This post has been a full year in the making—literally! Back in 2019, fellow photographer Natalie Smart in the UK sent me a Solarcan. It sat on my shelf until 2023, when I was finally ready to give it a try.
What is a Solarcan? The Solarcan is a simple, ready-to-use pinhole camera designed for solargraphy, capturing the sun’s path across the sky over days, weeks, months, or even years. This creates unique photographic art that records time and the changing seasons. It’s a sealed can pre-loaded with light-sensitive photographic paper. As the sun moves, it exposes the paper, leaving trails of light with no need for chemical development—just scan the result and invert the image digitally.
The Solarcan features a maximum aperture of f/132, has a 160° field of view, and comes pre-loaded with a sheet of high-quality 5×7 Ilford Pearl photographic paper.
I found a secure spot on the roof of my house, mounted the Solarcan, and secured it carefully. On January 1, 2025, at midnight, I climbed onto the roof in freezing cold air and snow to peel off the pinhole cover and start the exposure.
Exactly one year later, on January 1, 2026, I climbed back up—this time in the cold but without snow—retrieved the camera and brought it inside to the warmth of the house. I opened the can, removed the paper, and scanned it with my Epson v700.
Here are the results of my one-year solargraphy experiment:
Happy New Year — Shaun @ Utah Film Photography
Utah Film Photography 