Hobbies Galleries

Strobe Modifier Tests : Recently I've discovered the Strobist site. There's a wealth of information dedicated to lighting with off-camera flash using small speedlights including this page that has a number of links to DIY projects. My first project was the cardboard grid spots shown here. Grids restrict light giving you a tighter beam spread. I made the 1/2" and 1" grids for both of my flashes, the SB-800 and the smaller SB-R200. Below are the test pictures showing the effect the grids have. For all of these shots the flash was approx. 15" from the wall. Further away probably would have been better, but this was enough to give the general idea. My second project was the macro light tent (or studio box) on this page.

Strobe Modifier Tests

Recently I've discovered the Strobist site. There's a wealth of inform ...

Updated: Aug 25, 2008 11:40am PST

Learning to Hand Dye : On June 30th and July 7th I attended Hand Dyeing classes taught by Maya Telford ( http://www.dyelicious.com/ ) at A Great Notion ( http://www.agreatnotion.com/ ). We used a process called low water immersion, scrunching the fabric up inside freezer bags containing small quantities of dye. The amount of scrunching determines how much marbling you'll end up with. I'm hoping to try my hand at dyeing a muslin backdrop one of these days. I'll take more classes in the fall. In the meantime I've got plenty of fabric and dye to play with.

Learning to Hand Dye

On June 30th and July 7th I attended Hand Dyeing classes taught by May ...

Updated: Jul 11, 2007 11:05pm PST

Field Day 2007 :

Field Day 2007

Updated: Jun 27, 2007 11:45pm PST

Reverse Mount Macro Tests : I finally picked up a 24mm f/2.8 lens to go with my other recent purchases ... a BR-2A and BR-3 for reverse mounting a wide-angle lens. This lets me get really up close and personal. The BR-2A came with a handy reference table listing the reproduction ratios of lenses (set at infinity) when reverse mounted. My 24mm lens gives me a reproduction ratio of 2.5x. Whoa!! That's better than my dedicated macro lens. Now I'm going to guess that those numbers are for when the lens is reverse mounted on a film body. Just thinking of what the math might be to convert that to a digital body makes my head hurt so I'm not even going to go there. I'm just going to have some fun seeing what it can do.

Reverse Mount Macro Tests

I finally picked up a 24mm f/2.8 lens to go with my other recent purch ...

Updated: Jun 01, 2007 10:02pm PST

Quilt Pink 2006 : On Sept 30th I went to The Electric Needle to help sew quilt blocks in the fight against Breast Cancer. If you want to learn more about Quilt Pink go to www.quiltpink.com By the end of the day one quilt was finished and the second quilt was well on it's way and everyone had a great time.

Quilt Pink 2006

On Sept 30th I went to The Electric Needle to help sew quilt blocks in ...

Updated: Oct 02, 2006 8:43am PST

Field Day 2006 :

Field Day 2006

Updated: Jun 27, 2006 11:44pm PST

School Pictures : This semester I'm taking a class on studio lighting. It's a lot of fun and I'm learning so many great things. Check out a few of my assignment pictures.

School Pictures

This semester I'm taking a class on studio lighting. It's a lot of fun ...

Updated: Mar 10, 2006 9:17am PST

Scrapbook Pages : Along with the new camera came the question of what to do with my pictures. It wasn't long before I discovered digital scrapbooking and the Digital Scrapbook Place. DSP has lots of information and products and they also run great on-line courses. Most of the pages in this gallery are from my homework assignments.

Scrapbook Pages

Along with the new camera came the question of what to do with my pict ...

Updated: Oct 08, 2005 12:40pm PST