Recently in my Intro to Photography class, we have had the opportunity to create photographs using pinhole and film cameras. Both of these were new art forms that I had not previously been exposed to. There is something SO special about getting to take and develop your photo and experience the entire process of bringing the captured moment to life.

Something that we are not accustomed with in this digital age of photography is how photography used to require a lot of patience, and persistence. Photography was a very time consuming and detailed art. The chemicals I was using were only able to process in black and white so that was another step back from the typical full color photography that we are used to having at the push of a button. This experience was a great reminder of how I need to learn to be more patient. For those of you who do not know what a pinhole camera is, let me explain why it creates a need for patience.

A pinhole camera is a round container that all light is sealed out of except for one tiny hole. The tiny hole is covered by a flap that keeps the light in and acts as a shutter. You have to insert a light sensitive piece of photo paper into the camera while in a darkroom and then after you seal it up you are able to turn the lights back on. As soon as you get the camera set up where you want to take the photo, you can remove the shutter for a determined amount of time and expose the paper. The process is very time consuming as you can only take one picture at a time and you have to go through the entire developing process just to see what you captured.

There are a lot of factors that go into the picture even turning out as a success. If you expose the paper to light at any time before you are exposing it for the picture you will ruin the paper. When you go to take the picture if you expose it for the wrong amount of time for the lighting that you are dealing with, you may over or under expose the photograph, meaning that when you develop it the picture will come out either very white or very black. You could also mess up in the developing process. This is the part where you are in the darkroom and take the photo paper and stick it in a bunch of different chemicals and hope that you end up with a photograph. Basically the process of developing a pinhole photograph is very complicated and required a lot of learning.

Even though it was a difficult process, I am so glad that I was able to experience it and create some really interesting photographs. My class worked really hard and we were all able to produce some great work. Below are some photographs that my class created:

This really great pinhole photograph is by George Achard. By placing the negative and positive together we can see a really beautiful contrast. Also the curved lines in this photo are something unique to pinhole photos.

This photograph is by me (Annah Smith). This photograph is an example of exposing the paper for too long and ending up with a dark photo. This was especially frustrating because we drove out to the graveyard, took one photo, and then drove back and developed it and it didn't turn out well. Pinhole photography is time consuming, but it is rewarding when it works out!

For example, Ryan Joyce, spent a long time figuring out how to take a pinhole photo indoors with artificial lighting and all his hard work payed off when he created the following image:

Another major project that we worked on this semester was shooting an entire roll of film and developing it and making prints. The actual taking of the photograph was much easier than with the pinhole because I could take 24 shots in succession rather than just 1 at a time. The most difficult part of the film project for me was developing the roll of film.

The worst part was that to do this I had to close myself in a very small closet with absolutely no light. I literally could not spread my arms all the way across the closet. It is very small. Did I say it was small? I walked into it for the first time and when I started to shut the door I actually had to stop and run out because I was panicking. I called my mom and asked her to give me a pep talk and she said, "Annah, you can do this! Just think, if you do this it will be a really cool thing that you will know how to do." So I walked back into the closet while I was still on the phone with her and I shut the door. I'm not gonna lie, it was really unnerving in there. In the total darkness, I had to remove the film from the canister and place it on a reel and close it up in the light sensitive tank. Doing this was very difficult, but I felt so proud when I got it done.

The next part of film was a very complicated process of adding chemicals to the tank containing the film and then washing it out. Over and over you have to treat the film and then wash it. Once I had gone through all the steps to develop the film, the time came for me to take it out and see what I had created. When I first saw the film I was sure that I had ruined it, but as I began to pull it off the reel I saw the negatives start to show up in the frames. I don't know if I have ever been so happy to see a picture!

Using the enlarging machines to make prints of my film was such a fun thing to get to do! Some of my photographs actually turned out which was really exciting!

George Achard also had some neat film pictures! Check out this beautiful shot he took of FHU's bell tower!

As we were working with the film I realized how incredible it must have been when film started becoming available for people to take photographs with. The old ways of photography were much more complicated and particular, but film helped make photography more accessible to all people.

Learning these forms of photography was such a great experience for me to grow. I learned so much about the way that cameras work, I learned about how photography was for people in the past, and I learned to be thankful for the digital cameras we have now. If you ever have the opportunity to take a photography course, I highly recommend that you do!