Longest photo exposure of all time

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/14/longest-photo-exposure-of-all-time.html

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This negative story has a positive result!

Really cool image, too.

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Meh. Kinda blurry if I’m being honest. Composition is a bit lacking. Try harder next time. 4/10.

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The photographer to the eight year sky: “HOLD STILL!”

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I’m actually shocked the film didn’t degrade over such a long period in the elements.

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I’m shocked a TSA agent didn’t throw the can into an x-ray machine, just because he could.

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The disclaimer on the university’s page is a bit unspecific:

Please note that some of the images and videos on our news pages may have been taken before social distancing rules in the UK came into force.

So does this apply to this image? And not at the same time???

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Longest photo exposure photo of all time…so far

100 years

1000 years

Talk on this subject at the Long Now Foundation

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100 years

I might have put a notice of what the device was on the front of the camera, rather than the back… I imagine someone finding the device, only to try to (impossibly) put it back in it’s original position.

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And why do they need a disclaimer at all?

I’m sure we can find other, more important things to add disclaimers for:

  • “This picture was taken before we were woke.”
  • “This picture was taken before we understood that Justin Beiber is not, in fact, a god.”
  • “This picture was taken before MySpace became uncool.”
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see also:

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Dunno, looks like Jeebus to me.

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Kinda amazing it is not overexposed. Presumably they custom mixed some super slow emulsion like ISO .0001

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I was getting more of a Master Control Programme vibe, myself.

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The sun leaves arced trails? I had no idea.

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I kick people like you out of my photogroup :smiley:

But I get the joke, amateur photographers can be extremely toxic to each other.

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IIRC from a few years ago when she showed her initial tranche of images, it’s just standard B&W photo paper. The low exposure comes from the tiny pinhole made in the beer can.
There’s some instructions for making your own here, which contains the useful advice “Tall beer cans are best, as not only do they take untrimmed 5x7 paper, but they also contain beer!”. It also recommends not bothering with developing or fixing the image, just scan it straight in and hope it doesn’t bleach too much.
I think the hardest part would be finding somewhere to leave a beer can where it won’t be ‘helpfully’ cleaned up, but otherwise it’s a good home project.

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I was expecting a picture of this:

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Not as obvious as a beer can, but much smaller pictures.
An easy way to give pinhole photography a try, though.

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