I had devised this pinhole project (link) for myself and was working with a camera I had built of foamcore and blackwrap. Wayne happened to be one of the subjects for the series and when he saw me ‘trying’ to work with my camera he said, “I’m going to make you a camera with a tripod mount”. I thought that was fine, he’d take my foamcore idea and put a sturdy mount on the bottom. He borrowed a 4×5 film holder from me to take measurements from and went to work. A few months later he handed me what is now known as The Bee.

The Bee is a 4×5 pinhole (film) camera that is machined from aluminum (aluminium for you non-American folk). It features two windows with antique key holes meal bug, beetle, and a large, black, carpenter bee. The back is spring loaded for holding the film holders in place. The tripod mount is stainless steel, and very sturdy I might add. The poem on the top is lifted from a Pablo Neruda poem, “El Insecto”. The aperture is approximately f350 (give or take), and is the original pinhole that was on my foamcore camera. The Bee is a tank of a camera weighing in at 5.8 pounds (2.6 kg). For a closer look at The Bee, see here: Stills of The Bee.

Based in Tucson, AZ, Wayne is a self taught painter, sculptor, machinist, and now photographer who works with found objects, and those objects he can’t find, he makes. The Bee was the first of many cameras to descend from his mind. As the numbers grew, they increased in complexity, depth, and some may say…. okay, more than some have said, into weirdness. The two that are made from human skulls tend to be the focus of any of his gallery shows. If I were to have any of his other cameras, I’d want the Dragonfly which is his second camera and a perfect brother to The Bee, and his underwater camera because well, it’s an underwater, 4×5 pinhole camera!

You can see more about Wayne, his cameras, photography, and art at BoyofBlue.com

Bee Camera: The first of Wayne Martin Belger’s pinhole cameras from Brian Booth on Vimeo.

Here’s some more fun from our friends in Nashville. I got to DP on this one as well. I’m not sure, but I believe this will be the end of this series. Working on location Dean, Raul, and everyone else at Nissan and TDI is always a great time!

These shoots are always fun. It’s nice to get out of LA sometimes to head to Nashville. I was the DP on this shoot.

This little video really makes me want my dark room back. It was while printing in the darkroom that I decided that I wanted to be a photographer. I LOVE this stuff. The smell of the chemicals, the hands on tactile part of the art, and the visual depth of the images on paper that can not be reproduced on a video monitor. It blends my love of science and art. I think this is just a beautifully shot video that Luís Oliveira Santos put together. It’s also a great example of how video from the 5D Mk2 can look when shot understanding the limits it can be taken to with proper lighting and post. Have a look and let me know what you think?

Platinum Palladium Printing with Leica M Monochrom from Luís Oliveira Santos on Vimeo.

We got a chance at a morning balloon ride with our awesome buddy, Sheldon, who is a balloon pilot in Las Vegas. My brother, Randy, and his son Josh, are on the ground crew. It was an awesome morning, and great time that we highly recommend anyone try next time they are out that way. Contact me for details if you’d like to see Vegas from a different point of veiw! (The cheap champagne after the ride is a nice finish)

December Balloon Ride Over Vegas from Brian Booth on Vimeo.