Adventures in pinholing

When I was young, my mother used to call me “Miss Fiddle Twiddle Pick Bang.” I lived up to that name this morning when in a fit of silliness, I pulled off the tension wire that was in the slow process of unraveling from my Zero Image pinhole camera. This, only after a few pointless moments of trying to wind the darn thing back around the screw that holds the pinhole cover lever thing in places (A).

Once removed, it became quite obvious as to what it’s purpose was as the lever pretty much flopped around. With no replacement wire in place and only minutes to spare before leaving the house, I fell back back on my standby fix it strategy and grabbed the dental floss. My first attempt had to be picked off with an x-acto when I realized that a too tight lever might result in wobbling the camera while taking photos. There’s a fine balance between smooth movement and stability. Sadly, I had not found it. My second attempt was far more successful and the camera had a quite pleasant minty scent.

George and I headed out into the wilds of Oakland to try and see how close we could get to the “AT-ATs” in the port. The short answer is “not very” given all of the necessary security required to keep us all safe from bad things happening. I’d pay money for a port tour and the opportunity to photograph the cranes up closed. Anyway, we found other lovely things to photograph.

Just after the brilliant “shopping cart as impromptu tripod” moment, my photos started coming out all white. Being not so bright, it took me two shots to realize that the screw holding on the pinhole/zone plate wheel on the inside of the camera had come loose and had fallen off. A pinhole camera with a permanent aperture to the outside world isn’t all that functional. Luckily, I’d stuffed a roll of black electrical tape into my bag and was able to cover up that little monster (B).

Tip of the day: dental floss and electrical tape can be your best friend.

25 April 2010     Photos, Words