this blog is going away soon....

Yes, it's time to put this one to bed.
I have had it for about six years and it's time to do something else...I may be back with another blog...but it might just be time to not be on the web for a while.

I'll still build pinhole cameras and make photos. I can't stop doing that, but I need a rest from the web and the web needs a rest from me.

Take care everyone. 
Fall is coming!
 

did I loose my touch?

It's been a while since I posted anything...no excuse really except doing astronomy, staying up late and just not making many pinhole photos.

This one is from my yard, and as you can see, it looks like I have forgotten how to spool on 120 in the developing tank.  I thought it felt a little bit kinked on the reel, but then thought it felt okay...it was not okay, thus the uneven development you see above.

You would think that as many rolls and for as long as I've been dunking film in developer, I would not kink a roll...ha! I guess not.
Anyway, onward and forward to the next adventure!

Here's another shot from the same roll and it's okay-ish.

I made it while walking down  a street. 
Film was Ultrafine 100 dunked in a lovely brew of caffenol for 8 minutes. 
Oh and the camera was a Holga that I pulled the lens housing off of and converted to pinhole. It shoots really wide, which I like a lot.

Table Waiting

My favorite table in Menard, Texas.
Ojeda's Mexican food. 
Pinhole, paint can variety, paper caffenol...you know, dunk, dunk and go!

I long for palm Trees

another matchbox pinhole...this one made in Corpus Christi, Texas...palm trees.

Matchbox pinhole...another favorite

Quarai...one more time

Another view of Quarai Salt Mission.
Leonardo pinhole, Delta sheet film, caffenol.

 

Salinas Pueblo Mission

Quarai Mission near Mountainair, NM. 
Delta 100 5 x 4 sheet film dunked in caffenol. It was a perfect day for pinhole! 
Plus I saw  a baby Bull-snake and some Yellow Rump Warblers. Oh and a ton of lizards! 

and so she goes.....

I spent a few hours with the Mona Lisa last Friday at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History." Da Vinci, the Genius" exhibit ends on Wednesday, so I went again before the show leaves. This time I took my pinhole camera and made this photo. It was interesting to stand in the Mona Lisa room and just watch people look at her, in her different versions. What was really interesting was seeing that people were drawn more to the smaller replicas of the painting, and not the uber large one in the middle of the room. I set my camera (a back to nature zero 2000) on one of the benches and just let it soak in all of the Lisas while people walked through the gallery. While the camera was exposing, two people sat on the bench and never noticed it or caused it to move. It was a good day!
Fuji Acros 100 in caffenol...I saved this roll for a special occasion!

Blind Wino Pinhole

trying out the Blind Wino pinhole camera made by the late Mike McCoy ...it makes 2.5 x 3.5 negatives in film holders, so it's quite convenient to use.

Looks like I had a leak on this one...the foam is past its prime for sealing the back, so a makeover is coming soon.

I like this little box.

It's well made.

Simply made too. 

I've been using my pinhole cameras without a tripod and just finding places to set the camera in situ. It's changed my pace.

It's less cumbersome and obvious to carry a tripod around, plus it's been more spontaneous for me to find things to set the camera on and let it do its thing.

that tree again....

It's such a poser....not really. I drive by it every day, so just need to do a portrait of it...I think it likes it.

Leonardo 4 x 5
Delta 100 sheet film
Caffenol...and so it goes again

pre-Columbian....

Chichen Itza-ish? No?

It reminded me of the pre-Columbian structure known as El Castillo and built by the Mayans...

It's the Art Museum for the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque.

Leonardo Pinhole, Delta 100 4 x 5 sheet film dunked in caffenol...as always.

Leonardo Pinhole

A friend in New York sent me her 4x5 Leonardo pinhole camera earlier this year because she said she never used it and didn't have time for it.
The Leonardo camera was handmade in New Mexico by Eric Renner, so it's kind of cool to have it back in its home state.

It's well made, and uses 4 x 5 sheet film holders or you can easily use a paper negative as well.
This one has a focal length of about 1 5/8 inches, so it's pretty fast.

The photo above was made with Delta 100 sheet film, then developed in caffenol. It's a good combination!
No meter...just "BE" the emulsion.


 

my sittin and thinkin place....

another sittin and thinkin place...I had planned on making this area available to guests that wanted a rustic sleeping out in my yard kind of experience.
However, ants have taken over that tree in the back there and it's taking me a lot of effort and time to make them move and to save the old tree from dying....we will see...maybe next summer it will be ready.

Altoids pinhole, caffenol.

Treescape 2.0

There's not much I can say about trees that hasn't already been said.

This one is right outside my window and it greets me each morning. It's a Cedar

Altoids pinhole, 2.5 x 3.5 sheet film dunked in caffenol.
 

Treescape

You know I love trees....

Newman's Own ginger Dragon mint tin painted black inside and then poked with a teeny tiny hole for pinhole adventures.

Arista 100 2 x 3 sheet film sloshed in caffenol for a few minutes and viola!

Simple pleasures, simple pleasures!

a hidden park...

An Illy coffee can converted to pinhole and loaded with 4 x 5 sheet film then dunked in caffenol.

This is McDuffie Park.
It's unusual in that it is almost a secret in Albuquerque. It is the length of a city block and only has access through a few entry ways beside neighboring homes.  Not the normal big public parking spaces....

nice and shady with a neat tiny library on a post. I picked up a pristine copy of Pillars of the Earth.

Pinhole the Pinhole

Yes, you read that right...pinhole the pinhole.
I went to Panera yesterday afternoon and took a little Newman's Own Ginger Dragon mint tin converted to pinhole with me.

I propped it against the big plate glass window next to my table  and let it collect photons of the street scene outside while enjoying a Frontega chicken panini and a cup of broccoli cheddar soup.
As you already know, I don't meter, I just pinhole and eat soup!

Here's the result. What's cool is that the pinhole of the tin is reflected in the glass and shows up on the exposure.  do you see it?
It's the little circle just right of center. 
Kind of like a little black sun, except not.

Arista photo paper, dunked in caffenol...the usual

There were sparrows hopping around under the tables outside while the exposure was being made.

Newman's Own Ginger Dragon Mint tin Pinhole

Yeah, say that a bunch of times real fast....

 

Sometimes I like the original paper negative print look right out of the can instead of inverting it...
Paper negative dunked in caffenol...you know my usual.

this was enough

It's always a challenge to make a pinhole  photo indoors. This one proved an extra challenge because I propped the little camera up on a railing alongside the plate glass window letting light in from behind it....

I don't meter. I don't own a meter except for the ones in other cameras.
With pinhole it's always just "be" the emulsion and expose until I feel like the film has had enough....

this was enough

I made some sawdust

In my cleaning out drawers and cabinets a few weeks ago...I came across a box of 2.25 x 3.25 film and a handful of film holders.
In order to utilize this cache, I decided to build a simple pinhole box, because you know you can never have enough pinhole boxes right?

The above is the first test shot out of it.

 And this shot is a vertical. I made both of these by sitting the pinhole box on the bumper of my truck...and as you can see I needed to aim upwards a bit. but bumpers being bumpers, there was no such adjustment.

I didn't put a tripod socket in this box and may not...I kind of like having it uber simple.

I'll post some pix of the box tomorrow.

Oh, the film was 100 speed Arista, dunked in caffenol for eight minutes.

Life and Lemons...

It's been a tough week...
I had two flats...at the same time, and only one spare....that was a challenge. All good now!

Then I stubbed my toe and tripped and fell and dinged my knee up pretty bad....I'm hobbling along, but getting better...

And the photo above was made in a neat little Zenit E camera that stopped working after I unloaded the film yesterday. 
(I took a short jaunt out to Tucumcari for a day, so that was a nice treat.)

Plus, I had the ISO set at 400, when in fact the film was 100 speed Agfa APX...so I gave it a little push in caffenol to save the day! 

Last Friday was the 13th, and although I'm not the superstitious type, this recent chain of events has caused me to wonder...  

have a great week everyone. Stay cool and thanks for stopping by.

the 4th

another year of independence....
this is too deep for me to even write about, so I'll just leave you with a quickie shot made out the window of my truck while cruising around last week...
Vivitar Wide and slim, (in truth, a clone version named Olive San made by Superheadz).
Kodak Tri x dunked in caffenol...you know, my usual...

 
 

Underwater in the Back yard...or how I found Atlantis

a silly somewhat perplexing title don't ya think?

I found an old Polaroid back with some Fuji instant film in it while rummaging through a drawer the other day and this is the end result.

Fuji no longer makes color instant film in this size, and I didn't pay attention to see what shot number this was and set up my pinhole camera in the back yard, put the film back on the camera and made this...
I don't meter, I just pretend to be the emulsion and wait, and watch and listen and wait some more, then when I feel like the emulsion has had enough, I stop the exposure.

When I first pulled the backing paper off and saw the result, and after realizing this was the last shot in the pack, it struck me as looking like it was an under water scene.

Which I like since there's not much water around here.

There are people that live just north and also south, and then east and west of me that haul water because their wells have gone dry, so it's quite a contrary thought of being underwater here....

the practice runs...

They say practice makes perfect.
I'm not sure who "they" are, but sometimes practice will make you crazy.

I've lately been dinking (scientific term for aimlessly experimenting) with artistamp sized pinhole shots.

They're made by hand cutting a piece of photo paper small enough to fit inside a 35mm camera. I have an old wreck of a Pentax k1000 I made a pinhole body cap for to do this.

It's a slow process because, it's load, expose, then unload, reload, expose and so on.  Not a fast process, but pinhole isn't fast so it suits me.
Here are couple of samples:

 
 This one was a bit overexposed so it solarized...this was on Harman Direct Positive paper, so what you see it what you get right out of the camera after developing. I use caffenol, so it has a slight stain to it.

Here's another one I over exposed and it kind of flipped out. I like it though. It reminds me of some kind of apocalyptic snowstorm.

this one is just a mess, but I'm putting here mainly so I can go back and retry it....

these are all small, just the size of a 35mm film frame.

anyway, a work in progress...to be continued.

lunacy returns...

the truth is, it never left!

I'm an amateur astronomer and often make photos of the night sky.
In the past, that has meant using my Pentax K1000 on a tripod to make quick snaps of interesting conjunctions of the planets with the Moon or nightscapes.
I've also made countless digital images of the Milky Way and star fields that I like to look at.

For the past few years I've been making what I call "loonies".

I hand trim a piece of Harmon Direct positive photo paper to fit in a 35mm film camera, then hold it up to the eyepiece of my telescope and make a lunar portrait.
They are each one of a kind since the Moon is an always changing dynamic body.
Harmon Direct Positive makes as you see below, a positive print. It's a favorite of pinhole photographers because it's a slow emulsion and eliminates the step of making a contact print. 

Load, expose, develop, and viola, a print as you see here.

When the Moon is near full, like it was last night, the exposure is one second long.
When it is full, the exposure will be 1/2 second.

Last night I made this one.

I like it. To flatten them after drying I stick them in heavy books, and sometimes forget one, so it's a great surprise to serendipitously have one fall out in my lap when I open one of those books and find a forgotten "loonie".
Life is good.!

Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim...again and again, I just like the little things...

So here I sit going through files and files of photos on my computer and realize that the Vivitar Wide and Slim is probably my most used camera along with various pinholes, Holgas, and of course my much loved disposables.

It's a simple little plastic box, with a single speed shutter and an uber wide 22mm lens. No controls, just point, compose, click, and you are done.
I like that! The photo above was made from the passenger seat.
Many of my shots are done this way because I like the feeling of the road passing by and making occasional snaps when I get the urge. 

Here's another snap made at a recent car show. For such a small piece of plastic wonder, the camera has a relatively sharp lens.

Another shot made from the passenger seat. This was one of those days I wished I'd loaded color, but black and white is my habit, and since I use home-brew caffenol to develop my films, it's likely to remain my first choice. 

Occasionally I get a shot that kind of makes me shake my head because it looks like it might have been made with a better camera than a simple box with a single speed shutter and no aperture control lens.

I could go on and on and load pages of photos made with the little Vivitar, but you get the idea. It's easy to love a camera that  needs no batteries and is ready at a moments notice to hit the road!

Trees

If you've spent any time at all reading this blog, then you know I love trees. I may not talk about them much, but they are an integral part of my photography.

I grew up in the piney woods of East Texas and spent countless hours walking, camping or riding horses in the woods there. 

We have beautiful forests here in New Mexico, but they are currently closed due to the extreme fire danger. It's the pits because I'm overdue for a good long walk in the woods.

In the meantime, here's a pinhole photo of some trees I know back home in Texas. 

Reality So Subtle Pinhole
Pan F film dunked in caffenol
 

First Days of Summer and a Black Sun

It's officially Summer, even though it's felt like summer for a few weeks...meaning it's been hot.
Summer is the perfect time for pinhole, lot's of good light and strong sunlight means stark contrast, and solarized suns like above.  

Photography rule books usually say to avoid noon time photography because the light is harsh, but since there are always exceptions and rules need to be broken, pinhole is just fine at noontime. Try it!
The above image was made with a Reality So Subtle pinhole camera in 6 x 6 format on some old Pan F film.
I really like this camera. It was made in France by aupremierplan on a CNC machine which I think is uber cool because it meshes a very old type of photography with an ultra modern way of making things.

It was developed in a homemade caffenol developer Delta recipe for 8 minutes.  

more disposable fun

This is the closest thing to a selfie I make... like most photographers, I don't really like being in front of the camera.

This was made at Prada, Marfa near Valentine. Texas.

 This is a funky art place...it's not a walk in store.

Behind the store is a wire panel fence that passersby have put locks on.

Maybe this should just be filed under strange things seen in the desert....these were hanging on the fence on the south side of the Prada building...when I passed by here a week later they were gone.

 Valentine, Texas is quite the metropolis....maybe for Roadrunners and horned lizards perhaps...not so much for people.

all photos made with a Rollei disposable camera I reloaded with Arista Premium 400 film and then sloshed about in caffenol for 8 minutes.

There Be Aliens in these parts...

It's always a pleasure to come upon random art out in the middle of nowhere....

 

Respectfully quiet and serene

Holga Wide pinhole with Fuji Acros 100
This old cemetery on a hill in nearby Cerrillos is one I think is typical of what an old wild west cemetery should look like, It's tucked away off the main road and overlooks miles and miles of New Mexico mountains. It's a nice day trip from Albuquerque if you like this sort of thing..

On the Way to Somewhere

Foggy pinhole dash photo.
Pinhole printed Flyer camera.
Fuji Across 100
Sloshed in caffenol for 8 minutes...my usual poison.

 

Alive and Well in the Desert

I'll always be a desert dweller, even though the dryness makes my fingers crack and bleed and my bones creak...it's where I like to be.
I made a little trip to big ol' Texas a few weeks ago and spent some time looking far south toward Mexico where the sky is endless and the silence goes on for a hundred miles.

I call these yuccas "witchdoctors" ...they just look so surreal and each one has a personality all its own.
Reality So Subtle 6 x 6 pinhole camera with some 100 speed Ultrafine film sloshed about in caffenol.
It's what the doctors ordered.....

The Road to Guadalupe

Besides pinhole and my Holga...I do love a disposable camera! It fits in my pocket, I don't worry about it getting nicked and it just feels right when I'm riding shotgun on a road trip through west Texas.
I don't worry about settings, or fidgeting with dials.
I just point and shoot. Freedom in a plastic box.
Wonder what Mr. Fox Talbot would think?

Vertical is the new Black

that's a ridiculous thing to say....

I'm in a funky mood, not coughing, feeling a bit of melancholy with the weather being a bit damp, and finding a dead rabbit in the front yard this morning...so it's been an odd day. 

Here's a wee photo of an alleyway in Cheyenne, Wyoming from last summer.
Shot with a disposable camera that I had reloaded with some tri x.
I like reloading disposables. it's work, but then no one is going to mug you for a cheapie crap disposable camera when you are out and about looking like a tourist...even when you are not a tourist.

This particular camera is a Rollei. Yeah! Fancy that! It was made in china like all the billions of other disposables out there but badged with a Rollei sticker and originally loaded with bona-fide Rollei film. 
Anyway, I don't judge. I just push the shutter button at things that I like.

 

Mint Watermelon

I'm not sure how (or why) marketers and makers of tea come up with such uncanny combinations...but it's really no matter since I wanted the tin to make a pinhole camera out of for Sunday, April 29....World Pinhole Day!

I think the tea can be used as part of a developing brew/concoction for the paper negative I plan to use.

I'll test it out tomorrow in hopes of being ready for the big day on Sunday.

The stuff does smell pretty good, I'm almost ashamed to admit. 

And...as far as the bronchitis is going...I'm on the other side of the fence with it now. Meaning I spend more time breathing like a normal person and not hacking my head off coughing as I have been the past weeks. Thanks for the concern! x