The Roll that wasn’t February 9, 2010

I picked up a used voigtlander 75mm lens for my Bessa R shortly before a business trip to Europe.  What a great chance to test it out I thought. I loaded up a roll of my favourite film (Neopan 400) and started snapping.  I took pictures in the various airports, then more in a some quaint little villages in the french alps.  I was enjoying the focal length immensely.

I continued to take shots, even switched lenses a few times for my 35mm and even the 15mm (which is hard to get used to after shooting with a 75mm!).  Then it happened… I took shot number 36 on the roll and started to rewind. To my horror the film rewound with about two turns of the crank.  The film hadn’t caught on to the spool and non of my shots had been recorded.  It was pretty tragic, loosing all those potential “incredible” shots. Although judging by past performance, I usually only get 5-10 “great” shots on a roll, so add to this a new lens and that number could have been significantly lower.  But that’s all beside the point, I enjoy taking pictures, and while I’m sad to have lost those shots on that roll, I enjoyed taking every single one of those pictures, regardless of them working or not.  For me photography is about the process, and while I do enjoy my shots turning out really well, I’ve come to expect this not to happen for many of them, and so I have learnt to enjoy taking the pictures as much as seeing the results.

I realized afterwards that my many months of Xpan usage led me to be lazy with my film loading. The Xpan loads automatically, and I forgot the voigtlander wouldn’t (it is a manual camera).  On a happier note, I found a great camera store in Southern Germany that had a great selection of film with good prices. Picked up some Agfa APX400 which I’m looking forward to try.

DIY CD Case Calendar January 21, 2010

Well, Christmas rolled around and being one who hates consumerism and wasteful gifts that people won’t even use, I had to think of a present for some close friends.  While I make books for my family members, this gets costly so I was more interested in a lower cost item that still involved some DIY and photography of course.

I stumbled across Shutter Sisters and their super cool CD case calendars.  I loved the idea and I had a box of old CD jewel cases lying around so it was right up my alley as the cases were likely headed to the recycling depot.  The one thing I didn’t like about their calendars is that although they fit perfectly in the jewel cases, you could only print one month per page on a 8.5×11 sheet of photo paper, what an enormous waste of paper!!!  I rejigged it to fit 4 months on each sheet which still wasted some paper but only a marginal amount.  They end up being the correct width but slightly shorter than the case (a small trade-off for a huge paper savings!)

To create the calendars, I imported pictures into InDesign and typed in the dates underneath each month.  I kept them very plain and denoted holidays/weekends by using red instead of black text.  To make the cases stand up on their own you need to file off a small part of the case by the hinge. This was very easy to do with a small nail file or an exacto knife.

The calendars were very well received and will hopefully be adorning the receiver’s desks this year!

Lulu Encore… December 12, 2009

After last year’s great success of our own “yearbook” with Lulu.com, we decided we would do it again this year.  To mix things up we went with US Trade as the format (6×9″).  While last year I really wanted a square format, this year I found the 6×9 to be more my liking, similar to what you get in Make or Craft magazine.  We chose perfect bound again and were quite please with the finish of the book.

I managed to fix some flaws from last year’s book where it was meant to be full bleed (right to the edge of the paper), yet it was not always printed that way.  It turns out that although you design it in InDesign to do full bleed, unless you check this off in the PDF creation, all your efforts will be lost.  The curious thing is the Lulu preset for pdf files does not have this checked off???  Otherwise I found it a big improvement from last year that Lulu has their own PDF presets you can download in order to be sure it is the correct way.

While the printing was good, I did find the pictures to be too dark, and any pages where I put a solid coloured background you could see white patches within the solid colour. One page that was supposed to be black was definitely more of a charcoal.   I’d like to see Lulu try some different paper types.  A semi-gloss might be nice for a photo book IMO.

The book was a bit longer this year, 85 pages bringing the price up to $23. I was a little dissapointed that Lulu sent me an online coupon for 15% off, but when I tried to use it I was told it was only for UK residents. If they know I am Canadian, then why would they send me this coupon?  After much searching around the net, I did find an online coupon but only for $10.  A week later I received another coupon from them, this time for 20% off. Considering I bought 13 books, this would have saved me quite a bit of money!

Next year we will order one copy for ourselves in a hard-cover, while the give-aways will remain soft-cover (too expensive!).  We may also try yet another format next year, who knows.

Amazing Xpan Pics! November 9, 2009

While browsing flickr the other day, more specifically the Xpan group I saw some amazing pictures from a user named Kari Bou.  Anyone who loves panoramic photography, or who owns an Xpan and has been needing some inspiration, owes it to themselves to go check out these wonderful pictures from around the globe.

 

While checking out his flickr page, I found his blog which is an incredible blend of photos and words.  The blog is in french, however those who don’t speak it will still be able to absorb all the pictures!  Unfortunately I’ve only had the time to really look at the first 3 pages as there are so many images that deserve your attention. Hopefully I’ll find time this week to peruse through many more pages and gain some more inspiration for my own xpan images!

DIY Book Publishing November 1, 2009

While it would seem with all the technological advancements of today that we are moving away from printed literature, I think at some levels, due to Print On Demand (POD) services, printing has never been so common or affordable.  Almost a year ago, my girlfriend and I self-published a sort of “yearbook” of our happenings.  While it was quite a bit of work, in the end it was well worth the effort, and it certainly opened my eyes to the world of self publishing.

 

We used lulu.com to publish our book.  Lulu is a print on demand service that does everything from the usual photobooks all the way up to self publishing, editing, and even design for you.  They even have a service to advertise your book on Amazon and give it a ISBN.  There are of course costs for all of these services, but if you are a beginner author/photographer, this could be a small step in the right direction for you without a huge outlay of funds.

 

Books can be made in a variety of formats, landscape/portrait/square, coil/saddle/perfect bound, and soft/hard cover/dust cover.  On top of this there are now two paper types and the option of colour or black and white.  So why doesn’t everyone publish there own books if it’s so darn easy? Well there is a catch, read on…

 

Lulu is a print on demand, they print what you ask them to, when you ask them, and in the quantity you specify.  Unless you pay them big bucks, that is all they do, so it is up to you to do all the typing, photos, and layout.  I chose to do my layout in InDesign by Adobe.  Very powerful publishing software that took a while to learn, but by the last page of the book, I was quite adept at it.  A year later, I must confess that I’ve forgot most of it unfortunately… So if you don’t possess those skills, or are not willing to learn, this may be an insurmountable hurdle.  Photobooks may be best for you in this case as you can simply drag and drop your photos into the templates.

 

I found the printing quality quite good, nice colours, consistent from book to book (we ordered 12).  My only complaint was I found that the pages weren’t always cut completely straight. You could tell as on some pages I left a slight border around the pictures, and the border was definitely not the same size along the whole length of the page.  It was a minor flaw and one that no one else noticed.

 

Shipping was also a bit expensive up to Canada (from US), however this got better with ordering larger numbers.  A year later and we are currently starting work on our next book, likely will be a new format (US trade, last year was 8.5″ square), and maybe a few more pages if the budget allows.  Cost for a 80 page perfect bound colour book is around $20 USD.

Home Photo Printing October 15, 2009

I’ve wondered for a while if it is “worth it” to print my photos at home with an ink-jet printer.  After lots of debate, I have realized that “worth it” depends on your interpretation of the words.  ”Worth it” can relate to finances, quality, convenience, personal satisfaction, and as you’ll see, it will depend on you more than anything if you will find home printing a worth while endeavour.  Before answering the question, I will explain what my setup is.

The other day I was in an electronics shop and a very cheap price on a discontinued printer caught my eye.  I had been researching printers for a while, and I knew that $80 for an Epson R280 (R285 in Europe) was a good price so I took the plunge.  This printer can printer borderless 8.5×11 prints and smaller, and can even print on DVD’s with the included attachment.  My only regret is that it cannot take roll paper so I am not able to print some big xpan prints.  While a larger  wide format printer would have been nice, the price was too high, and I simply don’t have the room on my new desk.  A new set of inks for this printer is $80 (same as the cost of the printer), and I’m not sure how many photos I will get from the included ink, however I have read that the supplied cartridges are only half full.

Next, I went to my local photo shop and bought some Inkpress Glossy paper for $25 (50 sheets). Then of course, you don’t always want to print an 8.5×11 photo, so I bought a Kaiser Hobby Cut 2 paper cutter for $100.  Unfortunately, the inexpensive paper cutters can easily cut up to 10 sheets of computer paper, but are not able to get through a single page of glossy photo paper.  I had a USB cable lying around, so I didn’t need to purchase this.  I do wonder about the $2000 wide format printers and whether they come with a cable or not….

Let me just say that I was truly impressed by the quality of this printer.  Once I figured out the settings for printing, I found the results to be stunning.  Only a few years ago, a printer of this quality would have cost well over $500.  I was also amazed at how quickly it prints, and while printer companies always tout their printer’s speeds, it isn’t really a feature I worry about. In fact I even worried after printing the first page, thinking that if it prints that fast, it can’t be very good output…  Glad I was wrong.

Worth it – Finances

Compared to having prints done at the local photo-lab or drugstore, hands down this is not worth it.  At $0.50/page, plus $80 ink cartridges, not to mention the cost of the printer, paper cutter, etc. it’s hardly worth it to print your own photos.  In my town, 4×6 photos can be had for as low as $0.10/print, and the quality will be just as good as what I can provide.

Worth it – Quality

As said earlier, quality is stunning.  For my needs it is as good as a photo-lab.  People often talk about prints and how well they look under a magnifying glass, however I don’t own a magnifying glass, and if you are using one to look at a picture, you are missing the point.

Worth it – Convenience

Obviously the convenience factor is huge with this printer. While I can’t print cheaper than a photo-lab, the photo-lab is not located in my living room.  With a recent baby in the family, being able to print photos for grandma to put in her purse so she can show everyone she meets on the plane ride home is priceless.

Worth it – Self Satisfaction

This is what really tipped the scales for me.  My photographer Uncle had told me it wasn’t “worth it” to print at home.  I think this is similar to saying it’s not “worth it” to make your own furniture as Ikea can do it cheaper.  While this is true, it’s not very satisfying to go to a store and buy something.  It is satisfying (at least for me) to take all the components and construct it myself based on my ideas.  Seeing your vision turning into a useable piece of furniture is priceless and something you will be proud of for the life of the piece.  I think this is similar to printing your own photo.  For me it is a fun hobby, I love seeing the prints come out of the printer, being able to make adjustments, and trying new things.  You can’t do things in life only to save money, sometimes you need to have some fun.

So overall I have been thrilled with this printer and thouroughly enjoy using and seeing what it is capable of.

Failure and Redemption – DIY film processing trials and tribulations September 30, 2009

I very much enjoy processing my own BW flim, especially when it is my ultimate favourite, Fuji Neopan.  Although when I first started I was developing 1-2 rolls/week, however lately I’ve dropped to closer to 1 roll/month.  This gets dangerous as you get out of practice and start making little mistakes.  I’ve been very fortunate to have never had a major screw-up, all my rolls have always worked out, even the first one.  This has always worried me as I was sure this streak could not last.

Then about a month ago I went to a friends wedding.  I was NOT told that they needed a photographer, and so for fun I thought I would try something new (and this is where it all started to go wrong). I bought some Ilford Delta 3200, put it in my Bessa R, and headed off to the wedding.  Got there and it seemed like everyone had a camera and was snapping away.  I took a few shots, not really sure if the meter was reading accurately in the very dark restaurant.  I got home and decided to process the film.  I really didn’t have enough time to do it properly, and so I rushed.  Took me 3 tries to get it on the reels, didn’t quite seal the door correctly, etc. etc.  When I checked the film, most of the shots were underexposed and the light leakage from the door had wrecked about half the film.  I wasn’t too choked until the bride called me up in a panic because all of the other pictures people had taken were terrible, and no one had got a good one of her and her husband, THE WHOLE NIGHT! After much work scanning and in photoshop, I managed to save one photo, it was the shot of them cutting the cake.  I didn’t think it was all that great as it had tons of grain, but they were thrilled.

Fast forward a month and I am developing a roll of 120 Neopan 400. Things were going smoothly but I couldn’t help but notice the developer was awfully dark. Then each time the chemicals came out of the tank, the colours seemed off.  When I pulled the film out at the end of the developing, I was staring at a completely blank film. My developer had expired.

Two in a row was a bit much for me to handle, and I had a roll from a recent trip to Norway which I absolutely could not screw up!  Bought some new developer (Ilford Microphen DD-X), and set to work.  Was I ever relieved when it worked out perfectly, well except that I used enough chemicals for 120 when it was a roll of 35mm, but I am definitely back on the horse….  The lesson to be learned here is take your time, and take A LOT MORE PICTURES!!!!!

Fuji Instax Mini 7 – Instant gratification September 28, 2009

Well once again the curse of ebay struck me.  Although I’ve had an SX-70 for a while, I love it too much to make any of the suggested modifications to it. So while it works with 600 film (and a hap-hazardly placed filter), it isn’t perfect, and I often feel like I am wasting the few shots I have left with ridiculous pictures.  My uncle has an Instax 200 which he keeps in his guest room, making sure all visitors take their own portrait and write a little note below it.  While I liked the size of the Instax 200 film, the camera is LARGE.  I was hoping for something more portable so when a good deal was to be had on an Instax Mini 7, I laid down my cold hard cash ($7 to be precise), and 2 weeks later, it arrived from jolly ol’ England.  Unfortunately it was missing part of the viewfinder (eventhough the ad described it as in good shape, complete). Doesn’t seem to affect the photos so I kept it.

My first problem was finding film Fuji has only recently started selling the instax mini film in Canada, so I took advantage of another ebay deal from Hong Kong, and soon enough 5 packs of film were in my mailbox.  Prices of film are cheaper than Polaroid 600 at $40 for 50 pictures (shipping included).  The local camera store just got some in last week but charges $15 for 10 pictures. But back to the camera.

The Instax Mini 7 uses Instax Mini film which is quite a bit smaller than the old square polaroids (see pic for comparison).  The camera is plastic, and doesn’t feel like it would survive much wear and tear.  It runs off of 4 AA batteries, which are lasting so far after 25 shots (I should hope so!).  It has 4 exposure settings, bright sun, sun, cloud, and flash. The flash is quite strong and adequately lights up the room for shots.  I did find that the bright sun was sometimes over-exposed on particularly bright days.  The camera turns on and off by extending and retracting the lens (manually).  Film takes about 1 minute to develop and is sharp with rich colours (compared to my SX-70 film, not exactly apples to apples here.)

I think this camera could take off with the right marketing. It would be a ton of fun at parties, or any social gatherings for that matter.  Hopefully Fuji recognizes the potential and gets the word out as this camera has been available world-wide for several years now.

Caterpillar Crib September 19, 2009

I hummed and hawed over building this.  I had had the idea for months and months, but I was worried it was beyond my capabilities, that I wouldn’t finish on time, was it even safe?  After much reading regarding safety standards I was convinced that my design would pass all requirements, and after a successful dresser revamp, I was confident to give it a try.

I have been a huge fan of flat pack furniture made with a CNC machine such as that found at Unto This Last in London, UK (see here for my mini review).  While I’d love to make furniture this way, I have no clue on how to run a CNC machine, and I certainly don’t have the $25,000+ needed to buy one (It would also take up my entire workshop!!!).  I haven’t let this phase me though, and I often try to make things using the drill press and band saw.  I am debating taking a course in CNC programming and seeing if one could rent the use of a machine.

So I decided similar to my modular book shelf I would make it out of baltic birch (my favourite sheet product) and douglas fir (love the grain, and the price).  To cut out the designs  in the crib face, I had originally planned to use a router and a template. I’d never done this before, and in the end this lack of experience convinced me to try another method.  I think the router method would have worked very well, and one day I’ll likely try it out.  I’ve always hated jigsaws as I find they can’t cut in a straight line, and when taking corners, the blade bends (or breaks!) and you get a horrible cut.  The sheets were far to big to run on the bandsaw, so it seemed like my only solution was hours of frustration with my very cheap jigsaw.  I got fed up with the jigsaw after about 2 seconds, and went to the hardware store to see what my other options were.  On a hunch, I decided that maybe all jigsaws were not created equal, and after a $200 purchase, I came home with a top of the line jigsaw (by Bosch).  Was I ever impressed! This thing could cut as straight and smoothly as my table saw (well practically as good).  It cornered like an Alfa Romeo…

Back to the construction. So the pattern was cut out using a forstner bit on the ends, and the jig saw to connect the two circles to form a rectangle with rounded ends.  For something different, I did an alternating pattern on the end of the crib. The two sides that would be against the wall I left solid, partially out of time constraints, and partially to cover up an electrical outlet and a dirty wall (yes I tried cleaning it, no it didn’t work, although the paint did start to come off…).

After tons of sanding with a palm sander, orbital sander, and by hand, it was ready for finishing.  I went to Windsor plywood to buy all the wood, and they recommended a low VOC water based polyurethane which was important to me as my daughter would be spending much of her early life in this crib.  I was also hoping to seal up the plywood as there are some nasty chemicals used in making plywood which do off-gas, but with a good layer of polyurethane, this would not be an issue.  The fir was stained with some ebony stain which really brings out the grain nicely.  The whole thing is held together with alan key bolts that connect to nuts screwed into the wood.

I’m hoping she’ll use the crib for several years, as there are two height settings for the mattress. Once she is older I plan on removing the back panel and she can have a bed that she is able to climb out of.  The caterpillar front piece is actually the right size for a double bed head board (planned of course….I wish), so in theory this could stay with her for many years.

While I would not trade this crib for anything, nor do I regret the great experience I had building it, I am however shocked by the total final cost of this crib:

Baltic birch = 3 sheets at $55/sheet

douglas fir = $50

nuts and bolts = $30

polyurethane + brushes = $20

Which brings the price to $250 for materials alone. This does not include the 2 router bits ($50), jig saw ($200), forstner bit ($20), drill bits ($10), plywood blade for table saw ($50).  I figure these items I will use over and over again as I bought fairly good quality items. And finally my time, which I probably spent 40+ hours on this (most were so late at night/early in the morning I can hardly remember…)

So, what does a crib from Ikea cost? $100. How long would it take to assemble? 1 hour.  Do I care? Of course not, I have been grinning all day every time I walk past the baby’s room and see the awesome job I did.

Mechanics Desk September 9, 2009

I was in need of a new desk, one that not only was nice looking, but that also could store my flat bed scanner I use for scanning film.  My house is very dusty and so an enclosed cabinet seemed like a great idea!  After many different designs over the last few years, I was in the local hardware store when I saw 5 panel doors (wood) on sale for $35!  I came back the next day and picked one up, not sure exactly what I would do with it, but confident that I at least had gotten a great deal…

So the desk formed in my mind over the next couple of days.  I cut the door so that the top of the desk would be comprised of 3 panels. I was happy to find out it was indeed solid, and not a hollow-core door.  The top was then painted with gloss black paint (3 coats). Next I bought some plexi-glass, and cut it to fit exactly in the panels.  Unfortunately I couldn’t find plastic thick enough to be flush with the desk top, so I used a bunch of foreign coins I had lying around the house as spacers.  Under each piece of plexi glass I put some polaroids from our beloved SX-70.

I was having trouble deciding on a cabinet. I had a few designs when I stumbled upon a mechanics tool chest that was on sale, and was slightly dented (woohoo 10% extra off!).  I drilled a hole in the bottom for the scanner wires, and the top drawers hold random computer bits.  The whole unit was about 1cm lower than my speaker, so with a little piece of rubber I shimmed the desktop to be the same height on both sides.  The desk sits a bit high for my liking, but the convenience of using a speaker and a tool chest as legs can’t be beat!

Overall I’m very happy with this project. When I am done scanning, I simply close the door and presto, no dust!  At some point I may put legs on the desk and simply roll the scanner cabinet out when needed, but for now it adds some nice colour to my living room.  The whole thing cost about $145 ($35 door, $75 mechanics chest, $35 plexi-glass – although I have lots of this left).