Melissa in the Old Spenco Trucking Depot – Pinhole Photo
I came across this old print from my B&W days so scanned it to post.
It’s a pinhole image, that is, it was made using a home made pinhole camera.
Pinhole Image – Melissa in the Old Spenco Building
Melissa in the old Spenco trucking depot.
For this image, Melissa sat still for three and a half minutes during the exposure. There’s a shelf about level with her shoulder blades that steadied her. Melissa fits my definition of supermodel.
The pinhole camera was made of wood, large enough to take an 8 x 10 inch sheet of lith film.
With a focal length of about 60mm, the camera had a very wide angle, about 135 degrees, as can be seen from the exaggerated perspective in the image. Focus was about 250mm to infinity.
Light drop off toward the edges is about at acceptable limits.
A home made pinhole camera has no viewfinder. I marked the angle of view on the top and side of the camera, pointing it in the right direction and composing as best I could.
The film was developed in paper developer at a dilution of 50:1 and contact printed onto RC paper in the darkroom at grade 2 contrast.
The old Spenco depot, only a couple of hundred metres from my place, was originally a tannery. However, for many years it was the depot for the local trucking company, Spenco, run by the Spence family.
After the death of her father, Sal Spence kept the business running for several years, but the time eventually came for Spenco to close.
The main building housed many fine old heritage items, some dating back to the days of the tannery.
Very interesting Laurie. Quite a Remarkable result and an extraordinary amount of detail.
Thanks Chris. Glad you like the image.
The Spenco depot has been vacant now, for a while. There’s talk of a Bunnings store and other big heavy businesses going in there, in a new building, of course.
People have been taking the old, seasoned timber from the building, making it rather unsafe.
Some homeless people were squatting there and burnt down one of the buildings.
It’s now securely fenced off.
Well, I am curious about how you made the camera?? Do you mean literally made from scratch? Do you still have it?
It really has me intrigued!
Yes. Made from scratch. Pretty basic, ya know.
I had two of this model but chucked them to the tip when I pulled down the shed that housed the darkroom.
But I’ve also made many more out of a black icecream dish, cardboared boxes in which photographic paper comes and jam tins.
I’ll do another post on the blog on making and using a pinhole camera.
Regards,
Laurie.
Have been reading your article on this page with great interest.
http://www.southimage.net/Pinhole_Photography.htm
Look forward to reading the next post,
Regards,
Chris.
That I like Laurie! I can’t believe it was made with a pinhole camera. The detail is so good. My father tells me of the times as a boy prior to WW2 when he made his own pinhole camera. That was before he borrowed his elder sister’s box brownie and never returned it!
Thanks Jules.
I often get up off my swivel chair in front of the computer and head towards the door, with the intention of rebuilding the darkroom in the new shed. But usually by the time I’ve got to the back door I realize just how much work is involved in having that fun. So I go back the the computer.
Mind you, a couple of times I’ve got as far as looking around the shed and dreaming of a new darkroom. But then I realize it’s not going to happen.
Ah well!