Pinhole Photography

It's quite amazing how basic a photo camera can be: a light-proof box with a small hole in one side (aperture) and - opposite to that - a medium that can capture an image (photographic paper, sensor). Thats right, no lens! Rather than me rambling about the technical details, you might want to read how it works on Wikipedia.

Despite the basic making of a pinhole camera, it is possible to get quite interesting and nice pictures out of it. This pinhole shot on Flickr (which was taken with a slightly more fancy pinhole camera) reminded me that I always wanted to make my own one. I'll let you know when this actually happens ...

Photo by Tom J. Hole, London, Battersea Power Station, 2009.

One can argue whether one likes the pinhole style or not, but one thing is for sure: considering the elaborate cameras that are widely available these days, such a back-to-the-roots approach is quite appealing. It reminds of how simple the principle of imaging actually is. Besides, I quite like the vintage look that comes for free anyways.

I'll try and dig out something else than a landscape for the next post, because it's also possible to shoot the slightly different portrait with a pinhole camera.

York PhotoSoc - Competition

This spring the Photographic Society of York University held a competition amongst its members. The competition was open topic and any kind of post-processing was allowed. A few days ago, the winners were announced on the society's website. Yeah! I made it to the top ten with a photo of Castle Howard on a foggy day!

However, I have got two other favourites among those top ten. The first one is this amazing shot of Jason Piper.

Photo by Jason Piper

I think it's well spotted and well done! The fact that the 'stuck' bus has got the number 13 gives it an extra bit of (unintentional?) mystique, and everybody who read the books that must not be named probably thinks Harry Potter.

P.S.: I'll post my second favourite tomorrow.