World Wide Pinhole Photography Day

WWPPD has become quite a big thing. Each year, hundreds (thousands?) of photographers shoot pinhole cameras on the last Sunday of April. Each person uploads a single image to the WWPPD web site, and it is a blast to see what other folks have been shooting.  This year, I had plans to spend a good chunk of the day doing pinhole shots.  However, the weather turned out to be overcast and drizzly all day.  Not the best weather for doing any kind of shooting, unless you are under an umbrella.  However, I was determined to shoot something besides an indoor still-life.  I loaded up my Polaroid pinhole camera -- it uses pack film, and is a former Tektronix oscilliscope camera.  I think I made it about 8 years ago, and removed the front part of the camera and replaced it with a new front and a pinhole.  Simple.  I am on the third pinhole iteration, and the current size is about right.   The film I used this time around is the Fuji 3000B - the 3000 ISO black and white film.  For a day like today, it was at the edge of the usable range, being that my exposures were between 2 and 3 seconds.  I could not have used it in full sun.  Certainly a good choice for indoor pinholery, though.

I managed to do some test shots outside the house to gauge my exposure, and then headed over to Parker Mill, hoping for some images of the flowing water at Fleming Creek.  Between the time I did the test shots and got on the road, it had started raining as a fine mist.  I soldiered on, hoping for the best.  Fleming Creek was actually flowing quite well, and the small island I often shoot from was surrouned by the creek.  I was able to hop over the overflow, and set up on the island.  The ground beneath the trees had been scoured by the high water of the previous week, and looked pretty interesting.  I was able to finish off the pack of film, but with the rain, my prints got wet, and though I had them in a box, some emulsion still got scraped while being jostled on the way back to the car.  So, if you shoot in the rain with pack film, carry a dry box to keep the prints in.    Here are a few shots from the day.