Altona Oil Refinery

Thanks! I can indeed tell you how…

My camera is a biscuit tin (it’s all teddybears and tackiness: “Cookies for you – Friends forever”!) with 6 pinholes evenly spaced around its circumference. Each hole is covered by a gaffer tape “shutter”. Attached to inside of the the tin’s lid is a cylinder, around which I wrap the film. It takes about half a roll of 120 – I use Velvia 50 (went out of production for a while there, but think it’s back on the market now) for the colour.

All my pinhole images on RedBubble are created by opening each pinhole at a separate time and place as a I move through a location; the montage effect is created in-tin, without digitally manipulating the composition afterwards. I can also created 360 degree panoramas – except because each individual image is inverted, they look strange and montage-y too.

There’s a lot of info out there about calculating the optimum pinhole size for the focal length of your camera…give it a google! Same with working out the f-stop (which you can also do by trial and error). Mine is f180.

Hope that helps!

I’ve done the same but with paper and not film. I did it at college, we have a darkroom there. But using film would be new to me. I guess i can try that.

Thanks for taking time to explain your process, very well appreciated :)

Altona, such a weird place, I went there recently and found it amazing.
This shot is REALLY REALLY great,
tell me Steph, how long did you open each hole for ?
And, if you do, where do you get a colour print of such a long negative ?

Thanks sasufi! I love exploring Altona; flat expanses hidden amongst the factories and refineries, long-stretching roads, wetlands, city views…gets my heart thumping!

I think these exposures ranged from about 15 seconds to 1 minute. I always use a light metre to calculate the exposure times, and they vary hugely from about 2-4 seconds in sunlight (anything under 4 seconds is tricky – the exposure is made entirely manually, so less than this gets blurry), to 12-15 minutes in a rainforest, to 3+ hours in the pub.

I get the film scanned, and then print digitally (I use Bond in Richmond for processing/scanning and The Edge for printing) – otherwise it’d be a right pain.

Cheerio!

Thanks for such precise information ! I’ve been using paper straight into my tomato can, but scine I’ve got a proper enlarger, I’d love to use films as well.

Good to here that The Edge can scan weird formats, it’s great.
Thanks again, will upload soon !

These all looked great at your exhibition steph, congratulations, was great to see red dots on the walls! wooo-hoo!
I think i stared at this for the longest… i didnt win a prize… ooh yes i did, got to see the biccy tin!

wow, totally impressed with your method… in-tin…. I like it!!!!!

hey, everything on this page has blown me away!
i have never seen the refinery look so spectacular and believe me i know because i worked there for years.
just love the colours in the sky and all the grasslands!
EXCELLENT work, pinhole cameras truly have a life form of their own, they are so special and mysterious, your one sounds a real treat!
The Edge is the best LOL! ;-)

i love this, great idea very impressive