Pinhole And Holga Photography

Totally fascinated by this story of Vivian Maier:

See more at Vivian Maier Photography.

Anytime I see old photos in an antique store I can’t resist them. And I wonder about who was behind the camera……

I recently borrowed this old TLR Pho-Tak from Lisa and brought it out to show Boo how Vivian Maier would have taken her photos. The TLR camera is held at about waist height and you can see the image through the hood on the top. It’s only in focus if you look at it from that distance:

I cut a piece of cardboard tube to attach to the end of my DSLR camera so Boo could capture what she was seeing through the TLR lens:

We could only take a few before we lost the sunlight:

“Mommy taking a picture of me taking a picture of her”

I love the grainy, flawed photos that result from looking through the old, scratched lens.

I’ve got to make the tube to the camera light proof…..and then we can play around with it more.

How to Make a Pinhole Camera (from a Jello Box)

What is a pinhole camera?

A pinhole camera is basically a light-proof box with a tiny hole in it. The film is exposed by uncovering the hole for a few seconds. (read more at wiki)

I’ve been wanting to make a pinhole camera for a while now with Boo…..to introduce her to film photography. I’ve shown her the iPhone method and when she was itty bitty I used to let her use my Holga camera with some spoiled Polaroid film I had. We spent the morning building the camera from scratch so she could see all the working parts.