The camera.
All our pictures are taken by homemade pinhole cameras. They are mostly made out of empty beverage cans, but every sort of light-tight and waterproof box will work. A tiny pinhole is made to act as a lens and let light into the camera. Light from the scene will pass through the hole and form an upside down and mirrored resulting image. With a little opening only light rays that travel directly from the scene are collected, projecting a focused image on back of the camera. The empty can is then loaded with photographic paper, sealed, and fixed in position against some natural or artificial support structure in the environment, with its "lens" facing the sun. The shutter is a piece of tape, once manually removed the camera starts exposing the paper. |
If you want to keep trace of our cameras on the field right now you can see them on the map in the active cameras page.
The physics of a pinhole solargraphy camera.
Different shots are made by varying the can proportions or shape.
The pinhole position will also change the ratio of the image, and allow to capture more sky or foreground in the shot.