my new camera

I used to take some pretty good pictures. When I was 18 or 19, I took a correspondence course in photography. It was after getting kicked out of university after my first year, and I was working full time at Taco Bell...living at home, with no real direction in life. It was about $600 for the course, and in the end, I got a 'free' camera. I loved that camera. It was all manual, and I slowly found my 'eye' and thought I was pretty good at the 'artsy' photos.
I even, in later years, ended up having an actual artist wanting to buy one of my photos!
At any rate, as with most things I do, I felt the creativity leave me, and the camera started gathering dust. It was also partly due to the fact that this camera, and then together with the giant zoom lens Hubby ended up buying for me, weighed about 1,000 pounds!! So, I hated carrying it around.
Enter my cute little 'Elph' Camera. It didn't take great pictures, but it fit in my pocket!! Still, with it's limited capabilities, I never really got my creative juices flowing for photos again.
Then, we were part of the digital age, and a friend gave us her old digital camera. It took pictures closer to my old camera, but weighed less, and didn't waste film! But then it died...so, since, by then, prices were down, we got the digital version of the Elph...I don't mind it, but I really only take family photos or day to day shots. I've never really considered getting back into arty photos.
But this year, I got a pinhole camera kit, and am eager to see what cool things I can do with it.
I finally put it together today...yes, I made a camera!
Of course, I didn't think to document the process until almost done, but here's the open camera and the instructions. Four pages or so...lots of gluing, and lots of paper-clipping until the glue dried.
Here's the front of the finished product... And, the back, with the exposure guide. I haven't really had to think about exposure, film speed, or any of that for a long time. Even composition isn't as important anymore due to easy deleting and re-shooting, and photoshop and all of that.
And here's the kit, with the camera. It came with a big book of artists photos and stuff, but I've yet to really look at it...I flipped through it Christmas day, but now that the camera is done, I will take a closer look. I've never used a camera like this but I am excited! I took a couple pictures tonight, and am keeping a log/diary of the exposure time and whatnot.
Of course, IF any of the photos turn out, I will have to scan and upload them.
I am already feeling more creative in this new year...I hope it lasts!!

(I'm finally watching A Christmas Story...but now it's raining and I want to listen to the rain...A nice December rain!)