Eaton Family Solarcan Project - Phase 2: Jack and Harper

As covered in the Phase 1 post, I've started playing around with a product called the Solarcan, a pinhole camera created using an aluminum can with a small hole in the side and photographic paper inside, all to capture long-period exposures (weeks, months, years) of the Sun as it moves across the sky each day, images called solargraphs. 

I bought a five-pack in December and used one to shoot a sample shot to share with my grandkids; see previous post. I gave the other four to them as Christmas gifts. 

Earlier this month, we went to see son Chris, his wife Katie and our grandkids Jack and Harper. They have about an acre out in the country. They also have chickens and an Australian shepherd. Not quite a farm but still a very rural setting. I figured this could make for some interesting solargraph images. 

First, Jack and I talked about where a good spot would be for his Solarcan. They have a power pole on the northern edge of their property so we selected as the place to install his camera. 

From this spot, there is a full view of their backyard. The resulting solargraph should have bright lines arcing across from left to right over the shop and chicken coop. Movement of earthbound things generally won't be captured in the image so the solargraph will probably not include people, the dog or chickens.  

Pin marks the spot for Jack's Solarcan. It's oriented towards noon-time solar position. 

The view from Jack's camera. The chicken coop is next to the shop in center of image. 

When it came time to set up Harper's Solarcan, she wanted to have a view of their front yard so we picked a fence post out front. As we were setting it up, she realized she really wanted to have the chicken coop in the view. By mounting the camera a bit higher on the post, the coop is just visible over the fence so she was happy with that. 

Pin marks the spot for Harper's Solarcan, also oriented towards the noon-time solar position.

The view from Harper's camera. Note the tree branches. The chicken coop is just over the fence.

For Harper's Solarcan, one thing that will be interesting is that as the sun traces tracks across the image from lower left, up across the center and then down to the lower right, it will pass behind branches of the trees along the fence line on either side. 

In most solargraphs, the lines traced by the sun have occassional gaps caused by periods of cloudiness. For Harper's, there will also be gaps from the branches obsuring the sun. With the wind blowing them and the trees growing, the gaps may change from day to day, week to week. 

The differences between Jack's and Harper's solargraph images, both in terms of the overall scenes and with the view being mostly clear in Jack's but with Harper's having branches in the view, should make seeing each of these side by side when done very interesting. 

Now that they are up, the plan is to leave them up about 6 months. We didn't get them up until a month after the winter solstice so the lower tracks left by the sun won't be as low as they could have been but each day between now and mid-summer the tracks will go higher up the image. 

I'll post the results later this year so stay tuned...