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.