Pinhole Wizard

The Glasshouse Entrance at Edinburgh - Coffee-can pinhole, Ilford Multigrade Glossy 5"x7" paper, Exposure for "15 Elephants" ;)

I am obsessed - OBSESSED I TELL YOU - with this most simple of photography techniques. Last night I made my own camera from an Illy coffee can. This complicated operation involved a pin, a can of matt black spray paint and lots of black tape. Highly technical.

Then today I popped along to the Edinburgh Pinhole Photography Festival (again) to take full advantage of their paper and darkroom.

This is about a 20 minute shot - 5 minutes wandering, a few minutes choosing a spot and sitting my shoe on top of the can to stop it blowing away in the gale, 15 elephants seconds exposure, then a 5 minute walk back and a few minutes as I see if there's an image there - Develop, Stop, Fix, Wash.

I scanned the resulting negative and in Gimp I inverted the "colours" and flipped horizontally. Then a little contrast adjustment, but that's all.

Tomorrow's (if it comes out) is about a 24 hour shot - I left with the camera loaded up for tomorrow's planned Belhaven shot. That'll be a single chance to get an image of the Belhaven Bridge on the way to work, with the moment of truth coming at lunchtime when I head back to the darkroom.

Fingers and toes crossed!