28 more days
 

I had a thought today, did ya'll smell the smoke?

Actually, I thought it might be cool to send anyone in cellar land a pinhole camera and have you set it up facing your view of the sun for 28 days.

Send it back to me and I'll process the print, scan and post a little gallery of 28 day pictures. I'll send you back your original for you to frame.

If you think this would be cool, let me know. I'll hook you up with a "camera" and paper and instructions. outside the u.s. is no problem, but I might send you a smaller version.

I'd be willing to do it, however I have 'odd' windows in my abode, and am not sure i'd get the view you're looking for.

K

I would love to, but I also don't have a direct sightline.

I'd love to but I live in London, we know there is a sun but we can't remember what it looks like or when it is.

I want one!! I have a south facing window and I can put it there. Can I put it in a clear baggie? If so, I can stick it inside the case where my orchids live and we can see what they see everyday.

I'll do it. I have a south facing window. gimme!

Aaaaaa! You're all talking at once! let's see,

Dagney. Well first I'm not looking for anything in particular. I am going to set one up in a place that gets about two hours of direct light a day. You could put one at work or on the dashboard of your car, esp if you park in the same spot all the time.

The idea is that exposures take a very long time to record unless the subject has the intensity of the sun. The image you saw was heavily tweaked in photoshop to improve contrast. Truth is, the camera could have stayed where it was for a couple of months to get the non sun subjects properly exposed. Except the sun would have been blotted out. Over exposed.

So that is why you could put one in your car on the dash board. most of your driving around would not really add any notable exposure. but if you park in the same spot (sunny) every day for several hours, that will add up.

Wolf, same thing for you. You could put one anywhere you like, if you go the non sun route, just leave it for 2 or 3 months. Unless you are pointing it at one of those buildings that is all mirrored glass, then go 28 days.

Jaguar (jag you are? or jag wahr?), Actually, when the sun is not an everyday occurance you get better division between the arcs. Still, you'd probably need at least one sunny day to make it work.

Beletseri,

You probably won't need a plastic baggie, the paint can is waterproof except for the hole. I've left them outdoors for months and they only develop a bit of surface rust. Just don't mist directly into the hole. Or do. It might be COOL! BTW, the orchid show at the NY botanical gardens is coming up soon (nybg.org) AMAZING.

Limey,
Awesome! If I send you a couple can you get one in the vicinity of some standing stones? I'm a wanna-be tourist.

Whoever wants one pm me where you'd like it sent. Give me a few days to get them together and write up instructions.

Thanks.

In that case I would like to try one. The back of my house faces pretty southward, so much so that my outdoor thermometer gives false readings due to exposure. If I could put one outside I could get good exposure. I just don't get a direct view of the sun above the treeline and houses overlooking me.

hey i'd sure like to try one. lord knows we have plenty of sunlight in phoenix. tell me how much $$ for shipping etc. and let's see what happens.

ohhh, I want to stash one at the park, but I would feel really bad if someone made off with it. Are the materials really inexpensive?

I don't want to be contrary, as you obviously have some skills in this area, but wouldn't it be difficult to park in precisely the same place over a 28 day period? Even a few inches off would pretty much render the accumulated images a blur.

Whoever wants a camera, they are ready to ship. PM me your address. Don't worry abuot shipping $, it'll probably be only a few bucks, you can pay shipping on the way back. You have to send them back, but I'll return your original photo. I number them and keep track of the numbers.

Elf, the materials are about 1.50 for th paint can and about .68 for the paper. Hide it really well, maybe you could put it under a weapon of mass destruction, then no one would be able to find it!

Elspode, who would have thought you were such a fun sponge? :D That would be true with film or conventional paper, but with these materials since it takes so long for an exposure to record (weeks) most of the background probably just wouldn't show up. It might be kind of cool though to see the sun arcs starting and ending at different points, skipping whole days, etc.

So if you want em, they're ready! pm me is better than email.

Woo! Count me in! (I sent you my mailing addy) :thumbsup:

foot^3: in summer here it might be perfect.

Jaguar - i don't have a calendar handy, what day will that be?

That would be Sun-day of course, right? :rolleyes:

So what if I block mine and only expose it every 5th day and leave it up for 5 months? Would that look cool.

Actually, that does sound pretty spiffy. Each pass of the sun would be an individual streak. . .

That would be very good indeed, I think. In retrospect, the month that I had my camera set up it was very often cloudy, so I'm thinking if there were sun everyday, the distinction may not be great enough between the bands. Unless of course you were to block it everyday.

I'll send you a camera and you can do an intermittent (sp?) exposure.

The real question is would that add up to 28 days?

Well I'm not so math challenged that I couldn't set it for 28 exposure at a 5 day interval. 5 might be too much or too little but I suppose it could be easily calculated by knowing the rate of sun movement each day for the time of year and the diameter of the light cast by the sun on the image/paper. Anyone up for figuring that out? I'm sure you wouldn't end up with 28 individual streaks since some of those days would likely be cloudy although less so as we move into spring.

I'm gonna dig up my farmers almanac and see what it says, in any case if you want a camera, pm me :)

I did pm you already, didn't you get it?

April showers? :)

This is my second try to post this am. My computer just threw up earlier. It doesn't have a fever though.

Anyway, I was hoping to send the cameras out last Wednesday, but ran out of time before we had to head out of town for a few days. Anyway, we're back and I'll send them to everyone on Monday.

In the meantime, here is a recent three or four day experiment. I realize that the first 28 day exposure was heavily overcast most of the time and the days were shorter.

This is a bit brighter because of the extra exposure from the snow and the longer, brighter days.

The Cellar has been acting weird today.
Did you forget to attach the image? :confused:

Nah, I keep getting java exception messages and then my computer goes into a catatonic state until I restart. I'll try again. 4th time. sigh :yelsick:

again, no. This time java message: "out of memory"

How does the computer know that about me?

I think the bastard worked this time

Lots of detail for 4 days. :)

I know, it surprised me. Your camera should be there any day.

I can't wait to see the results. I sent out six or seven I think.

One small picture for man, one ......you know. :blush:

...Giant leap for Murray Kahn? ;)

That works. :)

I just received mine today. I will set it up this weekend.

Got mine too. Did anyone figure out how many days I need to black it out between exposures to have 28 seperate sun arcs?

Hi all,
Glad you got your cameras.
We're about to split to NY for a few days.
Promenea, there is some info relating to spacing of sun arcs on teh other 28 days thread.

I'll have more time sunday.

Okay, I'm thinking of a Sunday series - only open the thing for each sunday come rain or shine. So that's a 7 day seperation and as it gets closer to summer it will get brighter and brighter. Now I'm wondering whether 28 exposures won't be way too much. Maybe something called a week of sundays would resonate 7 being the largest single digit prime and all....Will 7 exposures do it?

I got mine as well. I'm really excited about it, too. I started babbling at the kids about it and apparently my interest in it is contageous. :D I think my son is dubious. I'm not online at home, so I couldn't show him the images you posted...

Anyway, do you think that the actual 28 day exposure will be too long here in CO? The sun is awfully strong here as compared to the coast. Does humidity affect the strength of the sun? If the drier air & higher altitude makes for a stronger impression, do you suppose I should use less exposure time? I won't be setting it up just yet, as I'm moving and I haven't pinned down just the right location yet.

<b>Promenea</b>: One thing I was thinking about, since you don't plan on just leaving it set somewhere. . . have you figured a way to secure it to it's spot? Maybe put something *really* heavy on it, so that you don't move it just a little teensy bit every time you open/close it. . . I like your plan, though.

Yes, I plan to secure it in place and just slide something between the opening and the window.

heres a thought , rotate the can 1/7 th of a rotation each sunday when you open the shutter as it were , that would be an intresting picture , just a thought

Wow zippy, you read my mind, I'm doing another one of the round ones with 1/12 roations per day to mime a clock face.

Prom, seven days won't be enough, I don't think to get much ambient detail, but you'll surely get the sun and nicely spaced at that.

Go for it and we'll see.

Elf, As far as local atmoshperic conditions, yeah, they all add to the mix, but I wouldn't stress. I also wouldn't give it less exposure. The paper's cheap enough, about 50 or 75 cents. I can send another sheet.

It is always better to ahve too much exposure than not enough, there are ways to bleach and lighten the image. There aren't too amny ways to put something in that isn't there in the first place.

Cool!

I guess brillant minds think alike !!!
:thumbsup:

foot3 - i got my camera today and am going to set it up. my concern is that i am in phoenix, aka the valley of the sun. will 28 days be too much exposure? we've had some rain lately, but we don't get a lot of cloudy days in the typical month.

Lookout123,
Remember the photogrpaher's Motto: "MORE LIGHT"
I don't thnink it will be too much. If the image is really really dark, I have darkroom magic that will make it lighter.

Actually, the process can wipe out a lot of density. I'll scan the original image which I lightened to show the sun paths more clearly. At the expense of everything else.

Give me a bit to get it scanned.

A detail. note the distinct paths. I am having a deja vu. Did I do this already?

same detail before bleaching.

Two sundays down - how many to go? I"m thinking of going to the solstice in late june. That would be 19 or 20 exposures each seperated by a week.

I think that would be great. One thought, you might want to pick the next soonest sunny day in case of overcast. Or live with a double wide gap. The other thing to consider is if every Sunday isn't a sun day.

I got impatient for this one: 20 something days.

The sun went behind a building at about 11:00.

Neat! I don't mind the double wide gap if you don't. So far both Sundays have been clear.

I'm sure there's a double entendre lurking around there somewhere...