image of Monterey Wharf with 4x5 pinhole camera

Owa Moosa : Pinhole - Photography w/o Lenses

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pinhole at the shore line

Pinhole devoted to understanding, building and enjoying the art of making cameras without lenses, simple cameras with simple lenses, and images without cameras at all.

The 'classic' pinhole camera was the Quaker Oatmeal box with a sheet of photo paper inside. Alas, Quaker stopped making oatmeal boxes that were useful for this purpose. All is not lost though, a pinhole camera can be made from any light tight container with a small hole in it. A few daring people have even used their own mouths!

Why pinhole? Why not just use a 'normal' camera? They are simple, a hole, a container, a piece of film or photo paper. They are SLOW, exposures are seconds to minutes to hours to days long thus giving a totally different view of time itself. They are in 'focus' from near to far, essentially everything, from the bug on the ground to the distant mountains. The 'focus' is not sharp, but dreamy, surreal, of imagination.

Enjoy!

~ The next pinhole day is April 30, 2023 ~

All images and text (c) Chris Patton, owamoosa@gmail.com