Old photo kit
A couple of odds and sods I rediscovered when I tidied up the studio earlier this month…
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Cheap but effective continuous studio lighting
For continuous lighting, one needs a light source that has good colour balance, uses power efficiently, is reasonably robust and does not present a health or fire risk. I am also a tightwad – interested primarily in “bangs per buck”. Whilst I love new technology, I am not prepared to pay silly money for it….
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Setting up a home studio
Editors note: this article is a few years old and there are a few are updates and related posts that some readers may find helpful… 2016 – Converting inexpensive LED flood lights for use in the studio 2017 – Cheap but effective continuous studio lighting 2018 – Cheap and cheerful overhead camera mount for mirrorless…
Silver mannequins
I was given a pair of broken but usable silver-painted mannequins by a photographer pal. Here are a few snaps of them as they arrived in their new home and saw their first tours of duty in my studio…
Converting inexpensive LED flood lights for use in the studio.
This is how I converted three left-over cheapie (£60 for a box of ten, delivered) 20 watt daylight LED flood lights for use in the studio. The basic tools you need:- Vernier or digital caliper, M10 ISO metric taps. Suitable spanner (17mm AF). Bench vice. Electrician’s screwdriver and wire strippers, to make the electrical connections….
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Romanesco – alien food
I have always been rather fascinated by the fractal-like properties of the romanesco. It really does look like it is not of this planet. SO I thought it would be fun to team up a romanesco, some cheap RGB LED lighting and a couple of broken silver coloured mannequins. Just in case anyone is wondering:…
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My cheap new Amazon Basics photographic rucksack
A couple of days ago, I purchased an “amazon basics” camera+laptop rucksack, for the princely sum of £ £35.49. delivered. Well it just arrived. So time to check it out, and move in. I have to say I’m actually quite impressed. This model also has a built-in laptop carrier too that comfortably holds a 40…
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Aliens ate my shed
Slightly off-the-wall experiment with a pair of broken mannequins and some cheap but effective RGB LED lighting.
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Alien prank
I thought I’d play a tick on my girlfriend, such that when she came home from work, she’s find it filled with aliens. As it happens I messed it up and fell over something in the hall bruising my leg and spoiling the surprise. Which she thought was all rather silly anyway. But I did…
Studio lit by LED
I rather like LED lighting. I never cease to be amazed what one can do with it – and do very cheaply. So I decided to have a bit of fun in the studio, with some of the latest budget RGB LED and a couple of Cokin starburst filters.
Repairing my vintage Tannoy Monitor Golds
I decided to have a go at repairing the HF tweeters unit in my vintage Tannoy Monitor Golds. It was a tricky old job. More pictures to follow.
Hedgehog in the garden
For some time now, this little fellow has frequented our garden. We have a sort of hedgehog highway behind the shed. And because we have no cats or dogs, they hedgehogs are free to pretty much come and go as they please.
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My studio at night
More LED experiments – this time using some small daylight LED and a 12 volt DC power supply to light the Dexion racking.
Repairing an elderly Tamron 80-210mm lens (103A)
I’ve had this old but very chunky Tamron 80-210mm Adaptall 2 telephoto zoom lens since the mid 1980s. Only I noticed that the overall image quality had become rather poor. I wanted to find out why. When I shone a small torch through it, I noticed what appeared to be a haze. Despite several cleans…
Macro with a 58mm 44-m4 Helios lens and a 10 mm macro ring
Macro shots using an elderly Soviet era 58mm 44-m4 Helios lens and a 10 mm macro ring. Much to my surprise, it seems to work remarkably well, certainly on my little µ4/3 camera.
Fifty shades of shed
This little project was intended to capture colour-cycling RGB lighting. One of these days I must get around to doing it again and making a rather better job of it.
Southsea in the rain
I was fortunate to be given a rather nice 20mm f/1.7 Lumix prime lens. So obviously I needed to test it. A 20 mm with a nice wide aperture is particularly good for street photography. So I braved the awful weather and made my way to Southsea one wet and windy Sunday afternoon, and grabbed…
Pecs, Hungary
Another Christmas with my girlfriends parents in Pecs, Hungary. I always enjoy my Christmases in Pecs. And her folks are such lovely people. These are a few snaps from around the town, just after Chirstmas…
Checking out my new lens tilt mechanism
I treated myself to a lens tilt mechanism and a vintage Helios 4m-44 58mm f/2 lens. So I figured I needed to go out and test them. These were taken from Portsdown Hill, facing south, over Portchester and Cosham. Being able to tilt the lens means one can shift the focus onto a particular part…
2014 Retrospective
It’s the end of our second full year in our new home. Here are some random retrospective snaps from the year that’s just shot past us.
Pecs at Christmas
Spent the Christmas with my girlfriend’s parents in Pecs, Hungary. They are lovely people and Pecs is a lovely place. And there is always something quite special about central European Christmases. (More pictures to follow)
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2013 Retrospective
2013 was quite an interesting year for me, not least because we finally moved way from my tiny terraced cottage overlooking Southampton common, to a much larger place, where there is enough room for a reasonably usable home studio. Only moved 35km, but it felt like moving to another planet. Of course, it takes a…
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Weald and Downland Museum
2013-09-08 we had a family outing to the Weald and Downland living museum, Sussex, England. In addition to being a very interesting place to take a camera, it is also home to a gaggle of particularly photogenic white Embden geese. Having a gander I always enjoy photographing geese. They are curious creatures and they always…
Pictures to sell a house with
Trying to sell our house and move somewhere with a bit more room. However the pictures taken by various estate agents (realtors if you are American) are nothing short of bloody awful. So I thought I’d have a crack at it myself.
Steampunk watchstraps
I seem to have accumulated quite a lot of old wrist watches that have no straps (or “bands” if you are American). So I needed to figure out a way of being able to use them. Then I saw these straps on eBay. They are genuine leather and they only cost a few quid a…