Pinhole Photography in 8x10?

[Vaughn]

I have had kids from 8yrs to 18 yrs making pinhole cameras...just 8x10s, though. Sure had them confused at first...they had no idea what to expect. I showed no examples. They made these strange boxes for a summer photo class, taped in this funny paper in it (dark side towards the little hole they had made in brass), pointed it at whatever...then stick the weird sheet is trays of stuff. Started off slow...then the sheets of litho just started to fly out the door. They thought making cyanotypes in the sun was pretty cool, too.

But for my own imagery, sharpness is generally an intragal part of the piece, thus I am in no rush to pinhole with the 11x14...I have too many 11x14 sheets to process as it is!

My boys...silver gelatin contacts, pinhole, Type 55

[John Layton]

Ha! I once did a pinhole workshop with a class of fifth graders...had them bring their own various cardboard shoe-boxes, oatmeal containers, etc. from home - (big mistake....because we then needed miles of black tape just to seal off light leaks), after which they all went out into a snow storm to try to get some images! You should have seen some of those cameras...how they could just fly away in that wind! Oh...how I can still hear their little voices, pleading..."Mr. Layton, help! my camera...its blowing away!"

[Vaughn]

That's why I made it easy for myself! I saved up 250 sht 8x10 boxes for awhile...we went thru 4 to 6 a semester at the university. The class was only two weeks in the summer...eight 4-hour classes. The first half of the first class was making the cameras (mostly the students making the pinholes and spraying the insides of the boxes black.) The last two hours was making their first couple of exposures. Next day...4 hours of making pinhole negatives. The next two days -- making cyanotypes. The second week we did 35mm cameras, Ilford XP-2 and making prints. Lots of fun.