I should start by saying that I have no earthly clue who these people are.

The neat thing about walking around with a Holga (especially one that is brightly colored like mine) is that people will stop me and ask what it is. Once they find out they will ask to get their picture taken.

This was taken out at Buffalo Springs Lake. It was actually taken one of the first Times I had ever been there. Very pretty lake. It inspired weekly visits with me and my homeless old roommate Lindzi.

Digital Pinhole of Hodges Park Lake

As I hinted on Day 95, with my photo of the book I am reading, Worldwide Pinhole Day is coming.

Worldwide Pinhole Day is April 25th. I have wanted to make a pinhole camera for a while now, and shoot with it.

I have on various outings used a digital pinhole lens; with very little success, but I think as a group it will be fun.

I have seen some awesome pinhole photographs on Flickr, and it can be a fun project to learn about photography with.

I am trying to get a group together for April 25th, to meet at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, TX and go on a photoadventure armed with pinhole cameras, with the simple goal of taking great Lo-Fi photographs with a pinhole camera.

Event Info on Facebook.

Plan on meeting at around noon on Saturday, and bring your camera and money for lunch.

There are a variety of options available online for building a pinhole camera.

I am making 1 based on one of the paper designs in the book I have.

Other Sources:

DIY 35mm Thrift Store Pinhole

Pinhole Photography

Matchbox Pinhole

DIY Pinhole Lens for DSLR

Pinhole Blender

Homemade Pinhole set on Flickr

Earlier today someone on formspring asked me “When did the photography bug bite you?” and this got me a little excited because this is something I could turn into a blog post.

Back in the summer between the 7th and 8th grade a friend of mine and I decided to enter a film festival.

It cost $25 bucks to enter, and we got an 8mm camera on loan with a roll of film from the organizer and we went on a camping trip with Scouts that weekend.

We spent the weekend shooting a short movie telling the story of a group of explorers climbing a mountain, and it was terrible.

However, at the time we were completely unaware of this, and thought our 30 minute black and white silent movie was awesome.

The festival happened, and it was an awesome experience, it was at a contemporary art gallery in Downtown El Paso, I forget the name; but there was free pizza and cokes; and like 5 other movies to watch before ours.

Well, this started it in part.

I continued on with carrying a camera on me while camping. I had a little plastic 110 camera that stayed in pack and I would shoot with it whenever we stopped.

In High School I took a few video classes, and shot several short pieces. I always wanted to take a photography class, but my parents always talked me out of it saying it was too expensive.

When I got to college, I did not get my first digital camera until my sophomore year. Before that I had shot with the disposable cameras you get at the grocery store.

My parents came up for my birthday and asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted a digital camera, and we went to the store and got the perfect one.

It was during my Junior year that I took a podcasting course, and had to shoot photos for the podcast. I checked out cameras from the College of MassComm from Rob, and would go shoot the needed material and I really enjoyed it.

I decided that I wanted to learn more, so I enrolled in a photo class at Tech. It was required that we had to shoot film, so I went online and bought a Canon Rebel G. I love that camera, and I have enjoyed shooting with it ever since.

It wasn’t until I started working at The Daily Toreador, and then started interning at The Avalanche-Journal that I really got into photography because I sometimes had to shoot concerts, and I had a ton of fun.

Even though I had no idea what I was doing.

But thanks to Rob and Lauren, I learned a lot and I am still learning how to shoot.

Naval Patel asked me on Twitter today what my inspiration was for my 365 project.

Since I could not figure out how to narrow down my thoughts to a single tweet, I thought I would spell it out in a nice blog post.

Because of others

A quick search on the internet will find tons of other people who have embarked on a 365 project. All of these people come with varying skill levels, and a preference for shooting different things.

This would be the first bit of inspiration from me. I go through Flickr and look at what other photographers are doing, and get ideas based around what they are doing.

The 365 can seem pretty daunting at first while you are doing it, but by looking at what others have done, I have the attitude of “They can do it, why can’t I.”

Variety is the spice of life

According to strengths quest, I am an input. This means that I like to learn new things, and try different things. This project encourages me to step outside my bubble and try new things; like developing my own film or building a pinhole camera.

Even if the experiment ends in a failure, I know there is something new to try; or I can learn what not to do next time I attempt this.

Also, this project has encouraged many photo adventures. There is something really fun about getting a group together, pointing in a direction and going there to find out what is over the horizon.

If I were to say I had an artistic statement for this project it would be: “I have never tried this before, so let’s see what happens.”

But I don’t.

Tons of Photos

I usually have at least one camera on me (I own 15 different cameras) and I take tons of pictures. A lot of these pictures are awful, but some of them are real gems.

I have an entire folder filled with slides and negatives next to an external hard drive filled with images. Have you ever seen any of them? Most likely not, because I never do anything with them.

One of the goals I have for this project, is to go through the folder and the Gigs of data I have and find some shots that are really worthwhile.

What does this button do?

My final inspiration behind this project is the equipment I use.

I have read the manual for my camera. I have read the manual for my flash. I read blogs and tutorials on everything from how to shoot this to what does this do in Lightroom.

However, I can not say this is how I learn.

I am one of those people that has to put something on its feet and try it out. Reading about it is great to get the idea started, but ultimately, I have to try and fail several times.

And now I am off to shoot my photo for the day.

Last night a friend and I went to the Texas Tech Horticulture garden and greenhouse for a mini photo adventure.

Outside the gardens were dead because it is still winter on the South Plains.

We went inside for a bit just to see if there was anything to shoot. Since the green house closed at 5 we only had a few minutes to shoot.

I was shooting film, so I only have one shot that is digital.