Don't Mess With The Original Peep

Happy Easter to all my Peeps!  

Easter Set up

setup info:
D50
Sigma 105mm marco lens
exposure 1/15
f 2.8
Sb-25 flash triggered with Cactus v5 wireless triggers camera left angled downward, zoom 24mm, 1/64 with parchment paper diffuser

 Note, I normally don't keep the overhead light on due to light sensitivity, so aside from a 15w bulb in the room I have no other light which is why I use the clamp light to setup and focus my lens.  I cut it off before shooting.

DIY Gel Holder

So, here's my DIY gel holder. It's not the best, but it was cheaper than buying one from www.gelholder.com, although his doesn't have the rough edges mine do, and if you aren't up for a DIY project, I think it's a better buy than the commercial lumiquest and rosco gel holders.  I actually saw this very helpful post, and ran with it.  I used and xacto blade to score the plastic, and a candle flame to heat it.  I managed to scorch one of the holders and plan to possibly remake both in hopes to get smoother edges, but they fit my needs and budget perfectly.

If you don't want to glue velcro to your flash head you can try using double sided velcro, the velcro cable organizer ties, or my preferred a hair elastic/bungee.

 

BTW sample gels can be purchased at B&H photo for a nominal fee.

I was here, where did I go?

So I see it's been since January since I've posted a blog.  No I didn't fall off the face of the earth, or get abducted by little green gray men.  I really don't have much of an excuse, just life. At least nothing I want to rehash here.  I did touch on some of it on FB and Devart so if you follow me either place, or are among my personal friends you know the story.  

So I turned 30 something 29 last month, that was trip. I never understood the saying getting old is for the birds, birds don't want to grow older anymore than we do.  If you are under 30 you won't understand this, at least for some time.

I had an epic fail this past week, after working on doll house plans back in January early February, I decided it was time to cut the apothecary shop out.  So after getting an edge cutter for my dremel, I took the masonite outside and went to work.  I started by cutting a long strip which I could handle easier to cut the walls and floors from.  To my dismay after cutting the 4 foot length the back of the cut is extremely rough, more like it was torn not cut.  When I did my test cut on a masonite clipboard before buying the 8x4 sheet it cut fine.  So until I figure it out, I won't be working on the next shop.  Does anyone know why/what might have caused this?  Or any suggestions?  I prefer not buying a jigsaw, but I realize it may be the only way to cut the masonite smoothly.  I could also switch to basswood, but I can realistically cut 8 shops out of one piece of masonite for less than the price it would cost me to make one out of basswood.  I haven't found any other wood that is 1/8 in locally.

One last thing before I wrap this up.  I ordered some Cactus V5 wireless flash triggers with birthday money.  They are the latest version in the Cactus line and received really good reviews from the beta testers, some of which use pocket wizards and radio poppers.  I was originally going to go with some ebay triggers and hope for the best, but in the end decided it was a good way to spend my birthday money.  I ordered them, and being both cheap and poor, I opted not to pay the extra $9 for fedex 3day, and had to wait an agonizing 10 days for them to arrive from HK.  They should be available stateside through MPEX sometime this month.  When they arrived on Thursday I tested them to make sure they all worked as both transceivers and receivers, with one and two flashes.  They worked even shooting through a wall :).  So hopefully I'll be posting a few images here, and a few more than that on DA soon. 

Until next time...

Gore & Sons Butcher Shop

Is finally finished.  I actually finished it Christmas eve morning when I soldered the lights to a battery snap.  At some point I plan to wire it up to a regular AC power source.  Because of health and other things, it took me much longer than I would like to admit.  I started it in late June, early July... you do the math. 

Here are some pictures of the completed shop.

 

 

   

 

 

 And here's a dime for reference.

 

Anyone who is interested, the actual corner shop was made from a kit by the wonderful Bea Broadwood.  It along with her other kits can be found at Petite Properties.   All the furnishings and food items were made by yours truly.  My next project I think is going to be a Hat shop which I plan to make from the ground up.  I hope to start on the 'blue prints' tomorrow.

I welcome any comments or questions.  Hope you all are doing well.

Santa Ate my Post

On Christmas Eve I posted, or thought I posted, a short Blog wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas.  Either I didn't publish the post or it is lost in Cyber Space forever.  Anyway I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Happy 2011

Out with the old, in with the new!  Happy 2011 everyone.  I hope to get pictures of the finished Butcher shop up in the coming weeks.