South Oakes Street Bridge at Dawn
Worlwide Pinhole Photography Day is “an international event created to promote and celebrate the art of pinhole photography.” Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is celebrated the fourth Sunday in April. In 2020, this is April 26. So, in the morning dark of April 26th, my wife and I set off to the Celebration Bridge on the Concho river in downtown San Angelo to capture a pinhole picture for the international event.
I wanted to try to get a shot of the Oakes Street Bridge near the San Angelo Museum of Fine Art silhouetted against the colors of the new dawn. I’d rather hoped for some nice reflections off the Concho River. You see the results above.
If you want to see the image in the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day Gallery, go to the Pinhole Day site (above), chose “Gallery” from the menu, navigate to the gallery, and search for image #316. You can scroll through all the pictures submitted so far. Submissions close on June 30, 2020.
Pearl of the Conchos
Cactus-infested San Angelo, Texas seems a strange place for a mermaid statue, but it makes Texas-style wall-eyed sense: the Concho River is famous for its Concho Pearls produced by freshwater mussels in a variety of colors. The mermaid is holding a shell that contains a pearl. I’ve photographed this statute a number of times. She is hard to get right.
SAMFA
This is the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts (SAMFA) and its reflection shot from across the Concho River. The museum building is meant to represent the swooping top of a Conestoga wagon. The building is beautiful. The art inside is nice, too.
SAMFA Again
SAMFA again. My wife and I liked all the curves from this angle. The sunlight hitting the top of the building and streaking across the grass were attractions as well.
Aermotor Windmill
This is an Aermotor windmill. The Aermotor company has been around for over 100 years and is based in San Angelo. The wheel wasn’t turning on the morning of April 26th, but I’ve seen it spinning before. By the way, if you want one of these for your yard, a windmill with a six-foot wheel and a twenty-one-foot tower can be had for $6411.24 according to the Aermoter website.
These photos were taken with a Canon 6DII wearing a Thingyfy Pinhole Pro X. I’ve described the Pinhole Pro X in a previous pinhole post, Five Frames of Pinhole Photos from the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. The photos were processed from RAW files with Darktable, free Darkroom software for Windoze, Mac, and Linux.
Not a big fan of the pin head oops!, pinhole optical lens. It seems to crap up an otherwise clear photo of something cool. The only use I see for a pinhole lens is if you want to take a picture of a haunted house or a fake bigfoot. I saw all the pinhole pics and quickly compared them to the Fulton Harbor pic right below them, no comparison. Fulton Harbor wins! AND, Worldwide Pinhole Day!?! Who’d a thunk it? I think pinhole photography is congruent with rapping in the music world. Get your funk on!