Solarography, Summer/Autumn 2011

I found some coffee cans at work on the "Free to a good home" table. I had made some solargraphs using 3-pound coffee cans I had gotten from the same table. I had made some with Guinness cans and quart paint cans. I found the smaller, 12-ounce coffee cans just before the summer solstice and decided to add one more round to the solarography project.

I put the cans back on the chimney's spark arrester the evening of the summer solstice. They just barely fit under the cap of the arrester. They came down the evening after the winter solstice. So it includes the day before and the day after the winter solstice. The overlap of the sun's path probably isn't noticeable but it's there. Oops.

Here's the view from the chimney looking to the southeast.

The dark bits at the bottom corners are little magnets I used to hold the paper tight against the can.

Here's about the same view taken with my fisheye lens. The sun is in the tree on the right.

And, just for fun, here's the picture in black and white to compare with the black and white solargraph.

Here's the view from the chimney looking to the southwest.

And the fisheye lens's view.

And the black and white version.

My original proof-of-concept attempt at solarography used a tiny camera made out of a 35mm film canister. I made another camera with it and strapped it to the weather station's tripod. For such a tiny piece of paper it captured a rather detailed image. It's looking south. Too bad its hole was centered on the side of the canister so it didn't include the full wintertime path of the sun.

 The fisheye view from the weather station.

 In black and white.

I haven't loaded the cameras up again so don't expect these views again. I need to find other places to put cameras. The little, 35mm film canister could be put out in the wild with some chance of its being left alone. But I have only one. New ones come with rolls of film. Film? Who uses film? Is there anybody out there who kept such ancient artifacts on the off-chance that might someday be useful? Mom?