Pinhole Cliche

This morning I went out to photograph the snow. If we are lucky we get one or two snows a year where I live. What little accumulation we have usually melts by 10 am. Most landscape photographers want a few snow pictures in their files so I dutifully got up early and went out in search of "snow images." Pinhole camera of choice was the adjustable Finney 4x5 inch (for ease of use in the cold) with black and white film.

The melt factor meant I had to work fast. Looking around I saw many possible images. I had photographed these snow covered rice paddies many times before with a regular camera. And soon I found myself photographing the same thing again with the pinhole.

"Gotta get the snow pictures" ran through the mind. I market a lot of my country and nature scenes to magazines and books and if I am going to market my pinhole art work to the editorial market, I needed to get some more "snow" in my stock files. So there I was like any normal photographer planning the shot, thinking of composition, looking at the patterns of the snow, and thinking "cliche".

It was freezing cold (which I hate) and I wondered if I was really inspired or just going through the motions, as if it were an assignment and I had to get the images. It would likely be the only chance for snow pictures this year, so there was little room for error.

Later, back inside the house in front of the warm heater I started thinking about the way I worked this morning. Did I get anything "original"? Did I get an image that brings out the special qualities of pinhole photography as no other camera can? Or did I get a cliche image that happened to be made with a pinhole camera? Did I get a "good" image regardless of the camera I used? Or did I get a cliche pinhole image?

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