Solar Eclipse April 8, 2024, Camera-making time
It’s so fun to see all the plans folks are making about the solar eclipse today. I remember my first experience of a solar eclipse in elementary school. I believe it was this 1978 partial solar eclipse, or it could have been the one Feb. 26, 1979, if that one had good visibility in New England (the little archive video is fun regardless).
Why it made such an impression was not so much the sky, but building a camera out of Quaker oatmeal containers, and then going outside to use it where we usually played kickball for recess (and I got in my first and only physical fight with a great friend, but more on that another time).
My mind was blown that I could build a viewing camera using an empty container and some paper, tape, reflective stuff and a pin*.
In later years, I learned about aperture (the opening in a traditional camera where the image is fed through to record) in photography and film making, and I often reflected about the pinhole camera where you have virtually no control of it. Having control of aperature gives so much control of depth of focus and mood of an image, but these early cameras just showed everything upside down elsewhere, and that was amazing enough. Still is.
Happy Solar Eclipse Everyone!
By <a href=”//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gampe” title=”User:Gampe”>Gampe</a> – <span class=”int-own-work” lang=”en”>Own work</span>, CC BY 3.0, Link
*Take your camera obscura to the next level by checking out instructions like this if you like.
