Then, in about July, I came across this. A pinhole camera can track the sun's movement across the sky, and when I found out about this my science senses got to tingling. "What a perfect mix of two of my passions!" I told myself. I resolved to start my own pinhole camera at the next solstice, and I promptly forgot about it until Saturday, when I finally ordered some pages of film on eBay.
The film arrived in the mail Thursday, just in time for the night of the solstice. I drank a can of Miller Genuine Draft because it was a convenient can; the beer tasted like water sponged out of bread. I cut the top off, covered the outside with years-old black construction paper that had turned purple, pinned a hole through the paper and the can, went into the darkness of the garage to place the photo paper in the can, and taped everything together with black Gorilla Tape. I taped it to a stick taped to a piece of rebar, and I stuck it in the ground at a corner of the house.
There it will stay, hopefully, for six months. If everything works out, I'll have a present to open at the summer solstice, even though I've never celebrated it before.
Will the whole be greater than the sum of its parts?
(Successful six-month photo comes from here.)