If you fancy having a go at a bit of lo-fi photography, you’ll have the perfect excuse over the Easter weekend. The last Sunday in April has been World Pinhole Photography Day since 2001 (at least, it has been according to pinholeday.org) and this year, seeing as it’s the Easter weekend, they’re turning it into a bit more of an extravaganza than normal. You get a whole weekend of pinhole-wonderfulness.

The basic principle is take a photo between 23 April and 1 May 2011 using a pinhole camera, and upload it to the world pinhole photography gallery. There are no prizes, just the satisfaction of being part of a worldwide photography project, and maybe even learning something along the way.

But (this is a good ‘but’, I promise) there are also workshops and classes and pinhole-related events taking place all over the world. You can learn how to make your own pinhole camera, or take better pinhole photos, or join a barbeque where people will be taking pinhole pictures. You never know, you might even meet the love of your life whilst carrying around a cardboard box that makes photos.

Still not inspired? Take a look at the previous years’ galleries.

Inspired now? Ah, you don’t don’t have a pinhole camera and there isn’t a make-your-own-pinhole-camera class taking place near you. No worries, I’ll point you in the direction of the most excellent Teaching a cardboard box to be a camera by the most excellent Katie Cooke. There! Sorted.

Lots more information is available from the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day website.

(Featured image: Ferentino, Piazza Matteotti by Antonio Corvaia.)

The fact that a friend of mine is doing a pinholes photography exhibition inspired me to start looking for some more fantastic examples of pinhole photography in the deepest depths of the FlickrWebs.

I discovered two things: I need to get back to low-fi photography, and there’s a lot of talented people out there.

But what am I doing waffling – I’m sure you just want to look at photos, don’t you? Can’t blame ya. Here you go!

1 – Pont d’Aquitaine

Pont d'Aquitaine by Steven Monteau

2 – Peter Iredale

Peter Iredale by Zeb Andrews

3 – Virginia Park

Virginia Park by Matt Callow

4 – The ghosts in my grandmother’s house

The ghosts in my grandmother's house by Donovan Rees

5 – Dream Colors

Dream Colors by Noriko Ohba

6 – Foot Fetish on Neptune

$Foot Fetish on Neptune by Refractionless$

Foot Fetish on Neptune by Refractionless

7 – Je est un autre

Je est un autre by Nhung Dang

8 – River Typewriter

River Typewriter by Sean Duggan

9 – The First Man to Witness the Beginning of the End of the World

The First Man to Witness the Beginning of the End of the World by Scott Speck

10 – Self portrait with Big Damn Atlas

Self Portrait with Big Damn Atlas by Katie Cooke

Wanna have a go yourself?

If you want to try a spot of pinhole photography yourself, you could do a lot worse than reading Katie’s Teaching a Cardboard Box to be a Camera; it’s a great little introduction to creating your own pinholes.

Of course, you can also skip the film phase altogether and create a pinhole lens-cap for your dSLR camera!

All photos used in this article are used as ‘fair dealing‘. If you have strong reservations against your photos appearing on Small Aperture, please contact us, and we’ll get them taken down. Please support the artists creating these photos by clicking on the photos to take a closer look at their work!