As friends and followers of my Facebook page might have seen, my friend Kent Nunamaker gifted me a huge (and I mean the size of a small pet carrier) 8 x 10” pinhole camera. After some hiccups I finally got good results with this camera. The camera was built in 1993 by an unknown enthusiast, and even thought, the thing came with a lot of notes by the maker, there was no name unfortunately. The first time I took it to the Everglades was a disaster. It was very hot that day and I almost had a heatstroke. I shot 4ea. 8 x 10 inch sheets of film, chatted with some German tourists who want to know everything there is to know about that camera and pinhole photography, which was nice frankly, Sometimes I think I am much more of a people person than I like the admit.
When I developed the film the next day, it tuned out that all my suffering the previous day was all in vain sort of. Two exposures were way of the mark. Don’t know what happened, but I guess the almost heat stroke already did its job at that point. The other two sheets were correctly exposed but had heavy vignetting (dark corners), and there was evidence of light coming in at the back of the camera. The negatives had streaks at one of the edges. The official term for that is Light Leaks.
After closer examination, I found out that the metal plate with the pinhole came loose and moved around in its little housing. In the back, the slot for the film holders was not tight enough and light was able to finds its way inside the camera. Both problems were a little annoying, but fixable. Kent built me a new guillotine style shutter and added felt light seals for the back of the camera/ Everything works like a charm now.
2nd try
To develop the 8 x 10” sheets of film, I bought a so called “daylight developing tray”. Basically, a 11 x 13” or so tray with a light tight lid and a spout on one side. The spout has 3 baffles to keep the light out while still being able to pour liquids in and out. The baffles are removable for rinsing and drying. Did you know though that for these baffles to do their job, you must install them in the tray before you develop the film? Fine, I just add it to the list of everything that can go wrong in large format photography. It is a long list that seems to be growing and growing…….
3rd try
Put the camera on a tripod as always, walked in my backyard and made one exposure without to much though about composition or anything. I also estimated the exposure. I didn’t know for sure what the correct f stop (or hole size) was for this pinhole. I calculated that the ideal aperture would be around f/475- f/500 and that’s what I used in my exposure calculations. I didn’t care too much, and I just wanted something usable. Lo and behold, success!! No light leaks, no vignetting, and a perfect exposure. Now I can finally start thinking about making Salt/silver prints. I will tell you about that in an upcoming newsletter.
In other news, I started to write a new blog. It is a slow start, but I am getting there. I read somewhere that life is everything you didn’t plan for. Well, if that is true, I have a full and exciting life! I humbly ask for your patience. The new blog will get there soon!
In the meantime, feel free to visit rudyumans.com. Read some of the older blog posts and browse my store (click “shop) and leave a comment if you like.
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So long and have fun. Until the next time!
Rudy
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