Now that craft beer is widely available in cans, you can expect to find them at multi-course beer dinners as well as at tailgates. What else are beer cans useful for? Turns out, they can be easily converted into pinhole cameras.

British photographer Matt Bigwood recently chatted with Phoblographer about his beer can photo-taking technique. He told them:

The equipment is very simple – an empty beer can with the top removed and a hole made with a needle or pin, a card lid for the can held on with gaffer tape, and a sheet of 5”x7” black and white photographic paper inside.

Then you set up the pinhole facing the sun, wait six months, and voila — a photo that shows the changing angle of the Earth as the seasons progress by way of the changing streaks of sun across the sky.

We’re thinking the tough part is setting up the beer can in a spot that won’t be disturbed for such a long period of time — looks like Bigwood relied on tons and tons of duct tape, and attached his beer cans high up on perches like telephone poles. Next time you have a few extra cans in your recycling bin, it’s your chance to play photographer. We always knew beer was a versatile drink, here’s one more reason.

via Gizmodo