Yet another DIY ringflash

Sorry for the long delay between posts -- college has been eating my time. In my post about re-using an old strobe (which got referenced on lifehacker -- cool!) I told you I was working on a (macro) ring flash. It's been finished for about a week now, but I didn't have much time to try it out in the field. I thought I'd just go ahead and post the build process already.

Self shot in mirror with DIY ringflash

Downside of shooting RAW: the thirst for diskspace -- Linux RAID adventures

With my photo directory easily breaking the 100GB limit after about a month of shooting, I needed some more space. Given that disk space is pretty cheap these days, I went for two 1TB drives in software RAID1 (I don't have the discipline to make decent back-ups, hence the RAID). It turns out to be pretty easy to set up a software RAID on Linux -- if you read the documentation properly (I didn't).

End of red wine pulp fermentation and bottling of rhubarb wine

Two days ago, the red wine had been pulp fermenting for a full week. It became time to strain off the liquid from the pulp. At the same time we bottled the rhubarb wine that had been clearing for a few months, now.

Don't throw away that old flash yet!

To continue with the DIY-photography-on-a-budget theme from last post, I present you a way to use that old 2.5mm jack triggered flash you might have laying around!

Remote shutter trigger for the round price of $0*

*if you have stuff laying around

Whilst searching for remote camera triggers, I came across this link. Of course, I had to try this out myself. I salvaged some old parts from junk I had laying around and made my own version. It's not the most aesthetically pleasing, but it does the job and it does it well. It features a (DIY) two-modes focus/shutter button and a shutter toggle button for long bulb exposures.

The remote trigger

Started first red wine

Ok, so I'm into amateur winemaking. So far I've made two rhubarb wines (the first of which was aweful, the second one turned out much better and is about ready to be bottled).

Once I started those rhubarb wines, I also planted a couple of vines to do the real stuff. This year came the first (small) harvest of those plants.

The grapes about a month ago, not fully ripe yet

Last Wednesday I harvested the grapes and prepared to crush them. Luckily (or sadly?) enough I didn't need stomp them with my feet, for someone at the local wine making (and tasting) club came to the rescue with this gem:

First harvest, ready to be crushed

Note the many small green grapes. Those are grapes that weren't fertilized (common among local winemakers this year, it started raining at the wrong time). Hopefully they won't affect the end-product too much.

Whizzing the grapes through the machine

The juice had a nice acidity but only slightly more than half of the required sugar. Corrections will be made after the pulp fermentation. That fermentation has been going on for a few days now (started with a Port yeast).

Pulp fermentation

I'm exited to see (taste) how my first red wine turns out!

Size matters

My adapter to mount my old Helios 44-2 (M42 mount) in reverse in front of my Canon 55-250mm came in the mail today. Perfect opportunity to fill the current voidness of this blog.

Shipment took 12 days, but heh, the ring was only $4.79 with free worldwide shipping, so I'm not complaining! (got it from dinodirect).

the old Helios, the adapter ring and the 55-250mm

the entire thing mounted

Fully extended, it's about 10 inches -- now if that won't impress the ladies, I don't know what will.

I do worry a bit about the weight of the (all-metal) Helios in front of the (pretty much all-plastic) Canon 55-250mm. It's a relatively cheap telelens, but -- being on a student's budget -- I still don't feel like ruining it.

As far as pictures go: I haven't had the opportunity to try the setup out 'in the field'. The damn wind won't go down.