For a long time, I’ve carried in my satchel a phone with a camera and a sketchbook. I don’t often sketch, if I am to be fair, but I do snap a picture when I see something that I find interesting. Just like you do, I reckon. What’s the use of the camera on your phone otherwise? (Bear in mind that I didn’t get a camera phone to catch cops being unpleasant) It’s handy; I began with a VGA camera so I can appreciate the 5 mega pixel on my current phone (and yes, I know that’s quite low, but it’s a phone, not a proper camera) Better still, it’s quick. Something catch your eye, take it out, snap, and repeat as necessary for a satisfactory output. And it’s the same with the digital camera. Take, check, put away.

Operative words here : take and check.

Recently, I’ve gotten interested in pinhole photography. So I got films, I got myself some materials, I spent a long time making a pinhole, I built my camera, I loaded and I started shooting.

Ah.

See, the principle of pinhole photography is that a tiny hole in a dark box works as a lens. Then you stick photographic film at the back of the box, open the shutter, et voila!

Sounds easy and it is. Except that since there’s no lens, there’s nothing to focus the light. That means that to make an impression, you have to go old school and count the seconds needed to expose the film. Some of you are probably very familiar with long exposure, but I wasn’t. So I am learning to wait and control my exposure times. This is a problem for me, because I tend to shake a lot. So I try to take pictures where I can set the camera down for a while.

That cover the take aspect. If you want to deal with the check aspect and you haven’t made a pinhole digital camera, then you have to fill the film up. So now, I am relearning how to wait to see my pictures. Again, probably very natural to many of you and also, part of the fun, but still. So yeah, I am relearning patience.

 

Isn’t it funny, how quickly you loose certain habits? I’ve only had a digital camera since late 2007. I remember taking rolls of pictures. I remember sending my rolls in to be developed. And I have never been a great photographer, so I’d take some pictures twice, if I thought I’d shook too much for the first one. Then I’d get them processed and see how well they turned out. I remember doing all that.

Perhaps I just need to be taking more pictures. As in just go around shooting everything. After all, that’s one nice thing about pinhole photography is that it requires you to wait at least a couple of seconds in the same place to take your photograph. So you don’t look at things the same way. You see more details, because you take the time to see more. And I like seeing all the little bits one doesn’t notice at first. It’s just hard not to see my pictures as I take them.