Thinking retro

[JamesD]

My pinhole is a 4X5. One thing I've done to help make the pinhole more circular is turn a sewing needle into a drill. I take a micro-file (emeryboard would probably work too, but might take a bit longer) and file the tip of a sewing needle on both sides so that it's flat on either side. This makes a neat cutting edge. Then, I put the material I'm drilling through on a piece of hardwood (okay, I really just put it on the table, which is hardwood) and with gentle pressure, spin the needle between my fingers. If the material is substantially thick, I do both sides once the hole has made it through the metal, so that it lines up properly. This gives a bevel on each side, with a thin, sharp edge in the middle, which is good for pinholes. It does take a while, but it makes a nice pinhole, much nicer than simply punching through the material. Aluminum from soda cans works pretty well, as far as I can tell; I haven't been shooting much pinhole lately, but the initial results were nice.

 

[mysteryscribe]

I have a couple if tiny little drill bits... ONe is .0177 of an inch and the other is 1.5 mm I drill through roof flashing for a base. the soda can had a heck of an appeal to me though since I am out of roof flashing.

 

[terri]

James, we haven't seen any pinholes from you recently....come on and show us something new! Those first few were great.

 

[mysteryscribe]

This falls under thinking retro.

I saw a post in another thread "how often does a camera need service?" It took me a while to resist the urge to write when it's borken.

When I got into the business, it was buy a camera use it till it wont work then thrash it. Once a camera fails on me it is no longer considered dependable. When I can't depend it, it is gone.

My daddy had a saying, if you can't count on a tool all the time, you can count on it any of the time. Cars get two chances with me, cameras none.

I know dslrs are very expensive and require service, it's just a foreign concept to me pepsonally. My motto still is: buy it, use it up, then sell it on ebay for parts.

 

[mysteryscribe]

I'm winding down a camera build and going more than a little nuts with it. the camera is finished, but everytime I try to test it, I screw something up. Something minor to be sure but still, it is a stupid mistake.

I have recently gone from using two developers to making a single developer for film and paper. I simple combined the two and adjusted my times. When I decided to go all the way with it, I combined all the chemicals I had left about. However when I did it, I had four ounces of d76 left over. With my swiss cheeze mind thing going, I forgot about it. So for the last couple of days, I have been testing the camera and getting really strange results. Of course I am I thought I was using a hot shot developer and was instead using pute d76. Everytime I pulled something from the soup it was two stop under exposed. And now I know why.

So after lunch it is back to the drawing board.

 

[JamesD]

James, we haven't seen any pinholes from you recently....come on and show us something new! Those first few were great.

Aww... You're too kind, Terri. Just for you, I'll see if I can work a few in this weekend.

 

[terri]

Aww... You're too kind, Terri. Just for you, I'll see if I can work a few in this weekend.

:cheer:

 

[markc]

Going back a little bit, I disagree with you in what you refer to as "retro", and what that implies about working digitally. A lot of what you are complaining about is not because of people working with digital images. It is, however, a lot more common now, since even more people can get into photography even more easily these days. The ratio has changed. Since it used to take more effort, only people willing to put that effort in bothered with it. There were still people who approached photography quite casually, they just weren't as numerous.

Personally, I don't think the look of a lot of what's out there now differs much
from most Instamatic shots. A lot of people still use on-camera flash, wide angles, and auto-everything for most shots.

But working with quality in mind isn't a retro idea. It's alive and well in the digital age. It's just a bit more buried in the crowd, since so many more people are involved. (And Ansel Adams was one hell of a techie.)

 

[mysteryscribe]

Glad to have you reading...

Thinking retro isnt all about photography... it's also a bit about nostalga but bent toward photography. Some of it is a whine in the wind, and some of it is just sour grapes. I wish I was back working. It's a lot of ranting to.

Either way your opinion is always thoughtful and I think reasonable. I'm glad you bothered to read the thread. And forums aren't about seeing things the same. We are supposed to disagree now and then.

To me this isn't just about digital. Its about how things have changed since they wheeled out the film slr. Yes in the end days of film most people who bought the low end slrs had less and less technical knowledge. They depended more and more on the camera manufacturers.

That is probably the root of the technology can replace study, experimentation, and experience. If I buy a Nikon SLR, I don't need to do anything else. Didn't happen to be a digital in the 80s and 90s.

Digital just gets the rap as being the current fad. It does indeed go back to the numbers and it always will. Too many dollars chasing too little talent. Inflation is what we have here folks.

One of my now infamous stories. I went to a wedding once and a guest had a fancier camera than I did. He said something about being better equipted than me. I gave him my patronizing smile, and asked how many photos he had taken with his fancy new camera. He didn't even answer he just walked away. He probably still thought the camera made the photographer. Well it doesn't.

However, I return to what my first teacher had said, "If five hundred shots are made by guests at the wedding, one of them will be better than any of yours. What you can not do is make the 499 crap shots they make to get to it.

I concede digital is a catch phrase, but how many of the film types, who don't know or care about the craft, do you think are on this forum. If digital were to suddenly disappear and all of them were handed the latest auto everything film slr there would be only a few differences, a great number would stop shooting because they had to bother to load the camera. But basically things wouldn't change much.

You know a point you didn't make and should have is, how much of the ranting would I be doing if there weren't forums like this.

There wouldn't be as great an oppurtunity for us to see what others are doing, so I just wouldnt know. Then nobody would have to suffer with me either. All things are a two edged sword. Digital camera made a boat load of money for the mfg. It put a lot of people out there struggling to make better pics and both those are good things. But it also bred a generation of photographers who will only learn if you hit them over the head. The problem isnt them screw them, the problem is all the other new photographers they infect.

Okay maybe I shouldn't care but I think of all the photographers I have known in my lifetime. I am limited to which ones as most of us are. Mine weren't great by world standards. They were mostly just hard working average blue blue collar photographers, or pure artist types who happened to shoot pictures as well. When I think of then then think of some of the people who are carrying several thousand dollars worth of equipment, but don't seem to know what to do with it, it just irritates the hell out of me.

So just chalk it up to too much time and too few other hobbies.

 

[PNA]

mysteryscribe.... with no offence intended,

I’ve read through most of this thread, pinholes and all, and I’ve come to realize one common thought, you are an old man (and that’s from and older man) and you’re obsessed with the past, large format film cameras and your retreating memory; wahhh, wahh wahh.
You seem accept digital as a mechanical device producing pictures, but not necessarily the creative quality that it produces. At some point there has to be an agreement as to what photography is and what are great shots. I agree that there is a lot of crap out there, (yes I have an opinion) but rushing to criticism without offering honest instruction can not be productive. “They” are competing with each other. And I find that exciting.
The world of photography has expanded to everyone who has a computer and any kind of photo processing program. Granted most are snapshots made by proud parents of the kids, but to them it’s photography, and they’re into that "artistic mode". To deny anyone the satisfaction of creating a photo that attempts to rival the best, is to take away the inspiration, motivation and experience of holding a camera in the first place.
I too, grew up in the darkroom, but now find digital processing from capturing to editing an extremely rewarding effort. No fixer or developer to splash around, no drums to spin or red bulbs to change; granted the smells are missing, but what the hell. Change is here to change!
By the way I grew up with my dad’s box Kodak then graduated to an Ftn, F3, F5 over the years and now a D70. Digital and computer generated results are all new to me as to many others. Crap existed before and it will continue to be created into the future, thank God. Hopefully we will all benefit from the results.

I look forward to a response...........

 

[mysteryscribe]

Those are all good points. I even wrote a long post but decided what the heck, you get it or you don't. Being old has nothing to do with it, but most who get it are old....

As for my failing memory, I can only say, I forgot what I wanted to say sorry.

 

[PNA]

All in good form......

 

[PNA]

Furthermore, I neglected to express my respect to your extensive experience as a professional and gladly accept any and all criticism regarding my posted shots. In many ways your life as a photo pro is quite envious. For years I’ve said I would want to have been an airline pilot (I am a licensed commercial pilot) and second, a photographer for National Geographic. In the next life!

 

[mysteryscribe]

I would love to have been a combat photographer during the vietnam war. I was there with a petri 7s but not shooting combat shots. I did a lot of fun things since, but thats my regret.

The best shot I ever saw in every respect was a shot of barbed wire with bodies hanging on it lit by a willie pete shell.

It was full of emotions. Thats the one thing I hate about my photography. I could never quite get that kind of emotional response because my audiance was so small. The customer. Nothing grand in the stuff I shot. And of course I was a failed art photographer, by art I do not mean nudes.

Less I catch hell as a war monger ect let me explain about the shot. First the details...

Everybody knew that Charlie was coming to the dance, so this guy with stars and stripes set up a leica on a tripod looking out of the bunker. It was so dark that the only light was from the shells. He absolutely guessed at the exposure. You could hear the shell whosh through the air so when the whosh came he opened the lens on bulb and held it open till the light was gone. he did it over and over. while the men in the bunker sweated from the heat and the anxiety.

He took the film to Saigon to the stars and stipes darkroom where they worked for days on it. In the end the picture never ran. Somebody decided it was too gruesome. Too much a reminder of the **** death camps.

It was the most emotional photograph that I have ever seen. It's the kind of thing you go a lifetime and never make. That shot had a haunting ghostly quality about it. Everyone who saw it, said different things about it.

 

[PNA]

WOW...That's quite a story. Does the shot or a copy still exist?
I never saw combat, MD NG and summer camps so it's difficult to relate to war time experiences. Obviously you made it out alive and that's plenty to be thankful for. Vietnam was not good for anyone.

You look great with a farmers hat...your self-photo.