MASON — Freshmen Elizabeth Harley and Meghan Brown were on a mission Tuesday: find a single dandelion in the grass, but make sure there was an interesting background.

        The two Mason High School students carried pinhole box cameras and a stopwatch. It was their first time taking pictures with homemade cameras for their Photography I class.

Mason High School freshman Meghan Brown (left) operates the shutter of her pinhole camera while classmate Elizabeth Harley times the exposure. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

        ""I'm looking for a dandelion and tall grass in front of it,” Elizabeth, 13, said just before positioning her camera. “I'm a little bit nervous. I don't want my picture totally messed up.”

        Last week, Tina Miracle's students made their cameras out of shoe boxes. They painted the insides black and used cardboard to make holders for the photo paper they used in place of film. A flap attached to the side or top of the shoe box acted as a lens cover to the single pinhole in the box that became the “eye.”

        “I didn't know you could make a camera out of a box,” said sophomore An thony Angel, 15.

        Once the students become familiar with exposure times, composition and development techniques they will eventually use real cameras.

        “I wanted to get a close- up of one thing,” Meghan said after she positioned her camera's eye in front of the dandelion, opened the flap covering the pinhole lens, and then activated the stopwatch. “This is our first time doing this. I think it's neat taking a picture with something you made instead of buying it from the store.”

        Two minutes after opening the lens cover, each girl shut the flap over her lens, picked up her camera and waited for classmates to finish before going back into the classroom.

        There, Ms. Miracle's 26 students watched while she explained the development process. First, the film had to be into put into developer solution, then a stop bath and finally a fixer.

        “It looks pretty. You kept it (the camera) pretty still,” Ms. Miracle told Meghan. “I think you needed a longer exposure time.”

        Meghan said she was disappointed the top of her dandelion was cut off but pleased that the image — and the brick background of the school — came through.

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