New Gadgets & Gizmos

17 March 2025

I recently purchased a cheap projector attachment and a second flash (Godox V1 Pro), and today I finally got round to having a play with them. The projector is used with gobos - metal discs with patterned cutouts - and can be used to cast a shadow on the background or across the subject. At The Photography Show last week I purchased a new tether cable - it's much tter quality than the one I had before and transfers data much faster from the camera to the laptop. It didn't drop the connection once this afternoon, so I am very glad I bought it.

Birth of a Studio

13 February 2025

One of my New Year projects has been to create a space large enough for me to replicate a studio set-up. Formerly I had been working in a cramped box room that doubles as a room for the cats, so I was constantly having to pack everything away at the end of each session, which was monumentally time-consuming, and there really wasn't enough room, anyway. Since my daughter moved out in 2020 we've had two spare double bedrooms, so I decided to requisition one (the front north-facing room) as a studio. This entailed dismantling and selling my daughter's bed (with her blessing) and moving the better bed from the guest room into her room (which is now also the guest room). With this done, and a bit of a swap around of furniture (including adding lockable casters to an old bookshelf and converting it into a moveable laptop and monitor table), I created a space in which I could do what I needed to do and one that could be closed off at the end of the day without having to pack away. Over the past few days, whilst trying it out, I've realised that I need a slightly larger surface for still life arrangements, and this will be resolved in the next few months, but for now I have a workable space in which to learn, practice and refine my mastery of flash photography. It's going to be great fun!