Acros 100 | Zero Image Pinhole Camera

A two-month project where I try long-exposure waterfall photography using a Zero Image 2000 pinhole camera and Fuji Acros 100. Inspired by Max Cooper and Shoot Film Like a Boss, I wanted to try shooting more black and white images using one of the most basic type of cameras that has no lens. You definitely attract attention from passing hikers when you're standing in the middle of a riverbed hunched over a wooden box aimed at a waterfall.

This video not only documents the various waterfalls I photographed, but it also shows the changing of seasons from fall to winter. The leaves were still green when I shot the first falls, and eventually, the trees became more and more barren, leading up to the first snowfall of the season.

During this time, I also got into 4x5 large format photography. Personally, I find pinhole photography to be a little more difficult. While large format requires more steps, you're more confident about the shots you take because you're able to see your composition through the ground glass. You know exactly what's in frame and in focus. But with pinhole photography, you have to guestimate what your composition will look like.

In the video, you can see that the pinhole camera has a very wide angle of view (95 degrees horizontally and 130 degrees vertically according to the website and similar to a 20mm focal length on 35mm). The objects (i.e., the waterfalls) are much smaller than they appear in real life. And there also seems to be a pincushion distortion effect where the objects in the center of the image appear farther away.

So most of the time, I tried to get as close to the falls as possible, aimed, and crossed my fingers hoping that something would end up in frame.

My process for shooting pinhole looks something like this: 1) meter, 2) check the corresponding exposure time for an aperture of f138, 3) check to see if I need to account for reciprocity failure, 4) press the shutter release, and 5) advance. The thing is, I can never remember whether I actually advanced the frame or not. So when it comes time to take the next shot, I'm left wondering whether I want to risk a double exposure or if I'd rather advance again and have a blank frame to be safe. I think I'm now getting better at remembering to advance after every shot though, since that's what I'm trying to do with my 120 roll back for the Intrepid 4x5.

Because the aperture is so tiny (f138), everything in your shot is in focus. However, because you're shooting through a pinhole instead of a lens, your image isn't tack sharp. This lends well for photographing nature, especially waterfalls, because it gives you a very dreamy look. I believe Steven O'Nions once shot pinhole photography with infrared film to create an even dreamier look (see the "Wood effect"). Something else that you can do with pinhole cameras is have extremely long shutter speeds. I took my Agfa Isolette with me on some of these photo walks, and the slowest shutter speed that I could with the Agfa was 2 seconds, even after stopping down to f32. Of course, if you have ND filters, you could certainly extend your shutter time. When I got the scans back for some of these images, I did wish that I had a polarizer so that I could cut through the glare on the surface of the water.

Overall, this project was a really fun learning experience that helped me see in a different way. There's nothing special about these falls since you can find thousands of images of them online, especially if you googled the City of Waterfalls. But this is my personal ode to the city where I went through a lot of personal growth over the years and where I have a lot of fond memories.

I'm not used to shooting black and white, but it's definitely a completely different mindset to ignore colour. I also included some images that I shot on fomapan for the first time. When shooting in black and white, it's a nice feeling to know that I've taken an image that I cannot easily capture or recreate using a smartphone camera. I actually feel like I'm creating an image instead of just taking a film version of something that I could snap digitally.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmtuckerly/

Black and white landscape inspirations:
Max Cooper: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtQB3KkBH4QvfRPHDfttiaQ
Shoot Film Like a Boss: https://www.youtube.com/c/ShootFilmLikeaBoss
Keith Dotson: https://www.youtube.com/c/Keithdotson
Steve O'Nions: https://www.youtube.com/c/SteveONions

Тэги:

#film_photography #medium_format #analog #analog_photography #120_film #6x6 #square_format #landscape_photography #waterfall_photography #long_exposure #black_and_white_photography #pinhole_camera #pinhole_photography #zero_image_2000 #fuji #fujifilm #acros_100 #ilford #fomapan #nature_photography #female_photographers #female_film_photographers #photography_inspiration #shoot_film_like_a_boss #point_and_shoot_film_cameras #film_comparison #fine_art_photography #photo_walk

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