Mobile Home Haven

A refurbished box made into a pinhole camera...as it's always about the box ya know..

Ponderosa Mobile Home Haven
Central Avenue,
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Whiting Brothers

I'm very fortunate to live just a few miles off Route 66.  And while there are tons of scenic signs and lots of neon, I gravitate more toward the derelict buildings of a time past that are still hanging on.

The Whiting Brothers had over a hundred gas stations back when Route 66 was the thriving "Mother Road" across America, but went into decline when the Interstates bypassed some of the smaller towns.

My offering today is of a former Whiting Brothers gas station in Moriarty, New Mexico.  It's a tire shop nowadays, but the signs still stand proudly albeit more rusty.

2 x 3 pinhole photo on Harman Direct Positve Paper exposed for 75 seconds.
Marinated in homebrew caffenol for 4 minutes.

magnetic shutter

as promised, here's a couple of shots of the "Galiceno" pinhole with the shutter closed and then open.
I installed a tiny rare Earth magnet on the back of the shutter and on the face of the camera.

It acts like a pivot and keeps the shutter in place even when it's slid up and out of the way to make the exposure.

I don't know why I never thought of building them like this before.  It's easy and works so well that I don't want to make cameras any other way now.

The "Galiceno"

I built another small pinhole camera over the weekend out of rough plywood scraps that were laying around in the shed.  These particular leftovers were from a roofing project for our well-house a few years ago, so the wood is yellowed and aged a bit, plus it has some interesting knots and wood grain on it.
Lot's of character!

I built this camera to use 3.25 x 2.25 film holders so it's quite small.

Also, keeping with my habit of naming most of my homemade pinhole cameras after horse breeds, I call this one the "Galiceno".

If you wiki Galiceno, you will read  that  "The breed has good stamina, and a fast, ground-covering, running-walk gait, which is said to be smooth and comfortable to ride. They are strong, able to carry a person all day in heat and over rough terrain, despite their small size."

I like the "good stamina and being strong in the heat and rough terrain" characteristic, because that's what I need in a camera in the desert.

The camera has a focal length of f/217 and has an angle of view of around 60 degrees.

Using Harman Direct Positive paper ( I love this paper) gives me an exposure in the 75 second range (plus or minus depending upon what time of day or year it is) which is nice because I don't have to rush opening and closing the shutter.

The shutter is held on by a rare Earth magnet.  You can see the little magnet in the photo with the shutter off. I'll post a photo of the camera with the shutter on tomorrow because it looks pretty cool!

The photo of the old car was 75 seconds long in afternoon Sun and then the photo paper was marinated in home-brew caffenol for about 4 minutes.

Caffenol is my preferred "soup" for development these days.  It's quick to mix up and the ingredients are easy to find, plus it lends a nice stain to the paper.

Keeping it Simple in 2013....part 2

I mentioned in an earlier post that one of my goals for 2013 was to un-complicate my life.
Part of that quest involved selling off a few cameras and basically getting rid of some things I no longer use or need.

To date I have sold 3 cameras and let me tell ya, it feels nice to have accomplished part of my goal so soon!
Oh, and I gave away 2, so that's a total of 5 cameras out of my house.

My next task is to go through my closet and sort out the clothes that no longer fit or that just don't get worn for whatever reason and donate them to the local dog rescue (Enchantmutts) thrift shop.  This will make me and the rescue dogs happy!

In other news, I've been building a few pinhole cameras out of scraps in the woodshed, and might be taking orders in the future for some 'one-of-a-kind' pinhole boxes... Each box is custom built around a film holder. I don't have a pattern and just fit and custom cut pieces of plywood to make the boxes. They are ready for painting, staining, wood burning, decoupage, or just leaving "au natural".

Or I will randomly offer them pre-finished. I've been using rare Earth magnets to hold the backs on, so there's no fussing with extra parts or doo-dads that can break or get lost.

It takes about 3 days to build a pinhole camera because, well it just does. For various reasons.

Sometimes it's cold and I don't want to work in the shed, or it's just too nice outside and I want to feed and watch the birds.

I have a couple of Pinon Jays that like peanuts and one of them will take a peanut right out of my hand.  It's pretty cool to be that close to a beautiful bird.

This trumps making sawdust!
I was a birdwatcher long before I was a camera maker, so you understand where I'm coming from.

Anyway, check back here every so often for more news about my camera making adventures and soon I'll have one posted up for sale.

Who knows, maybe I'll sell one I already made...I am trying to simplify my life.

ruins among rocks

4 x 5  Palomino pinhole
Fort McKavett, Texas

following a train

5 x 7 pinhole
developed in day old coffee

while it snows

Today's pinhole is from another 5 x 7 that I recently built.
I gave the first 5 x 7 that I built (the Cinco Seven) to a good friend of mine.
I call this one the "Chestnut", and just like the 4 x 5 Palomino, I named it for a horse.
This pinhole photo is a 5 minute exposure on Harman Direct positive paper, marinated in home-brew caffenol for 4 minutes.  I really like this combo!  It's easy and is almost like having an instant print.

Shadows and Secrets

there is a house in Tajique....

I found this place on a drive south of my  place today.  It had a for sale sign in front of it, so I stopped by.  Not much left really except shadows and secrets.. sad really.

homemade  5 x 7 pinhole camera exposed for 2 minutes then marinated in homebrew caffenol for about 5 minutes.