One Thousand Words

While a picture may be worth a thousand words, pictures often need some explanation especially in news/journalism and documentary as an example. The quality of the caption is as important as the quality of the image. Sometimes the caption is all the "viewer" has. This would be true for visually impaired people for example.

Find two images with captions (look on news sites, arts sites, national geographic as examples). Paste their captions as a comment to this blog. Include links to the image (but not the image itself). Be sure to have the caption text as part of the blog.

Hindsight is 20-20

So, we've spent a big chunk of time creating and attempting to use a basic pin-hole camera. As many of you noted in your blogs the purpose of the project was to give you a basis for understanding all cameras. Any camera, no matter how complex comes down to ... a light tight box, a hole that lets light in, a shutter to block that hole and open on demand, and something to capture the light/image.

Spend a few minutes and answer the following.

1. Was this a useful project? Why or why not?
2. Would you recommend this project to be used for next year's class?
3. What would you recommend being done differently to make the project more useful?
4. Would you like time to try again, or are you "done with pin-holes"?

The Pictures

Here is the picture taken Saturday night with one of your cameras (camera slightly modified). I arrived at this result after a couple of hours of making an attempt, and immediately developing the picture to see the result, changing what I was doing, and trying again. This allowed me to vet out where our process was lacking, and zero in on an acceptable (if you want to call it that) exposure.

I scanned the print, and two versions of it are presented here, can you explain them?

Two images of the commons. One image is a direct scan of the print and the other one is modified. What's the difference? Why does one look funky? How was the second made?

It emerges

Another hour or so since the last post and I'm watching my final exposure as it spends its 1 minute in the developer solution. Joy! An image emerges. Not a very good one mind you ... but you can tell what it is. I needed to prove the process would work and that the pin-hole cameras can actually take a picture. Now we have some images including at least one successful one to talk about on Monday. A few hours of work and now I know basically what it will take for our cameras to work, and what might get in the way of a successful image. The best thing about being a teacher is how much I get to learn!

So, heading home with my proof of concept, I get a call on my fire pager for a motor vehicle accident. I've just spent the past hour dealing with that. Welcome to my life.

So, when you're in class listening to your teachers ... think about what goes into each lesson they prepare. Sometimes it's hours of work and a ton of missed sleep!!

I'll get the photo up tomorrow.

Will it work part du...

Ok... it's Saturday night (well, really Sunday) at 1:30 AM. I developed all of the pin-hole exposures. I see something that appears as if it may be a genuine subject in ONE of the shots. Most of the exposures are black. Since these are all negative images (since we skipped the film step which is usually the negative image), black means light. Pitch black means too much light. Our discussion Monday will be, "Where are all the points in our process that light might be hitting our paper ... either when it should, or should not be". I've done some tests and found some errors in the process and some places where it's ok, but on Monday we'll discuss.

For about the past hour and a half I've been using a couple of the pin-hole cameras trying to get a picture. In that time I've found some issues with the cameras and I THINK taken one picture that showed two lights in the ceiling of the commons. Right now I have both cameras taking 10 minute exposures. There are so many factors, even in these simple cameras that go into getting the right shot.

On the plus side, the chemicals are working, the amber light is working, I utilized an enlarger to produce a print from a negative to confirm that the paper and process was all good. We essentially have a working dark room.

On the negative side... I discovered the Senior candy-for-a-dollar stash. Three dollars and a bag of Fritos, a Kit-Kat, and box of junior mints later, I feel a little sick!

On another negative side, I have to be up in 7 hours for the Hope Island Fire Department barbecue fund raiser and still need to prepare for all my Monday classes.

That's were I am now. Hopefully the chemicals don't make me pass out!

Will it work?

I hope we have all had some fun trying to build a simple camera. Even if we don't get any good images we will refer back to this camera often as the basis of our understanding of more complex cameras. The most expensive and complex cameras are basically the same ... a light-tight box, a hole, a shutter, and something to capture the image.

What I would like to find out from you today is ... do you think it will work? Do you think any of the pictures you have taken will come out. Please describe why or why not.

Feel free to respond to each other's posts.

NOTE: I will grade grammar, spelling, and punctuation as if you're in an English class. always write as if you are in English class. This is true for everything you do, not just here!

Pin Hole Cameras - Going Old School

For the next few days we're getting ancient and going early 20th century low-tech. To understand the complex we are starting by getting an understanding of the simple.

Your task will be to make and utilize the simplest form of a camera. Today we are starting by trying to come up with the requirements for how we will build our pinhole cameras.

In your groups perform the following task.

1. Find the origins and the meaning of the word "camera".
2. Find at least 3 sources that describe the requirements and how to build a "pin hole camera".
3. reference those sources here.

By the end of today you should post as a comment on this blog (1 post per team)

1. Your research on the word camera
2. Your sources for pin hole camera research
3. The primary components of a pin hole camera
4. How to use the pin hole camera

The only thing I will tell you (as we have no choice) is we are using photographic paper to record our images, as opposed to film