Pinhole Day at Photo Opp

I celebrated Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day leading a group at Photo Opp in Appleton. I've participated in all 24. I wonder how many others have submitted a picture every year?

All week long, there was an almost 100% prediction of rain on Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day for the second year in a row. They were right, but only about the first hour was really steady rain. Last year everybody stuck right around the venue, but this year they took off around Appleton. 

I chose the Variable Cuboid, starting with the 45mm front.

My contribution to the decor of Photo Opp and some merch on a shelf next to the front door.

With a name like John Adams, it's probably expected that you're some kind of founder.

To get in the spirit of the day and play with something I normally don't, I changed to the 114 degree wide 20mm front. John climbed up the scaffolding with a tripod. 

It's traditional to try to depict the conditions in your corner of the world on Pinhole Day. The trusty 99 Mustang (older than Pinhole Day) dappled with raindrops on a wet street with Photo Opp in the background.

 

I'm the guy who's always complaining about converging verticals with wide angle cameras, but thought this time I'd just lean into it. For me, pareidolia changes the picture entirely.

A stately home on the corner with tulip beds, leaning away from the camera.

After my sermonette on honoring every frame and approaching it as though you had to exhibit all twelve photographs, and in order to counter possible misperception by the participants of any pinhole-god-like qualities I might have, I must fess up to why there are only ten pictures from this roll.

I blew a frame not opening the shutter far enough with the tripod up on its tippy-toes, and got another blank frame in what must be an incomprehensible act of vengeance by the spirits of analog photography. But the pinhole Dude abides.

I grew up in South Bend, Indiana. My dad was working at the Studebaker plant when I was born. I walked to school on the road they used to deliver convoys of cars and trucks to storage facilities out of town. No surprise this truck down the block caught my eye. They also had a 1960's Lark but that was the photo that mysteriously vanished

Switched to the 35mm front.

Too bad Jacobs Meat Market and Deli is closed on Sunday. I could have used a sandwich.

A recently graduated and a currently enrolled Art student from University of Wisconsin-Green Bay came with their prints professor, who also participated last year. They had the sense to go out to lunch and take pictures of their waffles.

The bookcases full of cameras that have been donated to Photo Opp are on a not very well lit wall. The exposure was deliberately really long, at least 45 minutes. Several participants expressed surprise that it wasn't going to be horribly overexposed. That's not really a concept with a scene full of black objects on dark furniture.

A Digital Postscript.

Maybe I can make up for the short set if I show you two shots I did earlier in the day with Sarah's Nikon D750 and a hand-drilled .2mm pinhole on a bodycap.

A hand-held 10 second picture of Sarah's bed-side table as we reviewed the manual controls.

My insurance shot of the magnolia just in case, although I also still have a half dozen exposures from a 35mm Populist in addition to this medium format roll.

You'll have to check the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day gallery to see what I submit, as well as the other participants.

The 35mm front has a .25mm pinhole. The 45mm front has a .27mm pinhole.  Both are hand drilled and mounted on a moveable front with 14mm of rise. The 20mm front has a .20mm Gilder Electron Microscope aperture. The Kentmere 400 was semistand developed in Rodinal 1:100