.

I waited a while for the light to change. Just as it turned red, this hood-scooped pickup with a loud exhaust sped toward the intersection and braked hard to stop, drawing an audible gasp from the protesters. I only heard about one MAGAt rolling down the window and spewing invectives at us.

A miniaturized Portland Frog.

A colorful assessment of who ICE is recruiting.

Utilizing a Wisconsin resource to get your message a little altitude.

My friend Kathy Donnelly handing out voting information cards.

 

After noon, the scene shifted to Opera Square with Peaceful Patriots. The more confined space made the crowd seem larger. That's Shirts and Destroy there again in the lower right corner.

Crowns and markers for your own slogan. I can't carry a sign and a tripod and decided earlier not to cut out a crown with my Cricut cutter because it's a No Kings rally, but if everybody's a king, that's different.

This drummer has been refusing his permission for me to photograph him, which I honored until I saw him very clearly depicted in a YouTube video. I don't think I've invaded his privacy. In a public demonstration, that First Amendment gives me as much a right to report his presence as I would have if I noticed the President was mentioned more in the Epstein Files than anyone else.

It doesn't take much of a hint of spring to bring out this sort of outfit. This is one of my favorite photographic mergers recently. Doesn't it look like he's holding a tiny sign? It's actually a rather big one, several meters behind him, which just happened to line up with his hand.

Several groups performed atop the sundial. The Singing Resistance Fox Cities "rise up together and connect in song!" although there's a little more bite to their signs and lyrics than their folky music might indicate.

An objective of the national organizers was to include an activist fair where people could connect with the groups who are struggling with the issues we're protesting against and make the movement a little more continuously active. The ACLU was giving away ICE-alert whistles. I had to look up the association of the BANanas.

Other than being a prime number, it took me a second to remember the significance of 8647. Then I noticed the Cheetos. I showed them my Handmaiden photograph from last summer. They didn't know who it was. Kind of weird interacting with them through the veils that just barely revealed their shadowed faces, only illuminated by that dim red light.

A theatrical group. I suspect the purple door has some metaphoric allusion to a less polarized future. The shark's character was identified as ICE.

Uncle Sam blasting with a matching red stadium horn.

Another drummer with a kit was fine with being photographed. He's actually sitting still in the photograph, just gesturing with his hands while talking to the camera-shy drummer, who's just out of the frame.

There were a lot of people who were also at the morning event. The woman with the Peace Symbol was on the snow pile earlier, now joined by this union promoter, both of whom really validate my choice of color film.

Confiteor

It may seem I'm an altruistic documentarian, but I happen to be film testing several cameras that I have been obsessively making for the Pinhole Day activities at Photo Opp. One camera for the morning and a different one in the afternoon. I got the on-axis pinhole a little in the wrong place on the second camera, and every frame had about a 15% blockage at the bottom of the frame. All of them have been cropped quite a bit. Did you notice?

Both cameras are Compact 30's with two .25mm pinholes, on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film is Kodak Gold 200 developed in a Cinestill Powder C-41 kit.

Once again, in order to resist the evil empire, I relied on The Force to determine all the exposure times.