Manifold Exhibition - Private View Night...

Tonight we presented our photographic work to an invited audience. It went well, I particularly liked meeting members of our group in a social situation. In addition to the support we gave each other, we also received support from family, friends and students from other exhibition groups and courses.

The exhibition is on until the 31st May and is well worth a visit.

See www.manifoldexhibition.co.uk for more details.

Manifold...

Our year (second year MMU photography) are putting on exhibitions. The group I am in are exhibiting our work at ZArts on Stretford, the exhibition (titled "Manifold") runs until 31st May. More detail can be found at our website www.manifoldexhibition.co.uk

My exhibited piece is one of the "road shots" taken with my 120 pinhole camera. I have chosen this because of all the images captured of the moor, this one provides the best represents its desolation, in addition to this, this image makes full use of the camera's infinite depth of field. 

My exhibited piece measures about 33 inches square and has been printed onto a chalky type of matt paper giving it a water colour quality. I have mounted it without a frame or mount, using eight slimline bulldog type clips to hold it in position.

 

Dark, Moody and Gothic...

The most recent photo shoot took place on the 7th May. Prior to this I had made a pinhole lens for my Nikon D3000 DSLR. The thing about using a digital SLR with a pinhole is that you get an instant image of what you have just shot, which on one hand is good as you can't see much through the viewfinder, however you are tempted to re-shot it again to get a better shot, by the time you've got a good shot you have forgotten what it is you were trying to do - OK that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get what I mean?!

One thing is for sure, the results I achieved using a 35mm film pinhole were as good or superior to those of the converted DSLR.

I also ran another roll of 120 film through the medium format pinhole, revisiting a number of locations and attempting to improve on images I had previously captured - this did not work out, none of them were better, some were the same but most were not. Lesson Learnt! I did however capture some images taken of a cliff face with some boulders in the foreground. The resultant image was perhaps the most moody and gothic I had achieved, ever:

Also captured was an image of the view from the top of the moor looking down to the fringe of the moor. The barbed wire in the foreground acts as a demarcation between the desolate part of the moor and the more scenic part on the fringes of the moor.

An example of how it is often a waste of time to improve on an image:

This image shows the Pennine Way stretching away to the horizon, straight as a die. This pathway is the only sign of human activity in this part of the moor (with the exception of the roads). I think it also represents a human scar on the landscape. 

A little bit higher...

As well as taking a road shot on the road surface itself, I took another with the 120 pinhole camera mounted on a tripod, you can see much more of the road, even though it is only about three foot higher than the surface shot - which one looks best?

Punctured bicycle on a hillside desolate...

Inspired by line from The Smiths song, "This Charming Man". I took a bike up onto the moor (in addition to my 120 pinhole, 35mm pinhole SLR and a lensed 35mm SLR, all loaded with colour film). The bike shots captured by the 120 pinhole came out well, especially those with bike lay flat on the ground. The lensed 35mm images were also good, however I thought that the sharp detail might distract the viewer away from the intended meaning of the images (ie abandonment, isolation, loneliness). A number of the bike images captured by the 35mm pinhole had the bike truncated - this is because I couldn't see much through the viewfinder (given the size of the pinhole).

I also wanted to capture some more road shots, this time looking straight down the long stretches of road lying between Greenfield and Holmfirth. Encouraged by the result obtained by mounting the 120 camera on the road surface, I repeated this shot on a long straight stretch. The result is shown below, I'll leave it up to you to pass judgement.

Big Skies...

I have never used 120 for landscapes before, the aspect ratio of 35mm roughly matches the "classic" landscapes produced by artists over the years. But I must say that I was very pleased with the landscapes I captured on my first outing with the 120 pinhole camera. I was also shooting pinhole on 35mm, however, when you compare the images captured of similar subjects, I appear to be getting huge dramatic skies with 120 (compared with the 35mm images).

I have also experimented with mounting the 120 camera on the ground, rather than a tripod, to maximise the visual effect of the camera's infinite depth of field. The fact that the gravel two inches from the pinhole is as in focus as the clouds 3000 foot away is amazing.

One of the locations I visited on this particular shoot had a lot of badly corroded barbed wire, I thought that this added to the sense of isolation and mounted the 35mm pinhole camera close up to the wire. The effect is dramatic suggesting that you are being trapped from escaping back to civilisation. Again the infinite depth of field adds value to this image.

A homemade medium format pinhole camera...

The 35mm pinhole images were ok, but I was inquisitive to try using 120 film. The problem was that all my 120 cameras had fixed lenses - so I decided to make one out of pinewood. I may publish the plans when I have a bit of spare time, but in the meantime, here a few images that kind of gives you the basic idea!

Rear view showing frame counter

Front view showing pinhole

Easy Rider...

On the 23rd April I captured a number of colour images about halfway between Greenfield and Holmfirth. Around this point the road between these two towns is very straight and is about as bleak and desolate as the moor gets.
The views looking down the road remind me of those classic late 60s and early 70s american road movies, such as "Easy Rider" and "Duel".

I think that the bleakness of the moors, at this point, it is captured in this image taken about two hundred yards off the road. Don't be fooled by the grass in the foreground - it hides hollows and bog land.:

Sharpen up...

Although blurred images can prove of interest they can also stop the communication of a point. I wanted to sharpen up my pinhole images and found an application called "pinhole designer" that enabled you to calculate the optimum diameter of a pinhole for a given focal length and much more .... visit it and see.

What I realised was that the diameter of pinhole that I was using was about two time too big, it should be about 0.25mm. I had several attempts at making a pinhole lens with this diameter, and eventually succeeded having again resorted to the internet for suggestions (my favorite involves a deconstructed cola can, ultrafine oxide paper and a small pin, which is used to barely prick the metal).

I ran a black and white film through a SLR using various pinhole lenses (a 0.25, 0.4 and 0.5mm) and a normal 50mm glass lens. I developed and printed the film and found that the 0.25mm pinhole gave by far the best results in terms of pinholes.

Above Diggle captured with:
        a 50mm Lensed camera:

                a 0.25mm pinhole

Snow stopped play...

I couldn't get back on the moors until early April due to ice and snow. On the 5th April I ventured up to the two same spots (above Denshaw and Diggle). The wind was ferocious and I really struggled to keep the tripod steady. This time I was using only pinhole cameras - I didn't really see the point of using the lensed camera. I looked for images that evoked desolation and isolation (not too difficult in this environment!)

For some unknown reason, I seemed attracted to the TV transmitter - maybe its because it is the only real sign (other than the roads) that life may be going on elsewhere, or maybe it the juxtaposition of a manmade structure completely surrounded by nature (see image below).

 

Again we have examples of sea / landscapes, one colour the other black and white. This is a quality of pinhole that really attracts me.

 Again, both are images of a frozen reservoir above Diggle.

The two images I was talking about...

Frozen Reservoir above Diggle or holiday snap?

Interesting Demarcation in middle of road

First photoshoot...

It's the 20th March, 2013. I have been on the moors for my first shoot, the wind is so strong that I had to weigh down the tripod. The pinhole cameras required an exposure of about 1 second. I took about 80 exposures in all with the three cameras, concentrating on two sites, firstly above Denshaw and later that day above Diggle. The light was good but the temperature was low!
Once I got the feeling back in my fingers I developed the black and white films. I got a photolab to develop the colour film.
Two of the shots impressed me, a B&W image taken on the lensed camera of the road up to a TV Transmitter, which has an interesting demarcation effect along the length of the road and a pinhole colour shot of a reservoir above Diggle, which was partially frozen and could be mistaken for a beach scene. I will upload photos shortly once I compress the images.

Pondering...

I have given considerable thought to the questions I pondered at my last post. I am tempted to capture the desolation on Saddleworth Moor, its lack of humanity, dark landscapes, narrow roads, deep reservoirs, gothic rock outcrops and its inhospitable soul.
Now that I know what I want to capture, what camera will I use to capture it? I have recently experimented with pinhole cameras, the problem was that they were homemade from "found objects" such as teabag cartons, and the like, and took only one shot before requiring reloading - a bit impractical if you are taking landscapes miles away from your darkroom! I decided to convert two of my 35mm SLRs to pinhole operation, this would allow me to fire off up to 36, or so, shots.
Why a pinhole? Well I like the impressionist qualities a pinhole can give you, the viewer will often have to ponder whilst trying to work out what it is he is looking at. Is it a landscape or is it a seascape - you know what I mean, I am sure. A pinhole camera also possesses an infinite depth of field, which can give amazing perspective shots and might prove useful on the moors.
I converted the two 35mm SLRs by removing the lens and fitting a dust cover which had a pinhole made in its centre. The pinhole diameter was about 0.5mm in diameter. I have loaded one of the pinholes with black and white, the other is loaded with colour. I have loaded a "lensed" 35mm SLR with black and white film as a comparator.
It's off to the Moors tomorrow!

In the beginning

It is early March 2013. I am considering making a "road movie" like Stephen Shore did, back in the early 1970s - Shore travelled across the USA capturing the mundane and obscure using a point-and-shoot camera loaded with colour film. If you look at the resultant "American Surfaces" images, captured during this venture, you can see the desolate nature of early 1970s American Society.
How can I emulate Shore's expedition? What could I document and what camera should I use?