Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

For those not in the know, today is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, and to celebrate we participated in a learning exercise creating our own pinhole cameras (partially at least) and then using them to make photographs at a friend’s art studio in downtown Columbus.

A group of six of us gathered at the studio where we were first treated to a slide show of other much more expertly done pinhole photographs to inspire us on what we can hope to achieve someday with a little more time, patience and experimentation. 

We then got to work on putting a pinhole in a piece of brass shim using a needle-like apparatus secured to an X-acto knife. Although I would have preferred just to gouge the needle through the foil, apparently you want to do this gently since it will affect the quality of your photo later.

We were then shown how to secure this flap to the top of our box to cover the pre-drilled circular hole.

Next we all went upstairs to the darkroom where we were each given a piece of light-sensitive photo paper to secure to the inside of our box, after which we taped our boxes shut to prevent any light leaks.

Then we all went outside into the daylight to find potential subjects for our photos. Since this was a learning experience for us all, we were each assigned different exposure times to better gauge how long to leave our flaps off. I was assigned 40 seconds whilst Andrew got a shorter time of 20 seconds, and the rest of our classmates had intervals up to 2 minutes.

It was advised that we set our boxes down and use the timer on our phones to get the time more exact, so we all spread out to seek inspiration. I decided just to try a selfie for my first go, and wasn’t disappointed with the results as I look almost ghost-like.

(negative image)

After everyone had captured an image, we filed back inside and squeezed back into the darkroom where we untaped our boxes and removed our piece of paper (while under mostly dark conditions with just a safe light to guide us).

The developing process was my favorite part, and certainly a blast from the past as we each eagerly awaited the results of our efforts. As is always the case, the results were a bit mixed depending on the exposure time and the subject chosen. No one seemed unhappy, so we all put a new piece of paper in our boxes and retaped them for another session outside. We did this three times – still with mixed results and some with very impressive impressions (not me though, but rarely am I ever the star student).

Andrew's second effort

At the end of the day we all agreed it was a lot of fun and decided not to wait another year before gathering to do this again, so our instructor is going to set up another studio session so we can get in some more practice. A couple of my classmates made plans to take their cameras with them on a future weekend escape. Andrew and I are going to make another pinhole camera out of an empty wooden cigar box I have. We’re also discussing tentative plans to convert our ensuite bathroom into a darkroom for occasional use.

Here’s a link where you can see the photos our group posted to the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day site:

http://pinholeday.org/gallery/2019/index.php?formType=list&f_action=refresh&countryName=United+States&provinceName=Ohio&cityName=&Country=United+States&Province=Ohio&City=

Here's a link to where all (3) of my photos (both in raw & processed format) are posted on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/authorwannabe/