WPPD in Cambridge, MA

I helped Rob Duarte give a pinhole photography class at the Cambridge Center
for Adult Education in Cambridge, MA. on Saturday and Sunday morning. We had 8
students although one of them was there mostly to get information and
references and didn't build a camera or come back on Sunday. There were three
high school students from New Hampshire and their teacher. We had a magazine
editor and a veterinarian also. We provided all the supplies including a
variety of containers that we had pre-painted and drilled or cut holes in. We
explained the usual things on how pinhole cameras worked and then had the
students make pinholes in brass shim stock. We loaded the cameras with paper
and went out and exposed the first round of negatives. We returned to the
darkroom and processed the negatives. Some were properly exposed and some were
overexposed. Saturday was a bright sunny day. The biggest disaster was that
there was some pretty foul water pouring out of the darkroom ceiling light
fixture, creating a mess and a really bad smell. Since we needed the darkroom,
we tried our best to work around the problem.

Seven of the eight students came back bright and early on Sunday, despite
clouds and rain. We had to stand out in the rain for a while because the
fellow who was supposed to open the door was late. When we finally got in, we
metered the light outside, reloaded the cameras and started shooting again.
The darkroom was dry for a while but the ceiling leak started again, but we
kept working anyway. All the students were very motivated and didn't mind
making long exposures in the rain, some of them up to 30 minutes. There was a
constant stream of people in the darkroom processing negatives, reloading
cameras and making contact prints. I think everybody got to make properly
exposed negatives and prints. They seemed happy about their progress.
Rob had a great idea in proposing the class and I had a great time helping out.
Received on Mon Apr 29 15:31:51 2002