Solstice To Solstice

On Tuesday, December 22, 2015, I strapped another pinhole camera to my back porch to capture another photo of the change in solar elevation over a period of time. This time around, I wanted to capture the sun as it went from it’s lowest point in the sky to it’s highest point in the sky.

That meant I needed to start the capture on the winter solstice (12/22/2015), and end it on the summer solstice (06/20/2016). So, that’s what I did.

Below is the outcome of the 6 month exposure.

You will notice something that appears to be scratches towards the bottom of the frame. At first, I was confused as to how those got there. Then, I realized those “scratches” are actually the silhouette of the cars that were parked on the street and stayed in the same spot for an extended period of time.

As the summer solstice grew closer, and the sun climbed higher into the sky, I knew there was a flaw with the pinhole camera. The pinhole needed to be higher up on the can. Because it wasn’t as high up on the can as possible, the last few months were cut off at the top of the frame.

Luckily, I knew that was going to be the case, so I prepped a new can with the pinhole as high as possible to capture the solar elevation change from the summer solstice to the winter solstice. Now, I get to wait until Tuesday, December 21, 2016 to see the outcome of that exposure!