About Me And The Pinhole Camera
My father was an amateur photographer. He had a Kodak Brownie 300 movie camera. It came with a light bar that had four floodlights. That got my attention toward cameras at an early age. It looked very important! My parents also had a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera as well as a little Brownie Holiday Camera. By the age of seven or eight, I was playing with the Brownie Hawkeye. Later on, the Holiday became my camera.
In 1962, at age eleven, I found my grandfather’s 3A Kodak Folding Pocket Camera in a closet. It was made in 1909. I convinced my mom to let me use it and 122 film was readily available at that time. Soon after I found a basic darkroom kit at the local pharmacy, and my real adventure began.
I began formal instruction in photography at a nearby University. In 1975, I received a BFA from the University of Texas Arlington. In 1980 I was awarded an MFA from The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in photography and painting. I taught for two years at The University of Guam, and then returned to Texas to pursue other things.
I have continued to work and “play” with photography using different types of cameras and processes through the years since. I’ve worked with 35mm SLR, SX-70, a 4×5” Pinhole camera, a 4×5” view camera, an 8×10” view camera.. The 4×5” pinhole camera was the most fun of all. It lended itself to experimentation and playfulness. It also made excellent photographs.
My work with pinhole camera has continued for 30 years with some lapses. This is explained further in working with the pinhole camera page.
My pinhole camera produces a wide angle view in the image. This image is captured on 4×5″ sheet film, so this is called a large format camera. There are many types and formats of view camera, and almost all use fine optical lenses. The pinhole camera is without a lens. Its pinhole is the aperture and it is tiny.
The pinhole in my camera is .02″ in diameter, and along with a 3 1/4″ focal length gives an f stop of f/163 (f stop=focal length divided by the diameter of the aperture (opening) The smallest f stop on most cameras have is f/64. This makes tiny aperture makes for a huge difference in exposure time.