Father - Son pinhole project...

[BradS]

My 10 year old son decided he wanted to do a pinhole camera for his science fair project this year. We followed the plans provided by Chris Patton (see: http://www.stanford.edu/~cpatton/ ). This is the first pinhole camera for both of us and the first year in three years of participating in the local science fair that my son is driving the project. He is so excited...and obsessed. It's a joy to witness his enthusiasm. We built the camera this past weekend and intend to go out and make some photos with it next weekend. Can't wait!

Well, just thought I'd share the excitement. There's so much to learn...

 

[micek]

Congratulations. My daughters view my pinholing as some form of midlife crisis...

 

[127]

How about following up, by making the prints using cyanotype? That way he gets to really "make" the prints too.

I've still got all this to look forward to

Ian

 

[eddie gunks]

have a great time. i just discovered pinhole photography about 2 months ago. i love it. i am having a great time with it. i have been shooting paper negs most recently. the paper allows for a bigger neg, and it processes very quickly. my latest camera is a 1 gallon paint can. http://www.f295.org/Pinholeforum/forum/Blah.pl?b-cc/m-1141660354/s-all/
have a great time. also check out
http://www.f295.org/Pinholeforum/forum/Blah.pl? for alot of great info and a very supporting a group of shooters.
eddie

 

[BradS]

How about following up, by making the prints using cyanotype? That way he gets to really "make" the prints too.

I've still got all this to look forward to

Ian

Cyanotype....that would be fun. I think we'll have to settle for ordinary silver-gelatine in the bathroom. Can't wait to see his reaction when the image appears under the red light (we don't have a proper darkroom kit yet).

have a great time. i just discovered pinhole photography about 2 months ago. i love it. i am having a great time with it. i have been shooting paper negs most recently. the paper allows for a bigger neg, and it processes very quickly. my latest camera is a 1 gallon paint can. http://www.f295.org/Pinholeforum/fo...41660354/s-all/
have a great time. also check out
http://www.f295.org/Pinholeforum/forum/Blah.pl? for alot of great info and a very supporting a group of shooters.
eddie

Eddie, thanks for the link. The pinhole never much interested me untill I found this gallery of photos of Morocco made with a pinhole

Brad.

 

[Aggie]

Brad , you can wax the paper negs and use them like you would a regular negative in an enlarger. All of it is fun. Also get some of the Freestyle Arista ortho film (cheap) and play with it. It also can be done in dektol. It will give you a positive, but it would be fun to display those on a make shift light table. Tap Plastic up in Concord is where you can purchase large sheets of thicker plastic. Get the opaque white about 1/8 inch thick. Set up with a stand to brack it. You can use those old funky heat lamps purchased at home depot as a light source to back light it. It is all very similar and the ordinary person's way of doing what they have done up at the Mumm Wine Gallery in Napa to highlight Ansel's few transparencies.

 

[BradS]

Brad , you can wax the paper negs and use them like you would a regular negative in an enlarger. All of it is fun. Also get some of the Freestyle Arista ortho film (cheap) and play with it. It also can be done in dektol. It will give you a positive, but it would be fun to display those on a make shift light table. Tap Plastic up in Concord is where you can purchase large sheets of thicker plastic. Get the opaque white about 1/8 inch thick. Set up with a stand to brack it. You can use those old funky heat lamps purchased at home depot as a light source to back light it. It is all very similar and the ordinary person's way of doing what they have done up at the Mumm Wine Gallery in Napa to highlight Ansel's few transparencies.

Aggie, Excellent idea! There's a Tap plastics up in Dublin too (a little closer to home for me). I've been thinking of building a monster light board...this is just the excuse I need to slip it by the accounting dept. here at home. (!) Thanks.

Brad.

 

[Aggie]

Aggie, Excellent idea! There's a Tap plastics up in Dublin too (a little closer to home for me). I've been thinking of building a monster light board...this is just the excuse I need to slip it by the accounting dept. here at home. (!) Thanks.

Brad.

Since your accounting department and myself get along, I doubt it would have been hard to slip this one by her.

 

[BradS]

Since your accounting department and myself get along, I doubt it would have been hard to slip this one by her.

Well, you are right - of course. It's just fun to give her a little guff once in a while. She took a job in the mall over christmas so she could get the employee discount on those fancy clothes and has stayed on. She's been the one spending like a drunken sailor for the past couple of months - which is a refreshing role reversal around the house.

 

[Aggie]

Well, you are right - of course. It's just fun to give her a little guff once in a while. She took a job in the mall over christmas so she could get the employee discount on those fancy clothes and has stayed on. She's been the one spending like a drunken sailor for the past couple of months - which is a refreshing role reversal around the house.

She's a jewel, be proud of her!

 

[Robert Kerwin]

My son did pinhole cameras for his science fair project last year. We just used a modified body cap on a 35mm camera and tried different sized pinholes to see what effect they had on the image. We also took some non-pinhole photos and compared the properties of the "lens" images to those of the pinhole images.

Not sure what the requirements are for your son's science fair, but be sure to delve into the science of pinhole cameras. Most school science fairs are looking for more than just pretty pictures and want the student to understand (and be able to explain) the science behind them.

I've been into pinhole photography for about three years and there's just a certain magic in making an image with a camera that costs practically nothing and has no lens. Hopefully this project will ignite your son's interest in photography. And don't forget about Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, April 30th. See http://www.pinholeday.org for more details.

 

[PhotoBob]

Hey Brad:
What a joy to read your post. It is great to be learning through doing.
My wife and kids are currently visiting my wife's family in Japan and in an email I received from my 8 year old son, he wants to help me some more in photography when he returns. I tell ya, kids are a wonderful blessings aren't they.

 

[k_jupiter]

Brad , you can wax the paper negs and use them like you would a regular negative in an enlarger. All of it is fun. Also get some of the Freestyle Arista ortho film (cheap) and play with it. It also can be done in dektol. It will give you a positive, but it would be fun to display those on a make shift light table.

Why? Is it direct positive? I thought most of the Arista ortho was standard Kodalith film.

tim in san jose (we have our own Tap plastics here, source of many homegrownphoto projects)

 

[Kerik]

The Arista ortho halftone supreme is not a reversal film. The Photo Warehouse used to (and may still) sell a reversal film that you can process in Dektol. It's a good quick way to make an enlarged negative in one step in the darkroom.

But, I digress... Brad - great project, have fun with it. My 11-year old daughter is becoming a pretty damn good platinum printer. She's using digital negs that I help her with (oh, get OVER it), but when she prints, she doesn't need much help any more. I also plan to teach my older daughter to print, then pay her to do some of my printing for me this summer. Beats the hell out of working at McDonald's!!

 

[BradS]

Thanks for all the positive feedback folk! Too many for me to reply to individually (I actually had to work **hard** today).