Javie’s Beverage, Roxborough.

Why Javie’s ?

Continuing my series of pinhole photographs of Roxborough landmarks I chose Javie’s Beverage as my subject for this year’s World Pinhole Photography Day. Javie’s  has been a neighborhood staple for decades. 

Full disclosure, I am a patron of this fine establishment but have not received any payment, either monetary or in the form of  goods or services for this endorsement. 

Javie’s is nearby with plenty of parking so I wouldn’t have to lug the camera and tripod too far and I could run home quickly and process the negatives to ensure proper exposure, focus and composition.

While the building itself is just a flat-roofed, brick rectangle it’s the signage I was attracted to. The facade reminds me of the Farm Security Administration photographs from the 1930s taken by Walker Evans, Bernice Abbot and others. Some of which were portraits of business owners in front of their establishments. The Bud Light, Philadelphia Eagles and Busch Light,  Best Selection In Roxborough, tie the photo to the city and, the neighborhood.

Human Touch

I like to incorporate humans in my photographs but I doubted any of the patrons would agree to stand still for the two-minute exposure that would be required. I decided to do a selfie instead, but how do I stand there like a statue and not look stupid ? Easy, I’ll just scroll through my phone.

The Camera

I used a modified 4x5 Crown Graphic with a f/180 pinhole. Modified meaning I had to saw off the bed as it appeared in the photos. This is my super wide camera as unlike a Speed Graphic there was no shutter in the body making it narrower. The standard holding the pinhole could be much closer to the film plane giving me a focal length of 45mm which is extremely wide on 4x5. A refrigerator magnet served as the shutter. The only other modification was the addition of a bubble level on top of the camera. As the field of view is so wide, composition was basically point-and-shoot and the large negative would then allow a reasonable amount of cropping to recompose if needed. Not sure I could take a hacksaw to a perfectly good Graflex today as my sensibilities concerning vintage cameras have evolved.

The Negative & Exposure

Film holders were loaded with Ilford multigrade RC paper cut down to 4x5. I taped a Kodak polycontrast #1 filter behind the pinhole to reduce contrast. This combination gave me a working ISO of 3. After metering the scene with a hand heldmeter I then used a pinhole aperture slide rule to translate the meter reading to match the f/180 pinhole. The suggested exposure was one minute so I made one exposure at a minute and another at two minutes assuming reciprocity might be an issue. I could have skipped the handheld meter and just applied the Sunny 16 rule as unlike last year the weather was perfect.

In A Supporting Role:

As pinhole exposures are long a sturdy camera support is a necessity and my 1950’s Chicago Majestic Tripod is as stable as they come. Not the kind of tripod you want to take on a hike though.

Analog to Digital

 Once back home I processed the negatives in HC-110, 1:31. While HC-110 is a film developer it will develop paper as well.  Dektol may have yielded better results but I didn’t want to mix up a gallon of developer for just a few sheets of paper. Once dry the negatives were scanned with an Epson V750 then inverted in Lightroom.

That Was Then, This is Now

Having recently purchased two Canon R6ll’s, with very deep menus and a multitude of customization options it was refreshing to get back to basics. All that is really needed is a light-tight box an aperture and light sensitive material. 

Pinhole to the People

World Pinhole Photography Day is a celebration of lensless photography with particaption by thousands of people from over 50 countries. There is no entry fee, no judging, no prizes, no advertising, no rights grabs. Anyone taking a pinhole photograph, either analog or digital, on the last Sunday in April, can upload a photo to the online gallery. Maybe I’ll see your pinhole photo in the gallery next year.

Link to my 2022 WPPD post

Link to my 2021 WPPD post