Austin High School’s Lisa Beschnett’s photography course may be one of the most popular parts of the school’s art curriculum and that’s saying something, considering how wildly popular art, as a whole, is at the school.

The number of students who show and participate in the twice-a-year art showings and the final art show at the end of the year is evidence enough.

Students are encouraged to express themselves through plenty of different and creative venues and Beschnett’s course is only part of this grand scene.

And while Beschnett fully hopes to encourage that creativity in her own class, she makes sure it all starts as simple as possible.

That’s where her pinhole photography section comes in.

“It’s kind of an introduction to photography,” Beschnett said Tuesday, among the near constant coming and going of students carrying simple, altered boxes around. “Kids can come in and know absolutely nothing. This class is scaffolded at the beginning and pinhole is used as a general introduction.”

The concept of pinhole photography is photography at its simplest. Basically it’s taking a light-proof box and collecting light through a very small hole — a pinhole.

After that the concept isn’t dissimilar from the human eye. The light is collected and projected as an inverted image on photo paper at the back of the box. The image can vary depending on how long the hole is left open and the photographer’s creativity.

But from that concept comes an amazing array of images, produced often times by students who are new to photography.

“It’s very serendipitous,” Beschnett said. “You never know what you’re going to get.”

The pinhole section of her course has swiftly become  a favorite of the students.

“They absolutely love it,” she said. “They get things to happen you don’t expect. They’re amazed at what one of those cameras’s can produce.”

Almost on queue, as Beschnett explained that, a student towards the back exclaimed, “Check out the detail!”

Senior Ashley Arhart is one of those students, familiar with pinhole photography, having taken the class when she was a junior. Tuesday she and partner Justin Dolan were out using a variation of the usual box — a paint can — to take an extended-exposure portrait of Arhart.

“Pinhole was where I first thought about what a photo really was,” she said. “I thought, ‘oh my gosh, I have to do this.’”

The students may have taken to the creativity of the class, but it’s still and class and using pinhole photography is a very simple way to get students to be thinking of how a photo is conceived.

“It’s teaching them exposure at the simplest level,” Beschnett said. “It’s teaching them that more light will expose the picture more.”

It’s also about not letting mistakes get in the way.

“There’s not a right answer,” she said. “If something is wrong, you toss it out and do it again.

“They start thinking, ‘what else can I do?’”