Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day 2019

Flights of Fancy pinhole camera with variable contrast paper

A couple of weeks prior to yesterday's Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, I was given a Flights of Fancy pinhole photography kit, as well as an already constructed camera, which must have come from a second kit. The box itself contains everything necessary to build the camera and shoot and develop paper negatives: six sides of fibreboard that slot together to make the camera, a cover for the pinhole, a cardboard insert that the user pierces for the pinhole and which also holds the photographic paper, included, against the back of the camera for exposure. The kit contains three plastic trays, tongs, developer, fix, red gel to make a safelight and a booklet with a potted history of photography and full instructions. Although it's possible to use the camera simply held together with rubber bands, the constructed one had been glued. For the photographs, I used an already opened packet of 3x3-inch variable contrast paper which must have come with the kit of the already-constructed camera.

Flights of Fancy pinhole photography kit

I hadn't made any tests before using the camera yesterday; I also did not measure the pinhole to ascertain its f-stop, and simply made exposures based on the guidelines in the instruction booklet; the weather was mostly overcast and the recommendations given were for 60 seconds 'overcast', or two minutes for 'dull daylight'. Rather than use the trays and chemicals provided (the developer bottle rattled when shaken, indicating that some of the chemical constituents had crystallised), I stand developed the paper in Ilfotec LC29 diluted 1+100, for one hour. The instructions with the kit suggest making contact prints on the paper provided; I scanned the paper negatives instead, and these scans were inverted with Photoshop to create positives.

Flights of Fancy pinhole camera with variable contrast paper

Flights of Fancy pinhole camera with variable contrast paper

Flights of Fancy pinhole camera with variable contrast paper

For a beginner, within its limitations, the Flights of Fancy pinhole kit might be a worthwhile introduction to pinhole photography. Although the exposures I'd estimated were not all that accurate,  I've posted the images here as I was following the guidelines provided with the kit, rather than relying on experience, partly to test the instructions. I can also envision a few ways in which the kit could also be modified - a metal pinhole rather than black card, better seals to prevent light leaks, and a tripod fitting, for example (I rested the camera on any flat surface available during exposure, and the rubber band, around the whole body to keep the top secure meant that it did not sit entirely flat, leading to the camera shake seen in the second to last image above).

MPP Micro-Technical camera with Ilford HP5 Plus

However, needing to unload and reload the Flights of Fancy box camera in a changing bag for each shot meant that I only exposed four sheets of paper with it over the course of the day; I also used a pinhole lensboard on my MPP Micro-Technical Mark VIII to shoot some paper negatives and a roll of medium format Ilford HP5 Plus. With HP5 Plus, the exposures were metered and measured out in seconds rather than minutes, the paper needed considerably longer. The weather was mostly overcast, with some very brief sunshine, at the tail end of a storm that had passed over the UK; for some shots I was concerned about wind shaking the tripod, although the softness of the pinhole images probably disguises this more than adequately.

MPP Micro-Technical camera with grade 2 Ilfospeed paper

For the paper negatives with the MPP, I used a home-made 9x12cm-to-4x5 inch adaptor; I had originally made this to use the Rada rollfilm back on the MPP with a 6x6 mask, but 9x12cm plate would also fit. Shooting long exposures outside showed that this was not especially light-tight when the darkslides of the holders were removed, and some of the paper negatives were spoiled with light leaks, present on the two images shown here to a greater or lesser degree. The paper I used for these was from an old box of grade 2 Ilfospeed resin coated paper which has a label dating to 1977; I also flashed the paper in the darkroom. As with the Flights of Fancy camera, the 9x12cm paper negatives were stand developed in Ilfotec LC29 diluted 1+100, for one hour, as a means to reduce contrast further.

MPP Micro-Technical camera with grade 2 Ilfospeed paper

In the past when using a pinhole with the MPP Micro-Technical camera, I have tended to position the lensboard at a 'normal' focal length (150mm-180mm); when shooting yesterday, I used 50mm-75mm, partly to facilitate shorter exposure times. Although both the 9x12cm paper negatives and the rollfilm represented some cropping on the 4x5-inch format, the 6x9cm frames of the latter considerably so, at these focal lengths, all the shots could firmly be defined as wide angle. I very rarely use wide angle lenses in any format, and I did find it hard to compose the shots with this in mind; however, with the relatively short exposures provided by using HP5 Plus - in comparison to the paper negatives - that the skies have relatively good definition (which in retrospect could have been improved using a yellow filter with little effect on exposure times) almost certainly adds structurally to what the compositions are lacking in the subject matter, the one exception from these considerations being the shot, immediately below, of a tree, where the wide angle emphasises the splaying of both roots and branches.

MPP Micro-Technical camera with Ilford HP5 Plus

MPP Micro-Technical camera with Ilford HP5 Plus

MPP Micro-Technical camera with Ilford HP5 Plus

MPP Micro-Technical camera with Ilford HP5 Plus

MPP Micro-Technical camera with Ilford HP5 Plus