366 Days of 2012, Day 159 - The Transit of Venus Through a Pin-Hole

This would have to be one of the most amazing images I have ever made, so why am I so reluctant to share it?

I created this image today by placing a 1.2 mm diameter pin hole one metre away from the bare sensor on my camera with no lens, glass or optics of any kind in between. To do this I used a 1,000 mm length of storm water PVC pipe to keep sensor and pin-hole aligned and unwanted light out. In short I constructed a super-telephoto pin-hole camera.

Here are a few images detailing the construction of the pin-hole lens for the event.



The interesting thing about this image is not just that it actually worked - after all, I was battling with the extremes of pin-hole optics - but that it also features cloud (sky) and leaves (terrestrial). The image is an extraordinary combination of land, sky, planet and star. So why was I so reluctant to share?

Years of engineering work have instilled in me the importance of precision and attention to detail. This flows through to my photography; I am always striving to produce perfectly composed high-resolution images that are tack sharp, have balanced exposure and no image noise. So when I produce a piece like this, the engineer in me cringes and the artist gets vetoed!

It took someone else to point out to me how special this image was before I abandoned it for some other high-resolution, tack sharp, balanced exposure, noise-free, perfectly composed 'ordinary' image! Thank you Jennifer!

So here it is reluctantly offered: one of the most amazing images I have ever made.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 159 - The Transit of Venus Through a Pin-Hole'. 1/8000s at f/700 ISO50 1000mm (pin-hole camera)