Backyard Academy: Pinhole Photography

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Pinhole Photography

On Tuesday we are going to go to the Huntington Museum of Art and see an exhibit on Civil War Photography and Political paraphanalia. Now, *I* think this is really cool stuff. It's sciency, it's history related AND it's political. It's the Crystal Tri-Fecta.

The kids on the other hand? This has the potential to be really boring for them so I looked for a way to make it more interesting and make them feel like they really knew why what we were looking at was cool. I decided that we would build our own pinhole camera. So many of the tutorials that I looked at showed children doing it so I thought, "awwh yea,, I can do this"

How many times will I do this before I learn?

We DID do it and we got a few "picturelike" images so I'm saying that the experiment was a success.

Here's one shot that I have handy (the other I haven't loaded onto the computer yet).

It looks kinda "otherworldly" does it not? It was taken out our back door. No, not a masterpiece but really cool considering it was taken with a mentos tin and some electrical tape! (btw,, our camera looks really cruddy like a sardine tin out of which an alley cat would eat. The above picture is one I scarfed from Makezine.com)

If you'd like to learn more about the history of photography and how the pinhole camera came to be you can go HERE.

If you'd like to make your own pinhole camera there are many tutorials on the net but a really good one is the Mintycam found HERE (this is the one we made) and you can make your own pinhole "Brownie" HERE.

The best part about the one we made was that you take the film to Walmart to get it developed. You don't have to mess with Fixer and Stop and Developer and darkrooms. Our first roll was free because they thought it was a blank roll!!! Well,, it was mostly except for the shot above. If you like a challenge, I highly recommend this project! It's great for History and Science!

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Ok, is there any delicate way to talk about this? I mean,, ewww. If you need a colon cleanse I guess this link is just between you and the internet! LOL

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My Favorite Quotes

“Remember, write to your Congressman. Even if he can’t read, write to him.” - Will Rogers

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing what they could and should do for themselves. - Rev. William J. H. Boetcker, 1942.

"From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to selfishness;
From selfishness to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependency;
From dependency back into bondage. "

The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic
Alexander Fraser Tyler (1748 - 1813)

"Attention to all who enter here. If you are coming into this room with sorrow or to feel sorry for my wounds, go elsewhere. The wounds I received I got in a job I love, doing it for people I love, supporting the freedom of a country I deeply love. I am incredibly tough and will make a full recovery. What is full? That is the absolute utmost physically my body has the ability to recover. Then I will push that about 20 percent further through sheer mental tenacity. This room you are about to enter is a room of fun, optimism, and intense rapid regrowth. If you are not prepared for that, go elsewhere."

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
Ronald Reagan

"I am not a feminist, Hank. I am Peggy Hill, a citizen of the Republic of Texas. I work hard, I sweat hard and I love hard, I gotta smell good and look pretty while I'm doing it. So I comb my hair, I reapply lipstick thirty times a day, I do your dishes, I wash your clothes, and I clean the house. Not because I have to, Hank, but because of a mutual, unspoken agreement that I have never brought up because I am too much of a lady. "

"We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to Communism,but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses ofsocialism until they suddenly awake to find they have Communism." - Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev, 1959

" I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws, and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it"
Judge Learned Hand during WWII

"What a triumph for our enemies..... to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves." George Washington

"If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of potential -- for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never."
-Søren Kierkegaard

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