The Lockdown Chronicles

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Andy Grant
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Well I'm sure we are all thoroughly fed up with it by now so I thought I would start a thread for people to share their thoughts, photos, ideas or anything else they want to inflict upon us ;)

So, have you done something different, something you would probably not have tried if it wasn't for this pesky virus? A different technique or style, perhaps you've tried some macro shots or like me had a go at cyanotypes? If you have pop 'em in here so we can all have a laugh.... oh, sorry, I mean praise them and admire the skills involved in making them. :D

I'll go first. Following on from a thread from @ChrisR about cyanotypes I thought I'd have a go. I'll pop the rest of my results in Chris's thread but heres the best attempt so far.

Cornwall by Andy, on Flickr

The actual paper copy is much better, lots more detail. I'm actually quite impressed and I'll have another go tomorrow.

I also had some direct positive paper (donated by @StephenM , thank you) so I tried a few shots with this in my Chroma large format camera. It is very difficult to get a good exposure but as I had no instructions and was mainly guessing I'm not too unhappy. More paper on the way for further testing.
img024 by Andy, on Flickr

And finally I broke out the old Fuji Instax, quite out of date film but still useable.
Tools 2 by Andy, on Flickr
Garden 2 by Andy, on Flickr

With all of these the scanning and Flickr have reduced the quality and overall I'm pretty happy with the results.

So, over to you lot then.
 
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They're good Andy, good plan to try something different.

I've been building wooden boxes but need to get some development done for poty.
 
Ooh, let's see them then.
 
Ooh, let's see them then.

Well you asked for it!

This is the only one I've finished...
full


And a plane till
full
 
That's excellent, nice dovetails.
I was intending to have my new shed/workshop by now but obviously it's had to be postponed for a while. I will be doing a lot more woodworking when it's up and running even though I'm utterly inept.:D
 
I highly recommend a shed/shop/studio. It's been a life saver this last few weeks just being able to get a bit of quiet or being able to do something whilst watching the kids in the garden.

I'm terrible too.
 
I highly recommend a shed/shop/studio. It's been a life saver this last few weeks just being able to get a bit of quiet or being able to do something whilst watching the kids in the garden.

I'm terrible too.
A man of a certain age needs a shed! (y) The above 'tool porn' is also nice to see, I'm tempted to post a photo of my Britool Whitworth spanner sets! :giggle:
 
Well done Suz, up to your usual indolent standard.:p:p
 
Just in case anyone was wondering why they're Whitworth size spanners? It's so I can restore and maintain vintage machinery like this. Which can be fun to tinker around with to relieve weekend lockdown boredom. :)

There's a bit of historically topical history to this engine too; it was originally fitted to a fuel bowser to refuel fighter aircraft (from the Battle of Britain onwards), after the war it was sent back to the factory for refurbishment and resale, and subsequently used on a farm to power a saw bench to cut logs, etc.. So it will have kept the home fires burning all its working life in one way or another.

 
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I’ve bought myself a small worktop laser cutter, so I can use it to develop new ideas, as well as cut spare parts/vinyl as I’m building.

I’ve already roped my son into earning his keep (cutting card hearts for our neighbour randomly!), as well as making “Mount SnapShot”

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Looks a handy bit of kit. (y) If it's possible, without blocking any ventilation grids, etc. then I think I'd sit that machine on a couple of wooden battens or some blocks rather than leave it on it's wheels… those castors on a melamine top worry me that it's going to end up slipping off and hitting the floor sooner or later. I can see there's locks on the wheels, but even so, it'll only take one of them to slide and slip over the edge and momentum will probably take over. It can't have been a cheap bit of kit either.
 
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Looks a handy bit of kit. (y) If it's possible, without blocking any ventilation grids, etc. then I think I'd sit that machine on a couple of wooden battens or some blocks rather than leave it on it's wheels… those castors on a melamine top worry me that it's going to end up slipping off and hitting the floor sooner or later. I can see there's locks on the wheels, but even so, it'll only take one of them to slide and slip over the edge and momentum will probably take over. It can't have been a cheap bit of kit either.

Cheers. I’ve got a dedicated workbench coming for it later this week, so it’s just ‘resting’ on my main bench for now. I’ve got an electrician coming in next week to run a new consumer unit and sockets around the workshop (for all my kit, not just the laser) and am also running a permanent extraction system for the laser at the same time.

As for the cost, it was surprisingly good value, although it’s clearly not exactly built to the highest specifications!
 
Cheers. I’ve got a dedicated workbench coming for it later this week, so it’s just ‘resting’ on my main bench for now. I’ve got an electrician coming in next week to run a new consumer unit and sockets around the workshop (for all my kit, not just the laser) and am also running a permanent extraction system for the laser at the same time.

As for the cost, it was surprisingly good value, although it’s clearly not exactly built to the highest specifications!
That sounds great. Hope you didn't mind me saying that; I'd rather err on the side of 'Captain Obvious' than subsequently read a disaster story! (y) PS I don't know what that stack of coloured things are, but I've decided I like the purple ones best! :giggle:
 
That sounds great. Hope you didn't mind me saying that; I'd rather err on the side of 'Captain Obvious' than subsequently read a disaster story! (y) PS I don't know what that stack of coloured things are, but I've decided I like the purple ones best! :giggle:

I don't mind at all, thanks for the concern (y)

The stack of coloured things are front sections for a batch of SnapShots I'm building. The purple one will look like this;

https://chroma.camera/snapshot/
 
As well as finishing off my workshop upgrade, and building cameras, I’ve also been working on something completely new. I can’t share many details yet, as I don’t have a full size working model, but I’m seriously excited about it.

Adjustments.JPG

No, I’m not excited about my 3D printers...this is a 1/4 second exposure, through a c mount CCTV lens on my digital A7. The reason that’s exciting is because I exposed it with an electronic shutter I’ve just assembled, outside of the camera [emoji3]

Next step, once my materials arrive, is to print a full size version and put it to good use with this;

IMG_3012.JPG

The aim is to build a magnetically attached removable electronic shutter, that mounts behind the front standard, with the bellows attached to the back of it. The shutter itself will be 90x90mm, so should cover anything that fits into a Chroma front standard, including this Aero Ektar. The shutter currently operates from 1/1000th down to 8 seconds, as well as bulb and T settings.

If you can’t tell, I’m seriously excited about the possibilities this brings for using lenses without their own shutters.
 
Steve, this could not have come at a better time! I've just bought a lens that comes in just an iris rather than a copal 3 shutter, and this would be perfect... especially so given the project I am also working on at the moment :D How long do you expect before 'production' readiness?
 
Steve, this could not have come at a better time! I've just bought a lens that comes in just an iris rather than a copal 3 shutter, and this would be perfect... especially so given the project I am also working on at the moment :D How long do you expect before 'production' readiness?

Erm....not sure yet to be honest. It's still a work in progress, although I've got a new miniature Arduino board/battery backpack on the way to me, which will help with the reduction in size.

Also, the initial body will be designed around the Chroma magnetic mounting points so will be pretty custom. Assuming it all works out, I'd like to be able to offer the shutter unit as a standalone system too, maybe you could be a beta tester ;0)
 
Erm....not sure yet to be honest. It's still a work in progress, although I've got a new miniature Arduino board/battery backpack on the way to me, which will help with the reduction in size.

Also, the initial body will be designed around the Chroma magnetic mounting points so will be pretty custom. Assuming it all works out, I'd like to be able to offer the shutter unit as a standalone system too, maybe you could be a beta tester ;0)

I’d be all over that! :)
 
Sounds exciting, I'd be interested as I'm always messing up my exposure with old shutter less lenses, holding my cap over them isn't exactly accurate.:D
 
I'm a bit off Chinese goods at the moment, this 12v IR lamp was supposed to be 24 watts... Not according to the 0.55A it's drawing! As Scotty from Star Trek used to say, "Ye cannae change the laws of physics"!



So that's about 7 watts, and I don't need a meter to tell me how much urine is being extracted there! So my time gets wasted and the search continues for suitable infrared illuminators for the lighting rig I'm building for a night vison camera. :mad:
 
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