A Photograph With an Eight-Year Exposure Was Taken With a Beer Can:
A week after the 2012 London Olympics closing ceremony, a Master's student at the University of Hertfordshire placed a film-lined beer can on the side of a campus observatory and seemingly at some point forgot about it. Eight years later, in September 2020, there was a picture on the inside of the can with one of the longest exposure photographs ever taken.
Regina Valkenborgh was experimenting with pinhole camera techniques when she created this project, according to a University of Hertfordshire statement. She decided to build a simple, makeshift camera using a can to capture the rising and setting of the sun for an indeterminate length of time. It ended up sitting there for eight years—according to the university, 2,953 arced trails of the star were captured on the film inside of the can. This is believed to be the longest-exposure photograph taken.
"To me the most exciting thing is that this rudimentary way of photographing in this technology-driven era still has value," Valkenborgh said in an email to Motherboard. "Yet in all its simplicity it has the capability of 'capturing' a photograph way beyond the slowest shutter speed you can set on any digital camera. The images are also totally unique, the light photons travel through the actual pinhole and touch the paper inside the can. You can compare it with your footprint in the sand as opposed to drawing a foot with a stick. The foot actually touched the sand and likewise the sun's rays actually touched the paper."
Officially titled "Days in the Sun", the image documents the sun's path in the Northern Hemisphere's sky. The highest arches coincide with the Summer Solstice (i.e. the longest day of the year), and as time goes on, the lowest ones indicate the Winter Solstice (the shortest day). Breaks in the light trails indicate cloudy days and saturated spots imply sunny ones.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 26 2020, @04:22PM
pics or it didn...
...oh!
(Score: 4, Funny) by Megahard on Saturday December 26 2020, @04:37PM
Is there anything it can't do?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday December 26 2020, @04:47PM (8 children)
It's hard to believe that the can remained in position, completely undisturbed, for all those years. Untouched by maintenance people, passersby, college kids up to pranks, or just some curious kid. No department head ever saw it, and demanded that it be removed.
The evidence is in the published photograph, but it's still hard to believe. I invite anyone to affix a can to any building they have access to, with or without the pinhole camera guts. The can will probably disappear in weeks, or months, if not just a couple of days. Some idiot cop will insist on investigating it for the possibility of explosives, if nothing else.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 26 2020, @05:02PM (1 child)
If I'd known, I would have photobombed it with my junk out.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 26 2020, @05:07PM
We would need a beer-can microscope for that, though.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 26 2020, @05:32PM (1 child)
No, this doesn't surprise me at all. I've worked in university and government labs, and unless something as drastic as a department moving from one building to another, I am not surprised at all that something would be left sitting somewhere for a measly eight years. I was poking through the trash/surplus pile at work recently and someone was geting rid of an iron core tuning kit from the Stackpole Corp, who went out of business in 1989. The kit was from 1946.
If it looked like random trash laying around, then it would have been picked up at some point, but if it looked like it was affixed in place on purpose or was otherwise obviously part of some kind of setup, even if it clearly was a beer can, then nobody would have messed with it unless they needed to use that specific space for something (and even then, not until after trying to find out who it belonged to). Most researchers, even in the government, are on shoestring budgets and typically get creative when they need to.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 26 2020, @06:12PM
Look deep on your hard drive and you will find more abandoned shit you ever imagined IRL.
(Score: 5, Informative) by hemocyanin on Saturday December 26 2020, @05:42PM
Well, the article leaves some room for doubt:
So I guess she forgot about it but the project wasn't forgotten. That could explain it not being cleaned up at least.
The article also contains a pic of the photo at the top, and what purports to be a link to the 8 year photo near the bottom, but the link at the bottom is to a different six month photo.
Reading a confused poorly edited article was not the first thing I wanted to do prior to even a sip of coffee -- not looking to puzzle out what some person actually meant and why a photo that's supposed to be 8 years says it's six months -- just looking to wake up easy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 26 2020, @06:19PM
> It's hard to believe that ...
...that the film isn't completely over-exposed.
Since the beer can was left on or near a telescope (likely with a sign on it?) I'm not so surprised that it stayed in place.
The press release notes:
> Regina is now a photography technician at Barnet and Southgate College.
** Ms Valkenborgh is the one I want to process my images!
(Score: 4, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Saturday December 26 2020, @06:20PM
There's a reddit user in Poland who has done many of these, apparently some work, some don't:
https://old.reddit.com/user/xafex0/submitted/ [reddit.com]
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday December 27 2020, @02:25AM
It was probably Bud Light. Surprised there weren't twenty more cans taped/nailed up next to it when she got back.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday December 27 2020, @01:50AM (2 children)
that must have been some incredibly slow photographic paper to not be completely overexposed to the point of just being a white sheet.
I've done darkroom work, even turning on the main light for a few seconds by accident can ruin all the papers I've ever used, and the sun is much, much brighter than a standard light bulb.
Several other inconsistencies in the article and image have me scratching my head too but I don't have enough time to explain them all out right now.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 27 2020, @05:35AM
Yep, I said the same thing up in (#1091497)
But you get the mod points for noting the ISO rating (which I left out)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2020, @12:40AM
It's more than ISO of the paper. It's the size of the pin hole and the amount of light it admited. If that hole were very small, only a small amount of light would get in to expose the paper/film.