NEW BLOG

If anyones still interested, new blog following my street photography work over HERE. Follow that shit!

FEW & FAR BETWEEN AUGUST

My pinhole work has been on hiatus as of the past few months, however I have been working on a body of street photography work. I will have three photos on display at The Few & Far Between this weekend, so if you get the chance pop down and check it out. Otherwise here is a link to my flickr where you shall find this work.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stringermm/sets/72157626079863636/with/5493016946/

CLICK HERE FOR FLICKR

IMAGES SHOWN AT THE PREVIOUS FEW AND FAR BETWEEN

EXHIBITION

Running from Friday 7th - Sunday 9th I will be showing a few prints at The Rag Factory in Shoreditch. All are welcome and there should be some great new talent to feast your eyes on. I'll be showing some new prints that you wont be able to check out on here, so there's your incentive to come along (as well as the free beer on Saturday). Check out the poster below for more details. >>>

DOUBLE EXPOSURE

This ones a double exposure as the title suggests. This was left for 6 days, 3 days in one position and 3 in another.

SPINNERS

Result of the can taped to the clock. Had a few teething problems with this. The heat of the sun over the past few days meant the duck tape unpeeled and stopped the can from spinning at times. However next time I'll be able to improve upon that shitty little piece of plastic I made from a drinks bottle at 2.30am in the morning. Pretty happy with how it looks though. 24 hour clock mechanisms in the post.

I'M READY

TIMEKEEPING

First post in a long long time now. Winter, exams and the theft of my computer put a horrible gap into this blog, yet summer brings more beer, more empty cans and an opportunity to make up for it. Here's something I whipped up in the past half hour.

This is essentially a quartz 12 hour clock mechanism with a beer can grafted onto the top. Meaning hopefully the beer can will spin one full rotation every 12 hours. The initial idea however was to use a 24 hour time piece, unfortunately this is still in the shop. Just an idea to test out, hopefully I'll get some results. Check back in a couple of days.

PANORAMA

GREYSCALE

The rain, cloud and a low arc has thwarted me. Time for a little photoshop.

LET'S MAKE THIS SHIT ROUND

I'M BACK

So a month is really a little too long. Thanks to moving to the city and lack of internet I haven't had the chance to post much. It's getting harder to capture the sun with the onset on Autumn, however I currently have one more from my new back garden in Brockley. Here I strapped three beer cans together so I got the same image with three slightly different perspectives. The last image shows a section from each can.

PLATFORM

My images have been published on the photo section of Platform.
If you are not familiar with the site then check it out! It's an online lifestyle and culture magazine.


"BEERCAN PINHOLE AWESOME FUN So the contents of a can of beer are pretty good for letting you escape your meaningless existence and enjoy an ethereal, fuzzy and lovely experience for a while, yes? Well the receptacle can now help you achieve that state too, photographically. Each of these photos were taken using nothing but your average beer can with a load of clever photo stuff inside – taken over the space of a few days at a time, these long exposure beer can cameras capture the sun and anything else as it moves through the day."
Words by Lewis Chaplin

MORE PHOTOS

NOTHING BUT SUN

Fail.

MUD, SHOOT!

These were taken along the Thames Path on the Isle of Dogs from the 30th July - 1st August 2009.

HOW TO...

Get yourself a beer and drink it. Then cut the top off.



Make sure you snap off the ring pull as its easier to seal up the drink hole this way. I generally tape up both sides, but as duck tape isn't really that light proof I like to place some thick card under the tape.



Now you'll want to make the pinhole. Generally the rule is that you try and make the pinhole as small as possible as it creates a sharper image. If you want to be more precise, then you can make a crude hole in the can and use some tin foil to get something more accurate. But I'm lazy and I think piercing the can works just as well and its not as fiddly. These are fairly disposable. Not something I'm going to worry about if some fucker comes along and rips it off a tree. Make sure you tape up this hole after you've made it though. That's going to be your shutter. When you've placed your camera out in the field you just peel the tape off to start the exposure. Also when you go to collect it, make sure you tape it back up to stop the exposure.



Now you're ready to load the can. I got myself a safe light off ebay for a fiver. It's shit, but it works. Cut the paper to size using scissors and make sure you leave a little room around the pinhole in case the paper shifts slightly once you've sealed it up.



Now tape the top back on. You're ready to go. Tape it to anything you can facing the sun and be patient. Give it at least a whole day or its not gonna work.

I STOLE THE SUN (for the very first time)

This one was in a field. My second camera caught the sun. Taken from the 25th - 27th July 2009.

LONG EXPOSURE TIMES

All I am using is black and white photo paper. I do not have access to a darkroom or any chemicals, I am just loading the photographic paper at night, however it does help to use a safe light which I purchased from ebay for a fiver. Because I'm exposing the photographic paper over such a long period of time, the images are visible on the paper without the need for developing. All I do is then scan the image into my computer. Photoshop is then used to invert the color and flip the images horizontally. Also due to the long exposure times, as you will see if future posts, the photo tracks the suns path across the sky.

TEST

This is the first photo I took using a beer can from my bedroom window. The exposure time was from the 22nd - 24th July 2009. This can saw approximately 23 hours of daylight. I've included the original scan also in this post (top), which was then inverted in every sense. I was surprised to get anything out of this at all.

PLEASE CLICK THE IMAGES BELOW TO VIEW FULL SIZE >>>

I'VE BEEN MAKING CAMERAS OUT OF BEER CANS!

Nothing but a beer can, a shit load of duck tape and photographic paper.
Please check back regularly as this is an ongoing project. Thanks for your time and I hope you enjoy viewing my work.