Peter Crockett

PinHole Camera by Peter Crockett

After a lifetime of being involved in photography it is always refreshing to see someone try something new!

Of course Pinhole cameras are not new, but to come across a young man who has the ability and patience to build one with such precision and test, test and test again, it does take dedication and Peter Crockett is one of those people that has all those abilities combined and a load of creativity!

When he first showed me his newly built camera I was impressed by the high level of workmanship by the wooden construction, and like all cameras it’s essentially a box with a hole at the front and a section at the back to hold film  – the hole at the front does not have a lens!

A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens but with a tiny aperture (the so-called pinhole)—effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through the aperture and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box, which is known as the camera obscura effect…….

Pinhole camera, if you look closely you can see the pinhole

Setting up the pinhole camera

Black and White images shot on Ilford HP5 and with most exposure times being between 5 and 15 seconds.

There’s no getting away from it, using a pinhole camera is going right back to basics and there is a lot to learn. Not only has Peter made the camera, he has learned how to read the light using a lightmeter and in the begining some guesswork. Then the film has to be developed in a darkroom and then printed, or scanned to be able to make digital prints.

Black & White panoramic images made with the pinhole camera using Ilford HP5. These images shout out creativity and that’s from start to finish – making the camera, the learning curve of how to  get the exposure right, developing the film and then being able to have an images that have a soul.