Pinhole Camera

Do you know where cameras originated? Way back in the day (between 470 and 390 BC), a Chinese dude named Mozi discovered this thing known as "camera obscura." Basically, they figured out that if a room is pitch black and has naught but a small hole in the side, whatever is outside will be projected upside-down and backwards on the wall opposite the hole. In more modern times, super smart scientist people learned how to capture that image. They started making pinhole cameras which eventually evolved into the high tech devices we have today. In our photography class we made our own pinhole cameras. We used a thumb tack to make a hole in a box and covered that with chipboard. I found that using a Toms shoe box works beautifully. I opened the "shutter" (I exposed the thumb tack hole) for about 30 seconds while a piece of light sensitive photo paper was inside, and this is the result. The top picture is the original, and the bottom one is the negative created in the darkroom.