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05/06/2004 Entry: "better late - wppd04"

Yes, I did remember to take part in the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. As a matter of fact, I sort of took part twice. I was up nice and early for some shots at the Inner Harbor and had the film in the tank by late morning. Unfortunately I didn't notice that my developer had gone bad and the entire roll was blank. I took a few interior shots later that day and just got around to developing the film yesterday evening.

I won't be able to get to the darkroom until Saturday afternoon or Monday but the negs look good enough that the hardest part will be choosing which image to submit. I'm leaning towards printing one in Van Dyke with at least an 11x14 negative, so it won't be ready until the middle of next week unless I get in one of my alt-process obsessed moods.

This was my second try at using 35mm film in a medium format pinhole camera. Previous efforts were less than inspiring, with the film wandering from side to side across the frame, which made any compositional efforts pretty much dependent on luck. This time was much better. Besides using foam to keep the 35mm castte in place, I built up some tape restrainers on the take up spool to keep the narrow film in the center of the 6x6 frame. Others have used rubber bands for the same purpose but the tape let me create a perfectly sized gap for the film.

Not sure if I'll include the sprocket hole parts in the final image or print as a cropped panorama. The sprocket holes would work nicely as part of the "Holga aesthetics" and not be out of place in something as loose and informal as a pinhole image. Despite the random brushwork at the edges of my alt-process pieces, I do tend to like a nice clean and defined edge to an image, so it may well end up with the sprocket holes cropped out.

Since the film transport system worked so well, I'm definitely taking it along to Marion's Get2Gether for Maryland photographers and models this weekend. She wants to do some pinhole shots and I'm confident enough with the camera now to even try a roll of Kodak HIE infrared in it.