pinhole photography » Absurd Intellectual

What to do with a leftover Jack-o’Lantern?

Posted by Grant Hamilton on 2 November 2011 Everything Else

Nov 022011

After carving pumpkins, of course Amy and I roasted the seeds into a delicious snack. But now that the trick-or-treaters have come and gone, I’d like to know what I can do with the rest of the Jack-o’Lantern. I mean, it seems like it’s pretty good pumpkin flesh, still in there.

Of course, Google has a ton of answers — ranging from “nothing, beware of bugs” to what looks like a pretty good brownie recipe. There’s also a slideshow here with some other ideas, including catapulting it or donating it to a farm.

I’ve got an uncarved one sitting in my porch, waiting to be baked into oatmeal, but I’ve also got two Jack-o’Lanterns that I think I just might roast and puree. I know, that’s kind of punting the question — but the pumpkin puree can be frozen, and used for other things down the road, from soup to hummus.

Some of my more adventurous readers, however, might like to turn theirs into a pinhole camera:

NPR has got the whole story. Cool!

Ceramic pinhole cameras look great, so do their pictures

Posted by Grant Hamilton on 1 September 2010 Photography

Sep 012010

You know, I’d heard of a Pottery Barn, but never before a pottery camera. But check out the line of ceramic ppinhole cameras crafted by Steve Irvine.

Because it’s so easy to make a pinhole camera, a lot of them look kind of slapped together. But Irvine’s are nice enough to put on a shelf.

And they take good pictures, too! When I heard of it, I wondered how he got the pinhole tiny enough for good shots, but it looks like he’s got a metal “lens” for his cameras. Good idea. Here’s an example shot from the above camera — it took 90 minutes to expose:

(Thanks Colin!)

Eerie photos from incarcerated girls

Posted by Amy Breen on 4 June 2009 Photography

Jun 042009

There’s a post over at Prison Photography (who knew?) showing images taken by imprisoned girls in Washington State, using a pinhole camera.

It was a project by photographer Steve Davis, who took his own photos of the girls. There was a strict policy on not capturing faces, that both Steve and the girls had to follow.

The result are truly eerie, and capture the mental exhaustion from isolation.

(I would credit the photos, but there was no indication of who exactly took them on the site)

The author of the blog, Pete Brook, then has an interesting take on the problem of clichés that photographers face when taking prison photos that these girls just don’t have to worry about because they’re the ones in prison.