The image above is a pinhole photograph, taken through a tiny opening in a $30 pinhole lens I purchased this week from B & H Photo after many hours of research and discussion.

This is a learning experiment for me, a new chapter in my understanding of light and color. This is something that will demand that I learn new things about exposure and focus, there is no computer or automated system to make any choices for me.

I will need a tripod – which I have – and a lot of patience and technical understanding, which I generally don’t have.

This week, I decided to go back to the 16th century, when monks and artists constructed wooden boxes with tiny holes in the front of them to act as lenses, they called them camera obscuras (dark chamber or room.) They were really among the first cameras in the world, they gave birth to the idea of modern photography.

We now call their successors pinhole cameras.

A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens but a tiny aperture, a pinhole. Pinhole cameras are essentially light-proof boxes with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through the opening (aperture) and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box, which is known as the camera obscura effect.

The first known description of pinhole photography is found in the 1865 book The Stereoscope by Scottish Inventor David Brewster, who d described it as “a camera without lenses, and with only a pin-hole.”

I have a lot to learn. I’ve never taken a photograph with a little light as the one I took of the lamp and our savings bank pig. Pinhole photography is elemental and simple.

I have no control over the focus, I can only open the aperture wide and raise the ISO up high and then look at the picture to see if I am close. That’s all I can do, it’s all the pinhole will let me do.

So I really need to pay attention to light and how it works.

I am a lover of light, and a student of light, you my notice that almost all of my photographs are about light (or animals and people) in one form or another, it’s my thing.

The pinhole lens – the B &H Photo people were unbelievably helpful to me – had drawn my attention for some time. I have a pinhole photo I framed that I bought in New York City. I loved it, it was so different and evocative.

I was going to buy a wooden box Pinhole camera – they are very inexpensive, as there is no lens or glass or electronics in them. But I found out there is a such a thing as a pinhole lens I can buy, and I did.  was made for Canon cameras.

I love the feel of some of these photographs, I have much to learn about how to use them and how to manage the tiny burst of light that comes through. This first shot opened my eyes to the possibilities.

The color was better than I thought, and I liked the warmth and depth of the photograph. I have to write down the shutter speeds, etc. with each shot, so I can remember what worked and what didn’t.

There are no expensive lenses to buy, no film or memory cards or cables. Lots of pinhole addicts make their own pinhole lenses with think needles.

This takes me back to the very first photography as we have come to know it.  I’m excited to work on this once in  awhile until I can understand it well enough to take some photos with it.

Tomorrow, in the windy cold and light, I’ll get my first chance to see what a pinhole camera – my Canon is a Pinhole camera when I put the pinhole lens on it – can do.

It will take a lot of trial and error for me to figure out how to get the light I need into that pinhole. This lens can teach me a lot, and I have no choice but to learn.

What am I going for here? I’m  not sure. I’m not giving on my regular photograph, I’m just giving myself a chance to learn color and light and lenses.

To me, Pinhole photographs are spare, evocative, different.

I’ll share, I think the first outdoor photos will be tomorrow in the blustery wind and cold.

I like the feeling in my first  pinhole photo.

P.S. As of Monday evening, I sold 15 prints of Morning Path.