Back to basics...

To get back into the swing and mood of B&W film photography before tackling the daunting task of some 7x17 I needed to return to some basics of Light, Form and Texture. There's nothing better for removing complexities than using a pinhole camera. With no focusing, depth of field or zooming to worry about you can concentrate on the important things. Composition is a little tricky to get exactly right as you have no direct viewfinder, but most pinholes have an extremely wide angle of view so a little post cropping will get you back to what you intended. As my goal was also getting back into handling sheet film I went for a 4x5 large format pinhole. This gives a large negative which helps reduce the traditional grainy style of pinholes. It scans nicely and adds to need to think more and slow down before shooting due to cost of each sheet and limited amount of holders you can carry at any one time.

Below are 8 images from 10 sheets shot on a wander around my hometown of Ipswich. The shots are not terribly exciting or inventive, but I hope give a slightly different viewpoint and I'm pleased to get an 80% return. 👍