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The DIY Gorilla Pod

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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.

DIY Time Lapse Photography

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If you’re on the PhotoJoJo mails, you must have gotten that awesome time lapse bit. On that post they recommend the Cannon TC80N3 – a round 100 dollars device that give you the ability to take time lapse images. (It is called Intervalometer, but I can’t even say it, let alone write it and feel good about myself).

(RSS readers, Grab the video here)

The good guys at the DIYP Instructables group have done it again. You may remember this group from the Minty Strobe, A Great Way to Build a Ringlight and many more.

Chris Thompson came up with a cheap and fun Time Lapse Photography project. If you build one of those please leave a comment here.

Just a Washer And a Bolt – An Ingenious Camera Stabilizer

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It is amazing what you can do with one 1/4" bolt, a washer and a piece of string.

With less then 1$ at Home Depot, you’ll get a tiny stabilizer for your camera. The maker of this flick claims to gain 3 stops. I’d bet on around two, but it is good enough for 1 buck.

If you are grabbing this with RSS, you can get the full video here.

For a more complete guide, check out the String Tripod over at DIYP group at instructables. Be warned, though, over there you might end up with a two dollars expense bill as they use more part and get more stabilization.

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More DIYP Instructables:
– Muslin Photography Background
– Great Way To Build a Ringlight
– Photo Studio Compression Pole
– Altoids To The Rescue – The Minty Strobe

The DIY Macro Rail

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This is a guest post by Ken Stewart, a real DIY pioneer. Having recently gotten into macro photography with a set of Raynox close-up lenses, I found myself wanting a macro focusing rail so I could smoothly and precisely vary the distance between my camera and the subject to get the focus right. A quick check of the web showed me that the cheapest Manfrotto slide I could find was $80 (plus tax and shipping, of course), but I figured I could do better with a little ingenuity, and an obligatory trip to Home Depot.

DIY – The Photography and Weapons Store Connection

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Have you ever noticed the weird connection between photography and hunting? You go out to “shoot”; You are “taking shots”; And best of all when a bunch of us photographers get together we call it a “big shootout”.

It turns out that there is yet another connection, the gear connection. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not pro weapons of any kind (other then shooting this person that keeps clinging to me on the bus…), but some of this gear used for guns and rifles can be really useful when dealing with photography equipment.

A Cheapo Minty Ringlight Strobe – Call to Arms

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So, let’s see what we had here in the last month: we had a cool way of using a disposable camera and an Altoids box to make a small flash.

We also had a cool way to create a ring light (no wait actually we had two cool ways of doing that).

So, of course the question comes, what next?

In my mind the next step of evolution should be combining the two to create the first ever 25 Dollars professional ring flash.

With disposable cameras with flash costing as low as 3.50, it is simply a crime not to build such studio lighting device.

Altoids To The Rescue – The Minty Strobe

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There is some great stuff going on at DIYPhotography.net instructables group. This fantastic group is a true demonstration of the DIY spirit that is behind this site. I have talked before on the subject of creating your own flash. In that article Avner Richard explained how to utilize xenon tubes to create some real Watts/Second power flashes. It is a great piece for the ones that are electrically capable.

If you are not an electrician and fear the high voltage involved, Martin (AKA PKM) has posted an Instructable just for you.

Studio Lighting – Snooted Flood Light

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Reader Michael Lim (zac08) came up with a cool snooted flood light. It combines the concept of a home made snoot with a clamp. The design is similar to a mixup of both, but uses a florescent light instead of a flash.

The bonus here that there is almost no assembly/DIY-ing required; it comes ready from the shop. As for hacking the right materials, the snoot used is a Lay’s Potato Chips pack. (Empty of course, lighting is tasty). Here is what Zac has to say;

Recycling Project – Trigger Your Camera With A Mouse

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Remember those old mice you use to have before computer mice became monsters with twenty five buttons, side buttons, rollers, sliders and what not.

Dave Schlier had a spare oldie (mouse that is) that he recycled into a shutter release cable. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that clicking a mouse is the most affective way to take a shot. But if that what it takes for you computer addicts to take the camera out of the bag, my task here on earth is completed.

Here is how to make one of those cool mice (of course you can always build a traditional release cable):

DIY built-in pop-up flash diffuser (soft screen)

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Why spend a fortune on an on-camera softscreen diffuser? (OK, 9 dollars are hardly a fortune, yet…). This guest post by Huy Hoang shows you how to build one for just a few cents. (Mental note: make a DIY manual on how to reduce the cost of a Nikon D2X by the same ratio). Huy is a member of DIYPhotography.net’s instructibles group – check it out. The idea is similar to the one explained on the speed light mounted softbox article, but takes half the time and can be used on a built in flash.

Hold on!! Why would you want a softscreen in the first place? I can think of two reasons: number one – the build in flash is soooooo small, it is a very hard light source. And 2 – it can not be bounced. However – you can get more out of it. Just to get your appetite going, here is what you’ll get when you are done

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