CalArti

It’s been over two weeks since I returned from visiting northern Michigan, but it was just a few days ago that I finally developed the two rolls of film that were exposed in a converted Kinoflex TLR. Background here: we were driving up north on World Pinhole Photography Day. I stuck the Kinoflex in the back seat of the car, hoping for a chance to pull off the road to snap a few shots.

I first broke out the pinhole camera in Kalkaska, Michigan. We were heading into trout territory, and trout fishing is a major passion in Kalkaska. The city hosts the National Trout Festival on opening day of the trout fishing season (which happened to be the day we were passing through.) A large fountain featuring an enormous brook trout sits smack dab in the middle of the city, and driving through we stopped and shot the better part of a roll of 120 film of the fountain.

Nice enough subject matter, but I really wanted to get a landscape shot. After we reached Boyne Mountain and checked into our lodging, we ventured back to the Deadman’s Hill overlook. The late afternoon sun played over the flowering spring trees – just starting to show the first hints of season’s foliage. The sun reflected off the Jordan River, making it a bright ribbon in the valley below.

Personally, this is my favorite pinhole shot from this trip. The sun was shining obliquely into the pinhole camera, and the ‘pinhole flare’ adds a little to the shot as well. Now I just have to resolve to use the pinhole camera more often, and not just on Arbor Day!

So what do World Pinhole Photography Day and Arbor Day have in common?

Nothing, actually. But on Friday (Arbor Day) I read about World Pinhole Photography on the internet in the morning. I didn’t pay a lot of attention, and missed the fact that the announcement clearly said Sunday was the day. So I headed out, pinhole camera in hand, to get some shots of the Allegan Forest.

I was surprised to show up at one of my familiar haunts, and find a good chunk of the forest clear cut. I suppose the management is trying to restore more oak savanna, and with 50,000 acres of forest and field the tract of land that was cleared was not hugely significant, but I still found the site of the fallen trees, stacked up in the muck, to be compelling.

And so I made them the subject of the pinhole shots. Not realizing that it was Arbor Day (I discovered that later) there was a certain irony to the site of the stacked tree trunks and clear cut land.

Well, it was good practice for the actual pinhole photography day (a couple of shots to be posted soon). And I’ll have to explore a few more of those 50,000 acres, since these clear cut tracks look pretty crappy for years to follow.

More images in the Image Stream.