First a question on tools! Do you ever use a physical (analog) light meter anymore?
I would absolutely love to have an Ondu camera in my hands. I have been trying to build my own pinhole camera out of a box I have. 😊. I’ve taken part in solargraphy project that used old film canisters as the pinhole camera and find the results so beautiful and interesting.
Recently I’ve started to make my own inks for painting and the copper oxide that you get by placing copper in vinegar is extraordinary. My inspiration for this was the documentary The Colour of Ink. Highly recommended.
Thanks for continuing to share your processes with us! 😊
Oooh I could get into ink making! Never even thought about that before!
I don’t use a physical lightmeter anymore outside of the ones in my camera. They’re of course superior and very cool but it’s just another thing to carry and the phone plus my experience/instincts works fine.
Jason Logan (The Toronto Ink Comoany) was the subject of the documentary « The Colour of Ink » and author of « Make Ink ». He has a Substack : https://substack.com/@thecolour that shows some of his ink making. It is fascinating. 🤩. It could be very interesting to mix hand made inks with printed pinhole photographs!! ❤️❤️
Woodworking and photography both freeze moments in time—one through structure, the other through light. Every groove in a wooden camera whispers: This was made for you, by someone who cared. In a world of algorithms and automation, these crafts are quiet revolutions. That’s why Ondu’s cameras are not tools, but collaborators in storytelling.
For me, it’s renovating old wooden furniture. There’s something deeply satisfying about taking a worn, forgotten piece and bringing it back to life with care and patience. The process—sanding away years of wear, choosing the right finish, and restoring the details by hand—feels a lot like photography in the sense that it’s about seeing potential where others might not. It’s slow, intentional work, but that’s what makes it rewarding. Like capturing an image on film, it’s a way of preserving something meaningful and giving it new purpose.
I've long been an avid cyclist (predominantly road). For the aesthetic, design and build qualities along with the heritage, I've always admired and ridden Bianchi bicycles (with stunning Campagnolo group sets). As with many camera's, their appearance and use brings so much satisfaction, beyond that of any other bicycle.
That is a personally very powerful mix! Woodworking and photography. I find I have very hungry hands motored by a very curious mind. I took classes in woodworking and fine furniture building and I would often find songs coming to me and I'd have to stop what I was doing to go record on my phone and then get back to it. Woodworking took me to France and because of an injury, I documented with my camera the wood working and stone work that was being done. Of course, this meant that songs would also come for the ride and I'd find myself recording more on my phone. My eye catches my yearning, I think, for mastery, in photography, and other things, parts of me I don't have access to otherwise, much like when I write a song. Working on a piece of music, like right now, Mozart Requiem has that inner connection, you know like when you can let go of the KNOWING something and just let it take over. Crafting a song is bliss.
I don't practice it myself and I don't know a lot about it, but I love looking at ceramics and seeing the processes behind making them. They can be utilitarian or simply beautiful objects, or both at once. I like to think about the different designs, textures and colours, the ways that light and shadow play on their surfaces, their different practical uses and how they sit in a space alongside other objects. I also like the idea that the techniques used to make ceramics have been passed down from one generation to the next for centuries, and there are variations in design and process in different cultures and parts of the world. There is a sense of history and tradition as well as craft behind the art form.
I love Cooking too. I am 18 Years old and learning to cook. And i find many similarities between Cooking And Photography.
I like to keep my recipes and photos simple. To keep it simple yet deliver visually delicious results in the case of photography and mouth-watering results in the kitchen is what I aim for.😁😁
For me, it's fermenting food! I can't call myself a great cook, but it feels like doing science experiments and being able to connect with the generations of my family and culture at the same time.
I have my mom's recipes for fermenting cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, and many other vegetables, and these recipes she also got from her parents, they've been passed down from generation to generation!
The craft that keeps me busy and inspired by life is working on and around the small organic farm I live on with my spouse. We have scaled back our vegetable production but still keep a number of animals around for pets, eggs, and meat production for ourselves. I love tinkering on projects and this winter have been needing to put a fair bit of work in our tractor, which we use to blow the snow out of our 100 meter long driveway. We have had way more snow this year in our part of Canada than the last 5 years so that has kept me busy. Can't wait for spring so I can get out photographing again more easily and with warmer fingers!
Great rundown. I haven't gotten into using Photoshop for my editing, I use Lightroom to convert my negatives with negative lab pro, then I usually finish all my edits in Lightroom. I would be curious to learn more about Photoshop editing.
One hobby I was very interested in for a while was fountain pens. Much like cameras there's a world of options out there from the Montblanc that everyone knows is expensive and fancy, to the Namiki which only those in the know will find impressive. There's also a whole world of hobbiests and enthusiasts who create and modify all sorts of things with small groups putting out some impressive projects. A pen is such a personal object that there can never be a truly objective assessment of it. So much subjectivity which makes for an interesting experience.
As an IT Pro, I like your software list also your attention to security with backups, anti-malware and VPN software! As for the question: handwriting. My personal hand is utilitarian and functional but the folks who can write calligraphy with fountain pens are amazing!
Alex! Oh for sure, I’m super into security! And I love great handwriting. Mine isn’t great but I write all day long and got into fountain pens a few years ago, huge fan
As I’ve perused more and more art shows, I’ve come to love collages. How people can take seemingly random connections between items and place them together to make a story. It’s like crafting a photo from pieces that are not your own. I love the creativity people have used and it’s inspired some of the little postcards I’ve made.
Also I’m thankful to all the people who are still hand making instruments to be played around the world. To know a guitar I played was only crafted by human hands and maybe cut from a tree someone planted makes me feel as the soul of the instrument is much more than just what a factory made instrument provides. :)
I’m so inspired by carpenters and woodworkers. To be able to build your own furniture/house/etc. is absolutely one of the coolest things in my opinion. I am trying to convince myself to start learning, especially since some of my family members are so good at it and I can learn from them.
Wesley, I also love cooking!! I'm lucky enough that my partner is a man who is especially gifted at it and I've learned a lot from watching him work. Sharing that process (aha no pun intended) with friends is really special, and a lot of my personal photography over the last several years has revolved around that... including that photobook I'm still working on. ;)
I also really admire woodworking and pottery and traditional textiles/sewing. There is so much inspiration and beauty for me in the making of objects that we use or wear every day in a way that incorporates both art and utility. I'm not very good at any of those arts myself, but I love seeing them done in the hands of people who are.
I do fix and tune pianos for my day job, so that gets me close to a craft but it is more maintenance and repair than actual creation. Still, it's fun!
Thanks for sharing your tools Wesley, it's always engaging to know more about your process be it technical or not.
As for the question, I have found myself getting into pottery these days and I often find the physical act of creating something solid with time and effort with my own two hands to be a rather endearing experience.
I'm pretty into growing things, although my husband questions why many of my interests involve putting non food related items in the fridge (cold stratification helps some things germinate). There are so many possibilities: form, function, taste, personality, composition. You can get sciencey with germination and growth, and zen with plant hive minds and ecosystems. At the height of the season, I may have up to 300 different plants, and I inspect each one about every day. When people mention my green thumb, my response is always, if you care about something, it shows. I think I share that with some of the folks here!
First a question on tools! Do you ever use a physical (analog) light meter anymore?
I would absolutely love to have an Ondu camera in my hands. I have been trying to build my own pinhole camera out of a box I have. 😊. I’ve taken part in solargraphy project that used old film canisters as the pinhole camera and find the results so beautiful and interesting.
Recently I’ve started to make my own inks for painting and the copper oxide that you get by placing copper in vinegar is extraordinary. My inspiration for this was the documentary The Colour of Ink. Highly recommended.
Thanks for continuing to share your processes with us! 😊
Oooh I could get into ink making! Never even thought about that before!
I don’t use a physical lightmeter anymore outside of the ones in my camera. They’re of course superior and very cool but it’s just another thing to carry and the phone plus my experience/instincts works fine.
Jason Logan (The Toronto Ink Comoany) was the subject of the documentary « The Colour of Ink » and author of « Make Ink ». He has a Substack : https://substack.com/@thecolour that shows some of his ink making. It is fascinating. 🤩. It could be very interesting to mix hand made inks with printed pinhole photographs!! ❤️❤️
Thank you for sharing!
Yes!!! Jason Logan's Substack is how I found this place! Making ink is so much fun! Love his book, Make Ink!
Woodworking and photography both freeze moments in time—one through structure, the other through light. Every groove in a wooden camera whispers: This was made for you, by someone who cared. In a world of algorithms and automation, these crafts are quiet revolutions. That’s why Ondu’s cameras are not tools, but collaborators in storytelling.
Rob! You are one of the two winners! Please email me your mailing address asap
Love how you put that Rob!
For me, it’s renovating old wooden furniture. There’s something deeply satisfying about taking a worn, forgotten piece and bringing it back to life with care and patience. The process—sanding away years of wear, choosing the right finish, and restoring the details by hand—feels a lot like photography in the sense that it’s about seeing potential where others might not. It’s slow, intentional work, but that’s what makes it rewarding. Like capturing an image on film, it’s a way of preserving something meaningful and giving it new purpose.
Love that! Beautiful craft!
I've long been an avid cyclist (predominantly road). For the aesthetic, design and build qualities along with the heritage, I've always admired and ridden Bianchi bicycles (with stunning Campagnolo group sets). As with many camera's, their appearance and use brings so much satisfaction, beyond that of any other bicycle.
Such beauties! Great answer!
That is a personally very powerful mix! Woodworking and photography. I find I have very hungry hands motored by a very curious mind. I took classes in woodworking and fine furniture building and I would often find songs coming to me and I'd have to stop what I was doing to go record on my phone and then get back to it. Woodworking took me to France and because of an injury, I documented with my camera the wood working and stone work that was being done. Of course, this meant that songs would also come for the ride and I'd find myself recording more on my phone. My eye catches my yearning, I think, for mastery, in photography, and other things, parts of me I don't have access to otherwise, much like when I write a song. Working on a piece of music, like right now, Mozart Requiem has that inner connection, you know like when you can let go of the KNOWING something and just let it take over. Crafting a song is bliss.
yes yes yes
Truly!
I don't practice it myself and I don't know a lot about it, but I love looking at ceramics and seeing the processes behind making them. They can be utilitarian or simply beautiful objects, or both at once. I like to think about the different designs, textures and colours, the ways that light and shadow play on their surfaces, their different practical uses and how they sit in a space alongside other objects. I also like the idea that the techniques used to make ceramics have been passed down from one generation to the next for centuries, and there are variations in design and process in different cultures and parts of the world. There is a sense of history and tradition as well as craft behind the art form.
love this josh!
I love Cooking too. I am 18 Years old and learning to cook. And i find many similarities between Cooking And Photography.
I like to keep my recipes and photos simple. To keep it simple yet deliver visually delicious results in the case of photography and mouth-watering results in the kitchen is what I aim for.😁😁
Hahah I like that Sudheesh!
For me, it's fermenting food! I can't call myself a great cook, but it feels like doing science experiments and being able to connect with the generations of my family and culture at the same time.
I have my mom's recipes for fermenting cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, and many other vegetables, and these recipes she also got from her parents, they've been passed down from generation to generation!
The craft that keeps me busy and inspired by life is working on and around the small organic farm I live on with my spouse. We have scaled back our vegetable production but still keep a number of animals around for pets, eggs, and meat production for ourselves. I love tinkering on projects and this winter have been needing to put a fair bit of work in our tractor, which we use to blow the snow out of our 100 meter long driveway. We have had way more snow this year in our part of Canada than the last 5 years so that has kept me busy. Can't wait for spring so I can get out photographing again more easily and with warmer fingers!
This sounds so lovely (and a lot of work!)
Great rundown. I haven't gotten into using Photoshop for my editing, I use Lightroom to convert my negatives with negative lab pro, then I usually finish all my edits in Lightroom. I would be curious to learn more about Photoshop editing.
One hobby I was very interested in for a while was fountain pens. Much like cameras there's a world of options out there from the Montblanc that everyone knows is expensive and fancy, to the Namiki which only those in the know will find impressive. There's also a whole world of hobbiests and enthusiasts who create and modify all sorts of things with small groups putting out some impressive projects. A pen is such a personal object that there can never be a truly objective assessment of it. So much subjectivity which makes for an interesting experience.
Absolutely agreed, would even extend that notion to cameras!
As an IT Pro, I like your software list also your attention to security with backups, anti-malware and VPN software! As for the question: handwriting. My personal hand is utilitarian and functional but the folks who can write calligraphy with fountain pens are amazing!
Alex! Oh for sure, I’m super into security! And I love great handwriting. Mine isn’t great but I write all day long and got into fountain pens a few years ago, huge fan
As I’ve perused more and more art shows, I’ve come to love collages. How people can take seemingly random connections between items and place them together to make a story. It’s like crafting a photo from pieces that are not your own. I love the creativity people have used and it’s inspired some of the little postcards I’ve made.
Also I’m thankful to all the people who are still hand making instruments to be played around the world. To know a guitar I played was only crafted by human hands and maybe cut from a tree someone planted makes me feel as the soul of the instrument is much more than just what a factory made instrument provides. :)
Yes yes yes to all of that!
I’m so inspired by carpenters and woodworkers. To be able to build your own furniture/house/etc. is absolutely one of the coolest things in my opinion. I am trying to convince myself to start learning, especially since some of my family members are so good at it and I can learn from them.
ooh you should!
Wesley, I also love cooking!! I'm lucky enough that my partner is a man who is especially gifted at it and I've learned a lot from watching him work. Sharing that process (aha no pun intended) with friends is really special, and a lot of my personal photography over the last several years has revolved around that... including that photobook I'm still working on. ;)
I also really admire woodworking and pottery and traditional textiles/sewing. There is so much inspiration and beauty for me in the making of objects that we use or wear every day in a way that incorporates both art and utility. I'm not very good at any of those arts myself, but I love seeing them done in the hands of people who are.
I do fix and tune pianos for my day job, so that gets me close to a craft but it is more maintenance and repair than actual creation. Still, it's fun!
Those Ondu cameras look incredible! <3
So many good ones!
Thanks for sharing your tools Wesley, it's always engaging to know more about your process be it technical or not.
As for the question, I have found myself getting into pottery these days and I often find the physical act of creating something solid with time and effort with my own two hands to be a rather endearing experience.
As always thanks for the community! Take care :)
you're very welcome!
I'm pretty into growing things, although my husband questions why many of my interests involve putting non food related items in the fridge (cold stratification helps some things germinate). There are so many possibilities: form, function, taste, personality, composition. You can get sciencey with germination and growth, and zen with plant hive minds and ecosystems. At the height of the season, I may have up to 300 different plants, and I inspect each one about every day. When people mention my green thumb, my response is always, if you care about something, it shows. I think I share that with some of the folks here!
Thanks for the community, always a great read.
Sarah, wow 300!! I love this :)