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Both In Time

Journal

Slow notes from the darkroom.

Things to do as a couple that actually leave something behind
Guides

Things to do as a couple that actually leave something behind

Most date night ideas are gone by Monday. Here are things to do as a couple sorted by what they leave behind: from tonight, to one year, to open-ended.

5 min read
Close-up of a sealed Both In Time camera made of cardboard: black logo label, stamped serial number 00020, next to it a handwritten date and a pencil signature.
Guides

A wedding time capsule: the picture that only appears on your anniversary

Most wedding time capsules collect what already exists on the day: letters, cards, a photo. There is one form where the capsule is the picture itself, and nobody has seen it yet.

12 min read
Caffenol Recipes Compared: Which One Fits What
Caffenol

Caffenol Recipes Compared: Which One Fits What

C-M, C-H, Delta: which caffenol recipe belongs to which material, and how to read what went wrong.

5 min read
A woman in a blue jumper sits at a stone garden table, the handmade Both In Time cardboard pinhole camera standing upright in front of her with its two openings visible.
Guides

Lomography Pinhole Alternative: an honest comparison

The Diana Multi Pinhole Operator puts three holes into one exposure. Both In Time puts two holes onto two people. When each one is the right camera.

7 min read
Close-up of a Both In Time camera made of cardboard: black logo label, stamped serial number 00020, next to it a handwritten date and a pencil signature.
Guides

Giving a time capsule: the picture that waits

Most time capsules preserve what already exists: letters, photos, small things. There is one form that works the other way round: a picture that only comes into being in the future.

5 min read
A Both In Time camera stands outdoors on a stone table: the first half is exposed, carrying a handwritten dedication with date and a pasted note that promises the second exposure for 2043.
Guides

Solarcan Alternative: What You Are Really Looking For

The Solarcan is a lovely idea: a can that draws the sun for months. Most people searching for an alternative want something else: a picture with two people in it.

5 min read
A woman in a blue sweater sits at a stone garden table; in front of her the handmade cardboard Both In Time pinhole camera stands upright, its two openings visible.
Guides

ONDU Pinhole Alternative: An Honest Comparison

ONDU builds beautiful wooden pinhole cameras. If you are still searching, you are probably not looking for a better ONDU, but for a picture two people make together.

6 min read
White cardboard camera with brown paper tape on red cloth, two pierced holes side by side, the stamped numbers 873 and 874 below them.
Guides

Buying a pinhole camera: ready-made, kit, or build your own?

Build one, assemble one, or buy one made by hand: the three ways to a pinhole camera, compared, including when you should not buy anything at all.

7 min read
Sepia pinhole image made of two exposures: a fence and a telegraph pole against a low sun on the left, a glaring bright plain on the right, the two halves merging into one another.
Guides

Disposable cameras at weddings: what they do well, what they don't, and what the two of you actually need

An honest look at the disposable cameras on the tables, at the alternatives that handle the guest photos, and at the question every one of them leaves open: who takes a picture that belongs to the two of you?

6 min read
Heavily weathered photo paper from an eight year exposure: brown and blue streaks, scratches and bright patches, with the dark trace of the subject in between.
Guides

Solargraphy: half a year in a single picture

A tin can, a sheet of photo paper, a hole of 0.3 millimetres. Months later the paper carries the sun's trails, and no developer has ever touched it.

7 min read
Sepia pinhole photograph made from two exposures on one negative: on the left a woman with a small child at a window, on the right a wide square densely covered in grave candles, with a portrait on a wall behind it.
Stories

The project was called infinity. It ended in 2025.

In 2005 two artists auctioned two holes of the same pinhole camera every week. 2,072 holes later, Both In Time is what came of it.

9 min read
Sepia pinhole image made of two overlapping exposures: a large blurred pale form on the left, a person standing in open ground on the right beneath a bright band of light.
Slow photography

A manifesto for slow photography

Three sentences against the pressure to see immediately.

3 min read
Historical pen drawing: a tree on the left, straight rays of light through a small hole in the wall of a box, and inside the box on the right the same image upside down.
Pinhole history

Pinhole 101: a brief history of the camera obscura

From Warring States China to Both In Time: four stops along an almost-forgotten optic.

8 min read
A pinhole negative developed in Caffenol, in pale sepia: a person in dark clothing on the left, a large softly blurred pale form on the right.
Caffenol

Caffenol: the developer made from coffee

How a spoon of instant coffee becomes a developer, and why the caffeine does none of the work.

7 min read