Camera Obscura

This morning was the nicest day of the year thus far. I just wanted to get out of class and walk around.

I got this opportunity today when I went to Kenilworth to see Ethan Jackson's camera obscura. It was a real laid back class I was able to go get a frozen coffee (or something like that) then enjoy his work.

It was in the Kenilworth art building which is connected to Kenilworth Square where I live which is very easy to find. His Camera Obscura was comprised of four pin holes set up in a panoramic fashion that projected onto a mobile wall about six feet away. The detail was spectacular since the mobile wall gave him the option to move it into place to get a better focus.

He also projected his previous projects on a wall and answered questions. His last work in the church with the obscura of the sky on the ceiling of the church was beautiful. He uses time lapse photography from a digital SLR to get these quicktime videos that he played for us. He said he wants to do it on video but has never had his hands on a good enough quality camera to do so. So I approached him after he was finished and introduced myself. I told him that I have a an HD 3-chip Camera that might work. He was very excited and he actually gave me a call tonight so we could set something up for around 2 pm tomorrow. Hopefully the weather is well and we can pick up his obscura in enough detail. He said it would be great for his portfolio to have a video to show. I am hoping that if it works out well he will give me a copy that I can give to Carl so he can show it to future classes.

Overall I found this field trip to be a great experience. I wish we did stuff like this more often.