Pinhole perspectives…a different angle.

You can tell a pinholer because he has to make some pretty drastic gyrations when he or she takes a photograph. He looks up… a lot! Diana’s 8Banners MF has a viewfinder which is almost pinhole heresy but it’s funny watching her try to use the viewfinder from ground level!

But, pinhole photographers look at the world differently than most photographers. First, we don’t worry about keystoning. You know that funny look when buildings appear to fall backwards? We actually welcome the effect. (Which only goes to show you how skewed our view of the world can get.) We also don’t worry about how we look when we are looking at a subject. We actually have to study the subject! That takes more than a few seconds like guys with digital DSLR’s.

We also don’t worry about subject movement. With “normal” cameras we can set the shutter speed as high as we need like 1/8000th of a second! Heck, we can stop a bullet! We like motion! It’s fun searching out subjects with moving parts like flags and trees and people. We capture the movement as an integral part of our work.

Yes, for my pro’ work, I use all the bells and whistles I can get since my clients are interested in displaying their products and not my artsy approach to pinhole photography. Actually, my daughter, who is getting married on 10/10/10 (congratulations Justice and Brian) actually thought I should shoot some wedding portraits with a pinhole. (I personally think my daughter has exquisite taste.) And I do plan on that. Can you say “Hold that kiss for about an hour while I make the exposure?”

(Brian Naccarato, incidentally, is now a fully inducted Italian because he had his first ever cannoli from Little Italy here in San Diego. He has now become a cannoli expert I am told.)

But my point is that pinhole photography requires that the photographer consider a lot more than just capturing images. We have to consider the entire image as it will appear later. Ansel Adams called it pre-visualization. I think that pretty well sums it up.

If you are new to pinholing, you will shoot a LOT of film getting used to the vagaries of pinholes. You’ll look at your finished prints and probably be deeply disappointed at first. You are seeing differently and that takes practice. Diana threw her first attempts in the trash with disgust. She has a great artistic eye so you know they had to be horrible. But, remember you are seeing from a different viewpoint with pinholes.

That difference gives you, I think a “leg up” on the rest of the world because you become a “tourist” again in your own backyard. “You can tell a pinhole photographer because he is always looking up.” Now what does that say about us? We see things from a different angle and I think it allows us to make considerations about life in general. We really do look at things from different points of view.

You can see more of my pinhole perspectives at http://www.kyotophoto.org/pinhole/gallery/index_e.html

I’m not sure it makes us better people, but I think it makes us slow down and make considerations about others we might not have made otherwise. It’s the Tao of Photography kind of thing.