Overexposed

[Subdeacon Joe]

Sort of.

 

 

Quote

AT A GLANCE it looks like a semi-pleasing printing error. Or a photo taken by mistake, filled with claustrophobic depth of field, shadows and murk – like so many accidental 'closeups' of the inside of a camera bag. But to those who know what they are seeing, this image bears a distinctive visual fingerprint shared only by a relative handful of others. And its makers believe this could be the most remarkable example of all.

The lines climbing the image are a recording of the sun’s path across the sky, rising and falling with the seasons. Eight full cycles of them, in fact – exposed through a pinhole aperture onto a piece of photographic paper inside a cider can, which almost a decade ago was pointed at the horizon and attached to a dome at University of Hertfordshire’s Bayfordbury Observatory. Then forgotten about.

The camera was rediscovered in September this year by a technician, and the image inside successfully retrieved. Now, it's believed that at eight years and one month, it could be the longest photographic exposure ever made.

What did this camera see?

Though indistinct, the image is actually of a landscape dominated by the sky. The dome of the observatory’s oldest telescope can be seen bottom left, whilst a steely gantry can be identified to the lower right. 

 

Regina Valkenborgh pictured at the University of Hertfordshire’s Bayfordbury Observatory, where she placed the camera – the 'solar can' beer can she is holding – in a telescope in 2012. 

PHOTOGRAPH BY UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE

The photographer was Regina Valkenborgh, who in August 2012, was completing an MA in Fine Art and was tinkering around with the home-made pinhole cameras, attaching them to the domes of the observatory's instruments. Now a photography technician at Barnet and Southgate College, London, she says at the time she wanted to “explore the time concept in photography which makes the invisible, visible.”

“My reason for using pinhole photography was because of its experimental nature,” Valkenborgh told National Geographic UK in an email. In her image, “long exposures show the sun’s trails in the sky as the earth orbits the sun. The axial tilt of the Earth becomes clearly visible on the pinhole image with the summer solstice being shown as the higher arches at the top of the image, and the winter solstice as the lower arches just above the horizon.”

“However, what’s more unique about this is that although the invisible has been captured, it has also erased the visible,” she adds. Over the years, you’re able to see the sun trails, however you’re unable to see the thousands of people who would have visited or worked at the observatory.”

 

The cider can used to make the image, and a pack of Ilford photographic paper similar to that used to line it.

PHOTOGRAPH BY REGINA VALKENBORGH

The camera was constructed from duct tape, a 500ml Kopparberg cider can – Valkenborgh says she prefers beer or cider cans because “they are taller than soft drink cans, so [produce a] bigger image” – lined with Ilford Multigrade photographic paper. Her longest previous exposure using such a device had been a year, which she described as “visibly different” to another she had made over six months.

 

[Pat Riot]

That’s pretty darn cool...I wonder if beer was involved in the forgetting of this pinhole camera? 

 

Amazing that the photo actually came out. 

[Dawg Hair, SASS #29557]

Can only see the text.  Pictures are not there.

[Subdeacon Joe]

42 minutes ago, Dawg Hair, SASS #29557 said:

Can only see the text.  Pictures are not there.

 

Click on the link embedded in "Sort of"

[Dawg Hair, SASS #29557]

WOW!!  The amazing thing is the "camera" was not disturbed at all by animals, weather, kids with rocks, etc.

[Raylan]

Oh thank the lord, I thought this was going to be another Kim Kardasian thread.

[Subdeacon Joe]

1 hour ago, Raylan said:

Oh thank the lord, I thought this was going to be another Kim Kardasian thread.

 

 

??? What's wrong with:

[watab kid]

ilford film , used to shoot a lot of it but never an exposure that long ,