joshua schachter's blog

elevator camera obscura

The elevator in my apartment building opens to the outside, and on clear, sunny days, a brief picture of the world snaps into focus on its brushed metal interior. The narrowing elevator doors focus the image, counteracting the blurring of the vertically brushed metal; in one dimension, a mirror, and in the other, a camera.

I'd like to thank the tender ministrations of the Northern California Kidney Stone Center and the resulting painkillers for allowing me spend a happy afternoon attempting to capture the effect. I tried using a fancy DSLR, but none of the photos really came out; the short video embedded below works quite well, though.