Making Things

This weekend has been surprisingly productive. 

I began the construction of my first pinhole camera yesterday afternoon (while keeping an eye on the Derby – my pick came in seventh) and completed it this morning.  It started life as a coffee can, but now it is officially Grammo-Cam 1.  Following the directions found in Brian Krummel’s book, I basically painted the inside of the can with flat black spray paint, made a hole in the center with a hammer and nail, made a pinhole in a sheet of aluminum (from a Coca-Cola can, if you must know) with a sewing needle, electrical-taped it to the inside of the can, and affixed another 2-inch length of electrical tape over the hole as a makeshift shutter.  That’s it.  Insert photographic material and start experimenting. 

Now all I need is a darkroom – without which I can’t even load the camera, much less develop the pictures.  So this afternoon, prior to the thunderstorms, I initiated the transformation of my walk-in crawlspace into a black & white darkroom.  Step 1:  make space.  Nearly completed that task today.  The best part was finally having an excuse to throw a bunch of crap away that has been sitting down there mildewing for months.  The worst part was the discovery of the dead bird.  Ugh.  Anyhow, here is a ‘before’ pic.  This place will never be clean and dust free, so I’m thinking that aside from the chemicals and instruments I am tracking down, I will likely need some sort of airtight container to store all of the supplies.  The crawlspace itself will also never be completely sealed – there is an abundance of cracks and holes where light will always seep in.  So it looks like my photo processing will be done at night.  I’m okay with that. 

Tonight, and this week, I promise to try to get the photography site up and running. 

Book-wise, I finished The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll… finally.  I even found time to read Bolano’s Antwerp (hold your applause – it’s only 55 pages long).  Now I am starting in on Jim Krusoe’s Iceland.  Compared to tax season, I’m positively speed-reading!