Thoughts on pinhole photography

“Why take photos with a pinhole camera?” a friend asked.

This came to mind:

One – allow yourself to be out of control, at least to some extent.

Two – stretch time. It’s only after some waiting that you’ll see what you caught on film. Expect nothing and get surprised. Every time.

Three – be more present in the action of taking photographs. You can of course snap away happily every seven seconds or so, but you need a steady hand. Bonus: being more present applies also to those in front of the camera.

Four – bring out the child in you. Pose your camera to odd angles, often from the ground up.

Five – your photos are far from perfect. Just like our world.

3 responses to “Thoughts on pinhole photography”

  1. Totally agree. I wish I had done more pinhole work. I even think that restricting oneself to just pinhole photography might be an extremely powerful way to slow down and at the same time produce more interesting work!

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    1. j.k. pikkujamsa Avatar
      j.k. pikkujamsa

      Thank you Christian, I agree wholeheartedly. Besides, it’s so easy to carry around a small and inconspicuous cardboard box and a few rolls of film, I’ll just have to keep reminding myself of that!

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  2. Certainly! Here’s a draft reply incorporating your specified points and tone:

    Thanks, we sure are in agreement on that!

    I converted the body cap to one of my 35mm SLRs into a pinhole aperture, that way I could use one camera and the same roll of film to make regular and pinhole exposures. It’s such a convenient setup! I also really enjoyed making pinhole paper negatives with larger format cameras. Scanning the paper negatives and editing them in Photoshop gave me great results.

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