My WPPD Entry

I am back from Amsterdam and had an unforgettable week there. I am still trying to process it all. I've been enjoying going through all of the photos I took. I thought I'd get back into my blogging routine by posting my submission for WPPD. Here is a shot of our group in the Jenever bar Inge took us to. This was exposed for about 30 minutes with my Zero 2000 using Ektar. It was hard to choose just one but I picked this one because for me the highlight of the day - and the trip - was meeting this fine group of folks. Pinhole people are the best! 

I'll write more about my trip in the coming days. I have lots of great photos to share. 

Alex wrote a great post about our day on his blog Pinholista. 

You should also check out the WPPD gallery from our group at the pinholday website. 

Candy Colored Sunbeams

Today's photo was taken last summer at another of my favorite places, Trillium Lake. I used my Zero for this and probably Ektar 100 but I haven't a clue how long it was exposed for. 3 minutes maybe? I remember my husband wandering up the path for quite a ways while I sat here in this spot. 

I LOVE what the pinhole does to sunbeams. Love the candy colored stripes. 

Sun, silence all around. No, no one around.

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This was taken at Bridal Veil falls in the Columbia Gorge, Oregon. This isn't the falls, just the creek that leads from the falls to the Columbia River. 

Also: this is another photo named by randomly choosing lyrics from the first song that plays on my iTunes. I am kind of having fun with this. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. This time it worked! The lyrics fit the scene perfectly. The song is one that I hadn't heard before, or if I had I don't remember it. It's called "Toe cutter/thumb buster" and it by a band called Thee Oh Sees. I know nothing about them except for this song, which is great. I have it on repeat in my "Current Faves" playlist. 

Camera: Zero 2000
Exposure time: 25 seconds
Film: Kodak Ektar 100
Pinhole: 0.18mm
Focal Length: 25mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: f138
Dev: C-41 by Lab
Scan: Epson V500

I'm feeling rough I'm feeling raw I'm in the prime of my life.

Oaks Park, Portland Oregon.

Oaks Park, Portland Oregon.

Having not had my coffee yet, I chose the photo title by choosing the first line of the first song that played on iTunes when I uploaded the photo. It was MGMT's Time To Pretend.

Today is my birthday and these lyrics are perfect. 

Camera: Zero 2000
Exposure time: 2 minutes 26 seconds
Film: Kodak Ektar 100
Pinhole: 0.18mm
Focal Length: 25mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: f138
Dev: C-41 by Lab
Scan: Epson V500

The truth is behind the kale and yogurt

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A few weeks ago someone on Facebook (I can't remember who it was now) linked to a tweet from someone else I can't remember. What I do remember is the tweet. It said (something like) "Checking Facebook has become the equivalent of opening the refrigerator and not finding what you are looking for."  I love that metaphor. Have you ever done this? Opened the refrigerator and stared into it and not finding that one thing that will make you happy? Isn't life like this sometimes? 

So this refrigerator metaphor had been on my mind for a few days when I decided to do a pinhole interpretation of it. Yes, I stood there with the door open for more than 8 minutes. I felt kinda bad about that. But it was for art. 

Camera: Zero 2000
Exposure time: 8 minutes 24 seconds
Film: Kodak Ektar 100
Pinhole: 0.18mm
Focal Length: 25mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: f138
Dev: C-41 by Lab
Scan: Epson V500

Sanctuary

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It has been awhile since I've posted on this blog! It is because I have been waiting for film to process. I've been shooting a lot of pinhole lately and I prefer color film when I shoot pinhole so that means relying on the lab to process it when I can get there. I like to save up a few rolls to justify driving into Portland to the lab. 

When I got these rolls back I was particularly happy with how sharp they were! One thing I did differently was using my finger as the shutter, as suggested by the folks at Zero Image. I opened my shutter and very quickly placed my finger over the hole then removed my finger, exposed the image, then replaced my finger and closed the shutter. I do this with my holga pinhole as well, except I use the lens cap instead of my finger. I notice a marked difference in sharpness!

This was taken at Bridal Veil Falls in the Columbia Gorge, Oregon. 

 

Camera: Zero 2000
Exposure time: 20seconds
Film: Kodak Ektar 100
Pinhole: 0.18mm
Focal Length: 25mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: f138
Dev: C-41 by Lab
Scan: Epson V500

Welcome to Narnia

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I went for a very foggy walk on Mt. Tabor in Portland last Monday and had lots of fun with my cameras! Here is one of my shots. I also brought along my new Canon EOS Elan ii. I am running a roll of black and white film through it to make sure it is working properly. I really can’t wait to see the results of those photos as well.

This photo, delightfully, has made Explore on Flickr. The last I checked it was #75. I know. I am a dork. It’s a nice ego boost. What can I say. It’s also nice that something other than over processed HDR makes it into Flickr Explore once in awhile. Power to the Pinhole!

Camera: Zero 2000
Exposure time: 1 minute 15 seconds
Film: Fuji Velvia 50
Pinhole: 0.18mm
Focal Length: 25mm
ISO: 50
Aperture: f138
Dev: C-41 by Lab x-proed
Scan: Epson V500

Cross processed pinhole

Exposure time: 16 seconds.

Exposure time: 16 seconds.

Yesterday, during a brief Facebook discussion on a friend’s status, I was pointed to this tip on scanning cross processed negatives by Herschel from Squarepegpinhole.com. I immediately needed to try it out on some x-proed pinhole shots I took last fall that I wasn’t super thrilled with.

The tip: scan cross processed slide film as positive and then invert in your photo processing software. I have Lightroom which is a bit tricky. A bit of Googling helped meand I was able to do this in Lightroom quite easily.

This was a shot that I wasn’t happy with originally. It was very over exposed and way too contrasty. I couldn’t even make out what it was, actually. I am pleased with how this came out! I am still not convinced that cross processing is the be all and end all, but it is fun to play with now and then.

Camera: Zero 2000
Exposure time: 16 seconds
Film: Mystery Fuji slide film
Pinhole: 0.18mm
Focal Length: 25mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: f138
Dev: C-41 by Lab – cross processed
Scan:Epson V500 – scanned as positive and inverted in Lightroom

"Sorrow drips through your heart through a pinhole..."

Those Death Cab lyrics have nothing to do with this post at all, but since I am on a DCFC kick and have been listening to their music lately and I love that song and it uses the metaphor of a pinhole... well. Why not?

I visited The Grotto again a couple of weekends ago! It happens to be an Atlas Obscura location so I brought my pinhole camera and had some fun.

I mentioned that I am fascinated with the way pinhole photography renders people and crowds and I am continuing to experiment with this. I am especially interested in self portraits using a pinhole camera. Since the exposures are so long I can insert myself for an extended period of time into the photo and then I become a ghost in the photo. The photo above is an example. Here are a couple more:

It is all very fun to see the expressions on the faces of the passers-by when they see a wooden box on a tripod and it's owner doing something in front of this wooden box. I don't think they know what to make of it at all. Most of them ask about the wooden box and I am always enthusiastic about telling them about it but they get bored and their eyes glaze over when I mention the word "aperture."

You can see a couple non-self portrait photos from this excursion on Pinhole Obscura.

And here is the video for the song "Marching Bands of Manhattan," which is completely bizarre. As music videos tend to be.

A Carnival is setting up outside my window

A carnival is setting up outside my window on a hot summer day. The purple, blue, orange, red flag that entice people to buy elephant ears flap gently in the wind and are beautifully back-dropped by the blue sky. The road is blocked off. they have taken over the empty lot next door  and the street. People have to drive through the library's parking lot to reach their destination. I wonder what kind of excitement I will meet in the coming days.

Nachos, Cold drinks. & Lemonade

A man comes into the library, asks for poetry. Shel Silverstein. He says he is a poet. He has a seat at the table next to mine and recites to me a poem that he wrote to a friend in her yearbook. It’s a terrible poem and I am annoyed by it. I have things to do. He then talks about the carnival. he works at it, works one of the games. He tells me how the carnival is fleecing the people in the town in which I live. He tripled the price of a light saber simply by turning it on at night, he says. He pulled stuff out of the garbage and made a necklace with it and people bought it, he says. we are basically selling people garbage he says. He recites another poem to me and, again, it is terrible. terrible rhymes and metaphors. but I am thinking about this man’s life and how it could be a poem. He tells me, “they took my brain out of my head when I was sixteen.”

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Three days later as I was driving across town I saw that they were packing up and the convoy of brightly colored trucks was on it’s way out of town. Off to fleece other people I guess.

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