first up, the amazingly talented and generous claire has donated five of her fabulous photos as prints in the cancer-hating etsy shop.
she is offering two of each five photos as 10x10 prints. they are all up in the cacner-hating esty shop. go check them out quick before her flickr contacts snatch them all up!
and secondly, i have taken the etsy plunge. introducing my handspun yarn shop, girl+sheep.
When I was a kid I dreamed of making a pinhole camera. I just always assumed that it'd be too hard so I never tried.
Then recently I saw an exhibition of Miroslav Tichy's and was completely blown away. This man made his own cameras out of things like cardboard boxes, rubber bands and bottle caps. His lenses he polished with toothpaste. Amazing. This of course made me start feeling the pinhole itch again. THEN I heard that today is the 10th Anniversary of Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, and I just knew that my time had come!
I found this EXCELLENT tutorial on making a pinhole from a matchbox and I took a deep breath and did it!
It was super easy and ridiculously fun!
Though we're having a rainy and dreary Brooklyn afternoon, I took my creation to the park and had the time of my life. Then I came home and developed my film and... well, all my images were overexposed and messy but I did manage to save a few:
Anyway, I am not disappointed in the least, I had a complete ball of a day and now I'll know better about exposure time when I go out with my pinhole friend again.
Okay, self-developers, now it's time for the tricky part! (don't worry, we'll get to the fun part next!)
If you've been following along, we've already gotten our supplies and mixed our chemicals. Now it's time to practice, practice, practice loading the film onto your reels. The practice part is essential because you'll be doing this inside the changing bag where you won't be able to see what you're doing (and once your hands are in there, you can't really take a break).
Here's what you'll need if you're using 35mm film:
1.The developing tank
2. A bottle opener (the rounded one)
3. A pair of scissors
4. The changing bag
5. Your film
If you are using 120 film, you'll only need the tank, the changing bag and the film.
You are going to have to sacrifice a roll of film to practice with. And I recommend that you do the process at least three times successfully outside the bag, then once with your eyes closed, and a bunch of times in the bag before you actually get started with your 'real' film. It might be monotonous but, trust me, it's worth the practice. Once you get the feel for it, it is very easy but it takes many times before you get in your groove.
I've been struggling with how on earth to properly show you how this process goes and was stressing over the fact that I do not own a video camera, but then I remembered the wonderfulness of YouTube and found a really great video that shows the process with both 35mm and 120mm film.
This guy does a great job of showing you all the steps. The only thing that I do differently is when I use 120 film I actually take the film off the paper first before spooling. Then I hold it on my left pinky whilst cranking with my right hand. Also, I don't bother rounding the corners when I cut off the lead of 35mm film either.
After lots of practicing, load the bag with all of the essentials listed above and get to work! You'll probably want to wait to do this with your real film until you're just ready to develop it.
Once you've got your film loaded up, we're ready to begin the developing process... I'll be back soon with the final steps. Exciting!
