DIYPhotography.net Photography and Studio Lighting

This self portrait on the left by Reuben Krabbe was taken (believe it or not) by Reuben Krabbe. Now, I know that you know that time/space fabric will tear if a person is present at two different places in the same time.

So, once we remove the impossible option we remain with the possible option - Pocket Wizards. 

Are you an "I love to carry stuff with ease" (AKA comfort carry) kind of photographer or a "I love access to my lenses" (AKA easy access) kind of photographer?

The comfort carry kinda photographers tend to take backpacks that have back systems, while the easy access types go for pouches and sling bags.

When I got the Rotation360 for review I was happy to see that you can have both comfort and access in the same system. Read on for my full review.

When shooting nature there nothing better than a getting just a little bit more stabilization. The stabilized you are the slower you can shoot.

Brian Carey has an awesome way of holding the camera while shooting nature. It's a stock that allows you to use your shoulder for more stabilization, just like you would have done with a rifle. It's gonna be all Brian in just a sec, before that make sure you take a peek at his fine art photography site and Flickr stream.

How many times have you driven in a car in an African safari, mounted your top-ultra-tele-zoom and waited for that giraffe to come by?

Never? You must be kidding! 

Ok, so how many times have you driver a car with your zoom lens and wanted to take a shot, only to find out that your window is not a good enough tripod to take a shot?

The following tutorial on building an Ariel Monopod is a guest post by Adam Hajnos.

Recently I was carrying around my camera and tripod at a music festival when I got the idea to do an aerial shot. I extended the tripod out all the way and put the camera on a timer. Only problem is, my tripod weighs upwards of 50lbs. So here is a simple solution to make a lightweight, portable monopod for "aerial" photography.

The following article is a guest post by Dwight Duckstein.

I purchased a used Nikkor 70-200mm, 2.8f lens – the old style that didn’t have a tripod ring. Not wanting to spend even more money on an aftermarket ring that would interfere with the A ring, I decided to make my own. Granted, the materials cost me some change, but it is designed the way I want it, and it works. Your dimensions may vary, depending on which lens and which camera you mount it to, so I am not providing much dimension detail here.

If you are mounting your lights indoors you are safe, but what if you are outside in the blowing wind?

This is not the first time that two shooting hobbies meet. Last time I talked about weapons photography cases and rifle camera straps. This time Christian Hedegaard has a great idea to prevent your light stand from blowing in the wind. The materials? Right, from the gunshop. Here is Christian's story:

I have to hand to you, Ever since I started the "Readers Projects" Quest, I've been getting a ton of great DIY/Photography ideas and projects. After hitting it with the Thomas Schwenger's Complete Two Seconds Lighting Kit and the Christmas Tree Ring Light comes Ben's great project that does not have to do with lighting but can defiantly improve you life if you are one of those photographers that use a hand strap but disappointed from what the market has to offer.

Every once in a while comes that moment when you decide to get a new lens. For me this moment arrived about three weeks ago, when I decided that I deserve a nice photography treat my wife finally said yes, you can buy what ever you want, just stop talking about lenses all the time. (If you just want to learn what my winning lens is, go here and look at the second lens).

I would like to share the process I went through for selecting my next lens to purchase. I am not sure if the process was the best process that one can do to choose a lens, I post it here to help others in their choices. Please hit me in the comments if you find this process can be improved. So here is the tale of the duel between Sharpy (85mm/1.8) and Shorty (60mm/2.8 macro).

What do you get when you cross a Nine Cents Tripod with a Pocket Foldable Tripod? A DIY Gorilla Pod.

Reader Alan Muller came up with a great way to combine the two tripods into a new even-better-then-each-of-the-originals tripod, which is very similar to the well known Gorilla Pod.

On his example Alan uses a bottle flash holder, but this Gorilla pod will firmly hold a medium sized point and shoot.

Alan used number 10 wired to make the legs: twisted and then folded and twisted again. This gives the Tripod a firm set of legs.

The wired can then be wrapped with shrink-wrap (fancy) or electrical tape (Ghetto).

At the base of the bottle, Alan used an eye bolt instead of a cap nut (or machine screw) to allow the attachment of a safety line or bungee etc.

Another bolt of ingenuity (pan intended :) was to use washers to separate the tripod's legs. Those give it stability and make some order in that messy area.

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Other Pods:
- An Ingenious Camera Stabilizer
- The Panorama Head El Cheapo!
- Homemade Cheap Flash Diffuser
- Cheap Mini Monopod
- Not a Tripod, but still great - Create your own Bokeh